scholarly journals Factors affecting the development of the Bioeconomy in Latvia

Author(s):  
Aina Muska ◽  
◽  
Andra Zvirbule ◽  
Irina Pilvere ◽  
◽  
...  

In the European Union, including Latvia, the development of the bioeconomy by exploiting the potential of research, innovation and knowledge transfer is considered to be the basis for economic growth. The research aims to assess the drivers of and barriers to bioeconomic development in Latvia and define actions facilitating the development of the national bioeconomy. The present research employed mostly SWOT analysis in combination with expert judgement. The research concluded that the overall trend in the following strengths of the bioeconomy: Research infrastructure and modern technical equipment for the development of the bioeconomic knowledge base (3S) and Vast regional coverage of and cooperation among leading research institutions in the field of bioeconomics (1S) was negative, as the total impact of the threats exceeded the total impact of the opportunities. However, the overall trend in the strength Extensive initial activities and the knowledge base for bioeconomic research (2S) was positive, as the total impact of the opportunities exceeded the total impact of the threats. The total impact of exogenous factors on the weaknesses in the development of the bioeconomy was positive; therefore, the total impact of exogenous factors tended to weaken the weaknesses. Since the largest positive impacts on endogenous factors were made by the following opportunities: Effective support for independent innovation projects implemented by large companies (3O) and Stimulation of innovation in the small and medium enterprise sector in active synergy with national research priorities and available funding (2IO), it is necessary to increase government and private sector funding for R&D in order to contribute to the development of the bioeconomy in Latvia. The availability of funding should be balanced and predictable in the long term to reduce the impact of the threat Public policies and insufficient and unpredictable funding for research and development hinder the development of bioeconomy industries and steady growth opportunities (2T). To encourage the business sector to invest in R&D, including in the bioeconomy industries, public support and various incentives for entrepreneurs are needed.

Agriculture ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Sroka ◽  
Michał Dudek ◽  
Tomasz Wojewodzic ◽  
Karol Król

The increasing importance of large cities (metropolises) poses a range of challenges to the socio-economic functions of the rural and agricultural areas around them. One such challenge is pressure exerted on family-run farms to abandon agricultural activity and on people engaged in such activity to shift to other sectors. This may be a hindrance to successful succession on family farms. The aim of this paper is to present spatial variation in generational changes in farms located around large cities (metropolises) in Poland and to assess the factors affecting the scale of such changes. Special attention was paid to the importance of the location of farms relative to large cities. One innovative feature of the approach presented was to conduct an analysis of generational changes in the agricultural sector at the supra-local level along with an attempt to quantify the impact of large urban centers on that process. The empirical material based on which the conclusions were formulated included official statistics data and information made available by an institution engaged in the implementation of agricultural policy programs financed from European Union (EU) funds, i.e., young farmer payments (Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) pillar I) and measures “Setting up of young farmers” and “Early retirement” (CAP Pillar II). In the executed study, methods of descriptive and multivariate statistics, including regression trees, were used. It was found that socio-economic (exogenous) factors had a significant statistical impact on generational changes in farms. In areas with an attractive labor market and a high level of urbanization, a successful generational shift in farms occurred less often. Nonetheless, generational changes in the agriculture of the analyzed areas were relatively most strongly determined by endogenous factors linked with the economic potential of the farm. Farm characteristics (area of agricultural land and economic size) and the characteristics of managers, including in particular their education, were found to be more important than exogenous factors. In areas where large and economically strong farms dominated and the level of education among farmers was relatively high, generational changes were faster compared to other areas.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1878 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bożena Hoła ◽  
Mariusz Szóstak

The aim of the conducted research was to develop a methodology of investigating the accidentality phenomenon in the construction industry, which is considered as a process that is created by a sequence of accidents occurring at discrete periods of time and at various construction sites in terms of their location, construction, and technical equipment. In order to investigate the circumstances of accidents, a methodology developed by the European Statistical Office of the European Union (ESAW) was used during the research. The basic elements of the proposed methodology is the IT database (computer knowledge database (CKD)), which includes information about the circumstances and causes of accidents and also constitutes a repository for the collected data, as well as a graphic and IT model of the accident process in the form of a directed graph. In order to detect the characteristic features of the accidentality phenomenon in the construction industry, a simulation of a sequence that consists of 485 occupational accidents that occurred in 2008–2016 in five Polish voivodeships was carried out. The conducted research and analysis allowed the most common accident scenarios that occur in the construction industry to be identified, as well as the probability of their occurrence and the critical path in the graph that indicates the most accident-causing activities to be determined. The proposed model is important for construction practice. Based on a large set of data on accidents included in the CKD, it is possible to study the impact of the following on the accidentality phenomenon: Technologies used in the construction industry, the types of carried out construction works, and the methods used to organize work and equipment.


