scholarly journals Quality of INTRASTAT DATA. Comparison Between the ‘Old’ and the ‘New’ EU Member States

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (341) ◽  
pp. 69-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iwona Markowicz ◽  
Paweł Baran

The Intrastat system is used for gathering statistical data on trade in goods between the EU Member States. Data from all the Member States are aggregated by Eurostat. Specifics of the data collection process are different in different countries and that is why mirror data (regarding by default the same transactions revealed in statistics of both the acquirer and supplier country) often do not match. The goal of the analysis conducted was to assess the quality of data on intra‑Community trade in goods between the ‘old’ fifteen and the ‘new’ EU Member States as well as to point out these directions that influenced the observed differences in mirror data the most. The paper is a follow‑up of previous research on the quality of foreign trade data.

Author(s):  
Malgozhata Kaminska

The image of disability in EU societies is changing. On the one hand, statistical data (global and European) indicate an increase in the number of people with disabilities. This is especially true for women, the elderly and the poor. On the other hand, numerous legislative and implementation activities are undertaken to implement the social model in the approach to disability issues. The effectiveness of social and economic policies in the EU member states is expressed by the quality of life of people with disabilities. The article presents the WHO global position on the disability problem and a brief comparative analysis of key statistical data characterising people with disabilities in the EU member states. The EU priorities regarding the standards of functioning of people with disabilities in the objective and subjective dimensions are discussed. The source of the EU’s strategy and activities are international documents: The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006 and the Council of Europe Disability Action Plan.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iwona Markowicz ◽  
Paweł Baran

Research background: As a system of official EU statistics, Intrastat contains data collected by Member States aggregated by Eurostat on the Union’s level in the form of COMEXT database. Country-level data are based on declarations made by businesses dispatching or acquiring goods from other EU Member States. Since the same transaction is declared twice — as an ICS in one country and at the same time as an ICA in another country by the partner — the database contains mirror data. Analysis of mirror data lets us assess the quality of public statistics data on international trade. Purpose of the article: The aim of the article is to rank EU Member States according to quality of data on intra-Community trade in goods collected by Intrastat. Foreign trade stimulates economic development on one hand and is the development’s reflection on the other. Thus it is very important that official statistics in this area be of good quality. Analysis of mirror data from partner states in intra-Community trade in goods allows us to claim that not every Member State pro-vides data of satisfactory quality level. Methods: We used the authors’ methodology of assessing quality of mirror data. These include data asymmetry indices, both proposed by Eurostat and the authors’ own proposals. We have also examined the changes in the above mentioned rankings over time. Findings & Value added: The result of the survey is ordering of EU Member States according to the quality of data on intra-Community trade in goods. The rankings are presented for the period of 2014–2017, during which there were 28 Member States of the EU. Changes in distinct countries’ positions were shown as a result of changes in overall quality of statistical data collected in these countries. The research methodology can be used in the process of monitoring data quality of the Intrastat system.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 2105-2136
Author(s):  
Marína Urbániková ◽  
Katarína Šipulová

AbstractJudicial councils are often presented as a panacea for many disorders of judicial systems, including low public confidence in the judiciary. Nevertheless, the assessment of their impact has so far been neglected. The article offers a unique view on the relationship between judicial councils and the level of public confidence in courts. It draws a novel conceptual map of factors influencing public confidence in the judiciary, stressing its complex and multifaceted character. Situating the judicial councils on the map, it explores how they can help to potentially increase the level of public confidence in the judiciary, and assesses to what extent this has been true in the countries that have adopted them. The results reveal a considerable gap between the promises, expectations, and practice, and raise doubts about the ability of judicial councils to enhance confidence in courts. Judicial councils rarely manage to substantially improve institutional performance: they can enhance the quality of judicial systems which have already functioned quite well, but they do not tend to bring about change in the judicial systems that have been previously significantly flawed. The analysis of the longitudinal Eurobarometer data showed that, on average, the EU countries without judicial councils are better off in terms of public confidence. Although the existence of judicial councils does not make a difference regarding public confidence in the judiciary in the new EU member states, in the old EU member states, judicial systems with judicial councils enjoy lower levels of public confidence than the ones without them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 83-98
Author(s):  
Janina Witkowska

The aim of this paper is to discuss new trends that have occurred in the policies of the EU and China towards foreign direct investment (FDI), to examine some implications of the EU‑China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) – which is currently being negotiated – for their bilateral relations, and to assess the role which China’s “One Belt One Road’ (OBOR) initiative might play in its relations with the new EU Member States. The EU established freedom of capital movement with third countries; however, the introduction of the common investment policy has encountered some obstacles. These are related to investor protection and ISDS issues. In turn, China is carrying out an independent state policy towards foreign investment with limited liberalization of FDI flows. The negotiated EU‑China CAI is expected to create conditions conducive to bilateral foreign investment flows, and it might bring positive effects for their economies in the future. However, the progress made thus far in the negotiations is still limited. The relations between China and the new EU Member states (CEE countries) are characterized by common interests in the field of FDI flows. The new EU countries are interested in attracting Chinese FDI and seem not to show the fears that have arisen in the old EU countries.