Author(s):  
Piotr Chechelski

The aim of the article is to assess the level and directions of changes in the subjective structures of animal products processing in the food industry in Poland in 2004 -2015. Considerations were started from the comparison of changes in the subjective structures of the food industry in Poland and the European Union. In the following, changes in the share of individual groups of enterprises were presented, both in the total number of entities, average employment, and in the value of sold production, and the impact of these changes on labor productivity in the analyzed groups of enterprises. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that the integration processes with the EU and globalization have had a significant impact on the concentration processes in the animal product industries (investments in modernization and adjustment of production to Community requirements). The process of changes in entity structures in this segment was faster than in the entire food industry and was diversified in the industry. The improvement of work efficiency was the result of more production, with relatively stable employment, but also the increase in the technical equipment of work.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4143
Author(s):  
Wojciech Grabowski ◽  
Anna Staszewska-Bystrova

The paper investigates the impact of public support for innovation activities on adoption of different innovation strategies and propensities to introduce product, process, organizational and marketing innovations in European small and medium enterprises. In estimating these effects, country and sectoral heterogeneities are taken into account. Effectiveness of alternative policy mixes is also evaluated. The analysis is based on a multivariate, multi-stage econometric model and data from the Community Innovation Survey 2014. It is found that innovation support is utilized differently by newer and older members of the European Union, with the former investing mainly in acquisition of machinery, equipment, software, buildings, knowledge and trainings and the latter directing aid, to a larger extent, to research and development and introduction of innovations. The results also indicate various effectiveness of support from alternative institutional sources. Aid from the EU is more beneficial for manufacturing, while national and local support is more effective in older EU countries than newer members of the European Union and services sector. Using various but not all types of policy mixes is estimated to increase the chances of innovating. It is concluded that innovation support might not be optimally used in newer members of the EU and that better coordination of aid from the EU and national institutions could lead to improved economic results.


Author(s):  
George Philippidis ◽  
Heleen Bartelings ◽  
John Helming ◽  
Robert M'barek ◽  
Edward Smeets ◽  
...  

As the EU is moving towards a low carbon economy and seeks to further develop its renewable energy policy, this paper quantitatively investigates the impact of plausible energy market reforms from the perspective of bio-renewables. Employing a state-of-the-art biobased variant of a computable general equilibrium model, this study assesses the perceived medium-term benefits, risks and trade-offs which arise from an advanced biofuels plan, two exploratory scenarios of a more 'sustainable' conventional biofuels plan and a 'no-mandate' scenario. Consistent with more recent studies, none of the scenarios considered present significant challenges to EU food-security or agricultural land usage. An illustrative advanced biofuels plan simulation requires non-trivial public support to implement whilst a degree of competition for biomass with (high-value) advanced biomass material industries is observed. On the other hand, it significantly alleviates land use pressures, whilst lignocellulose biomass prices are not expected to increase to unsustainable levels. Clearly, these observations are subject to assumptions on technological change, sustainable biomass limits, expected trends in fossil fuel prices and EU access to third-country trade. With these same caveats in mind, the switch to increased bioethanol production does not result in significant market tensions in biomass markets.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1203 (2) ◽  
pp. 022023
Author(s):  
Eric Kalisa ◽  
Jana Korytárová

Abstract The article focuses on the analysis of the development and use of industrial zones, which represent areas for the concentrated location of manufacturing sites specialised in a particular industry, strategic services, or technology centres. Both services and industry have an impact as the top engines of Gross Domestic Product and the labour force employment both in the Czech Republic and European Union. The area and the predominant category of economic activities are important parameters of each industrial zone. They place demands on the employees, transport, technical equipment, landscape, and settlement within the impact on the territory. The main goal of the research was the analysis of the industrial zone as a territory where warehouse and production hall projects are implemented. The analysis of warehouse and production hall construction investment was performed in Žďár nad Sázavou. The study of this project presents the project impact on the industrial area and the deviation between the project plan and the audited reality. The research sample consisted of 12 selected warehouse and production hall projects located in Central and Eastern Europe in various phases of their life cycle - the planning, implementation or operational phases. One of the partial outputs of the article is a SWOT analysis which deals with variables that affect project effectiveness both from the perspective of the investor and the public in the area where they are located. Implementation and operation of such projects significantly affect public life, so their potential socio-economic impact on the economic cash flow creation was examined.


2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesús Ferreiro ◽  
Catalina Gálvez ◽  
Carmen Gómez ◽  
Ana González

The outbreak of the economic and financial crisis in 2008, the socalled Great Recession, has made that many European Union countries have made massive interventions in their banking and financial systems. These interventions have had a considerable impact in the public finances of these countries. The aim of the paper is to analyze the impact on the national public budgets of the measures of public support to problem financial institutions carried out between the years 2008 and 2013, and to study how this budgetary impact has affected to the fiscal imbalances and to the strategies of fiscal impulse and consolidation implemented along these years.


2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 930-956
Author(s):  
Urszula Jaremba

Since May 2004 Polish administrative courts have passed a great deal of judgments in which the law of the European Union (formerly European Community law) has played either the main role or a subsidiary role in the proceedings. This article seeks to examine how the above-mentioned courts comply with the expectations which are put on them by EU law and how they participate in the process of legal integration within the EU. In this context, the author scrutinizes how the national judiciary adjudicating in the administrative law area understands, interprets, employs and applies the systemic principles of EU law such as: supremacy, and (in) direct effect and effectiveness. In addition, the participation of national courts in the process of a dialogue with the Court of Justice of the European Union through the preliminary ruling procedure is captured. The analysis is not aimed at being exhaustive and focuses solely on the total impact of EU law on the national judiciary and the general trends in the judicial application of EU law, that is to say the overall reception of EU law and the dimension of the EU-friendliness displayed by Polish administrative courts.


2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Malte Hinrichsen ◽  
Hajo Boomgaarden ◽  
Claes de Vreese ◽  
Wouter van der Brug ◽  
Sara Binzer Hobolt

AbstractReligion can affect public support for the European Union (EU). However, specifying the circumstances under which religion may become a stronger predictor of EU-support has so far been neglected. This article shows that the media play a role in this process and it is investigated to what extent the presence or absence of references to religious issues in EU news coverage primes people's religious attitudes to contribute to their evaluation of the EU. For this purpose, a content analysis of the amount of religious news items in EU coverage in German and Dutch newspapers between 1997 and 2007 was conducted. Two points in time were chosen — 1998, when only a small amount of religious news items appeared in EU coverage, and 2005, when religious items reached a peak. Eurobarometer data were used to test the media priming proposition. The findings show that an increasing religious dimension in media coverage about the EU primes a linkage between religious and political considerations and thus influences the strength of the impact of religion on attitudes towards the EU.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-47
Author(s):  
Irina Kovaleva

The article discusses the impact of the major exogenous factors on the development and effective functioning of the local territories. Notion of the regional economic development is based on the research that study factors, characteristics and conditions for economic growth. In this sense, the study of the influence of exogenous factors is a new scientific direction, which allows, based on an analysis of the degree of influence of these factors, to determine strategic directions for the prospective development of local territories by optimizing the use of resource potential and the production of products and services taking into account the specifics of the local territory. As a result, the analysis identifies the determinants that affect the development of local territories: economic, informational, socio-cultural and public ones. The economic factor is assessed in terms of fiscal policy in the region and is evaluated as a factor in the adverse effect, in view of the traditional subsidy of the region. Factors with positive influence on the development of local territories can be classified as informational, socio-cultural and public. Thus, we can conclude that there are both positive and negative effects of endogenous factors in the region. All in all, the majority of natural and exogenous factors in the Altai Region have a positive impact, thereby creating favorable conditions for the functioning of local territories in the region.


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