Author(s):  
Oana Ancuţa Stângaciu

The actions taken for the promotion of the equality of opportunity between men and women and for eliminating the direct or the indirect discrimination apply to the field of employment as well as to the field of education, health, culture, information and the participation in the decision making process. Starting from one of the objectives of the Strategy for the equality of opportunity, being aware of the real situation of women participation compared to men participation to the economical and social life, this analysis offers a perspective on the equality of opportunity between men and women in the field of employment, seen based on the statistical data. Thus, in order to quantify this phenomenon using methods specific to the statistical analysis, we used the gender pay gap indicator pertaining to the EU member states per total economy, as well as per economical activities, and the research results show that on the EU level there are still significant gender pay gaps.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-154
Author(s):  
Zdenka Obuljen Zoričić ◽  
Boris Cota ◽  
Nataša Erjavec

AbstractDue to negotiations on accession to the EU, the new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe went through the financial opening. In the pre-crisis period followed by high liquidity in global markets, most of the EU new member states experienced rapid credit growth, which conditioned the appreciation of the exchange rate. External imbalances and vulnerabilities built up. Countries experienced deterioration in their current accounts. This paper investigates the link between financial openness, real effective exchange rate, financial crisis and current account balance within the Panel Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework for 11 new European Union members during the period from 1999 to 2016. The results obtained by the use of pooled mean group estimator (PMG) show that in the long run, financial openness has a significant negative impact on the current account balance. In the short run, crisis significantly influences the current account balance having a positive sign.


2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 5-15
Author(s):  
Iwona Markowicz ◽  
Paweł Baran

Official statistics on trade in goods between EU member states are collect-ed on country-level and then aggregated by Eurostat. Methodology of data collecting differs slightly between member states(e.g. various statistical thresholds and coverage), including differences in exchange rates as well as undeclared or late-declared transac-tions, errors in classification of goods and other mistakes. It often involves incomparability of mirror data (nominally concerning the same transactions recorded in statistics of both dispatcher and receiver countries). A huge part of these differences can be explained with the variable quality of data resources in the Eurostat database. In the study data quality on intra-EU trade in goods for 2017 was compared between Poland and neigh-bouring EU countries, i.e.:Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania,and other Baltic states–Latvia and Estonia. The additional aim was to indicate the directions hav-ing the greatestinfluence on the observed differences in mirror data. The results of the study indicate that the declarations made in Estonia affect the poor quality of data on trade in goods between the countries mentioned above to the greatest extent.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-90
Author(s):  
Milan Viturka ◽  
Vladimír Žítek ◽  
Viktorie Klímová ◽  
Petr Tonev

Regional Analysis of New EU Member States in the Context of Cohesion Policy The paper concentrates on the new European Union member states, i.e. the states of central and eastern Europe which entered the Union in 2004 (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Slovenia) and 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania). The basis of the paper is the evaluation of the cohesion policy in the countries in question, which are then analysed at the level of NUTS 2 regions (cohesion regions). The aim of the socioeconomic analysis is to assess the economic level of the regions and to use the results to form their typology. Ten characteristic indicators were chosen so that the study was as complex as possible. For each indicator in the examined countries the average was calculated, which allowed for a considerable increase of the information relevance of the study conclusions. For the cartographic representation of the regional differentiation intervals based on this average and the standard deviation were used. The final part of the study presents a concluding synthesis together with the above-mentioned typology of the regions. The results are interpreted in the context of the optimal strategy selection for the regional policy determined by the EU cohesion policy.


Subject Alleged discrepancies between the quality of foods on sale in the western and eastern EU. Significance Governments in eastern EU member states are recycling long-heard rumours that multinational food brands sold there are of poorer quality than in western states. Tests by some national authorities appear to confirm these fears. Such practices would not be illegal, but they exacerbate broader worries about second-class citizenship in Central-Eastern Europe (CEE), compounded by uncertainty over the direction the EU will take in coming months. Impacts The east-west divide will deepen as a new front is opened ahead of a likely EU reform push later this year. CEE’s political significance will receive a momentary boost as countries show a united front on one of only a handful of issues. A reaction against multinationals from within the EU could make protectionism more respectable elsewhere in the world.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-19
Author(s):  
Iwona Markowicz ◽  
Paweł Baran

The objective of presented analysis is to assess quality of data on foreign trade within the Union. Data from Eurostat’s COMEXT database was used. The differences between declared export quantities of foods from a given country and data on imports from this country to other member states gathered by Eurostat have been analyzed. These differences partly result from the adopted statistical thresholds and reflect the quality of the collected data. The authors have compared EU member states based on convergence of data on dispatches and arrivals of goods from each country. Using data discrepancy measures member states were ranked with regard to statistical data quality, which is an innovation in foreign trade research.


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