THE CRISIS IS A NATURAL PART OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, IT IS NECESSARY TO LEARN TO FACE IT

Europe has the strongest and largest tourism in the world. As in times of economic prosperity, the industry can prosper, in the case of a change in the economic environment as a result of a crises, it is hit hard and the tourism industry throughout the European Union is suffering billions of euros in damage. It is the case of all post-communist countries and also in Slovak Republic. The effects of such fluctuations are all the greater for the country´s GDP because they do not have contingency plans in place and solutions are often chaotic or implemented too late. The article assesses the impact of several crises, including the current one associated with COVID-19 and predicts a possible approach to mitigate the consequences of the crisis and at the same time better manage the future crisis.

The Social Status of the elderly from a Comparative Perspective: distinctions of Post-communist Countries

Social status reflects the hierarchical position of social groups within society, their prestige as perceived by members of their society. The existing literature shows that age groups differ in their status considerably across countries, and that their status is linked to socio-economic modernization. This study investigates the determinants of elderly people’s status in post-communist countries in comparison to other countries. Using two large international datasets — from the World Values Survey (58 countries) and European Social Survey (29 countries) — as well as multilevel regressions, we found that elderly people in post-communist countries were at the bottom of the status hierarchy. Compared to other regions of the world, this low status was only in part explained by country modernization level, implying that some other factors may have had an effect. Moreover, only in postcommunist countries the perceived status of older people decreased with respondent’s age. We suggest that the low status of older people in post-communist countries was caused by the social and economic transformations that followed the fall of the communist regime — which led to the older generation losing human capital — and then exacerbated by the ageist legacy of the Soviet industrialist ideology. Finally, we insist that the very low status of older people is a problem of society as a whole rather than this particular age group.

Involvement and Trust in Poland and Bulgaria in Comparison with Other European Societies

A developmental analysis of the two waves: 2008 and 2016 ESS Indicators of social engagement (we mean here organisational engagement) are treated as a measure of the process of social modernisation (Herrmann, 1999, Matei, Apostu, 2012). It is assumed here that higher scores of indicators demonstrate the 'maturity of civil society, the quality of the functioning of democracy and the process of its evolution (Boulding, 2010). The concept of generalised trust and trust in political institutions have a somewhat similar status, and they are treated as indicators of collective capacity and a premise for conclusions about the effectiveness of the development processes (Putnam, 1993, Sonderskov, 2011). The proposed presentation will focus on the changes we were able to register over eight years in Poland and Bulgaria (2008 and 2018) to indicate the position of the societies of these post-communist countries in comparison to other European countries. The main hypotheses would be to verify the relationship between trust indicators and declared involvement in NGO sector organisations as well as basic sociodemographic variables in a temporal perspective. The quantitative analysis will be preceded by a form of qualitative description and interpretation of the existing state of knowledge. ESS data would be used for the analysis, and the basis for inference will be the indices of “generalised trust”, “trust in national political institutions”, and “involvement in NGO” using regression analysis.

Analysis of competitiveness and economic profit of the confectionary sector in Kazakhstan and its comparison with Czech Republic data

Measuring competitiveness in post-communist countries in Central Asia is challenging. Many well-known metrics fail to warn bankruptcy risks sufficiently early or at all. This study uses metrics of the Altman z-score, Taffler z-score, IN99, IN01, IN05, and creditworthiness models to assess bankruptcy likelihood and financial performance of local and foreign confectionery companies operating in Kazakhstan during 2007-2018. These companies are Roshen, KDV Yaskino, Konti, Rakhat, and Bayan Sulu. The IN bankruptcy and creditworthiness models are considered in this study because they are found to be more appropriate for post-communist countries. Compared to the well known Altman or Taffler z-score models, they better suit the events and corporate situations peculiar to these countries. The benchmarking INFA system, involving a pyramidal approach developed for Czech companies, provides the economic-value-added (EVA) and component indicators to analyze competitiveness. This study also compares the performance of Kazakhstan companies with Nestlé Czechia and the Czech food industry. The objective is to analyze company competitiveness, bankruptcy probability, and ability to create value. Results show the effectiveness of INFA in analyzing competitiveness and the applicability of IN models to companies from Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic.

Comparison of changes in the labour markets of post-communist countries with other EU member states

strengthen their international competitiveness. This was linked to the implementation of institutional and economic reforms, significant technological changes and improvements in the quality of human capital, as well as fiscal stabilisation policies. These changes affected their situation in the labour market. Purpose of the article: The aim of the study is to assess changes in the situation in the labour market in the EU with particular emphasis on the post-communist countries in the period 2002? 2019. Methods: The situation of countries in the European labour market was estimated using the TOPSIS method. A similarity matrix of changes in the composite variable for each country was then constructed using the Dynamic Time Warping method. On its basis, homogeneous clusters of countries were determined using the Ward?s method. Findings & value added: Four homogenous clusters of countries were formed. The post-communist ones belonged to two groups. In one, there were two countries ? Croatia and Slovakia. The rest of the post-communist countries were in a large cluster, which also included Germany, Malta, Finland, Portugal, France and Belgium. Changes of the situation in the post-communist countries in this group improved very much during the analysed period (this was particularly evident for Czechia, Estonia and Poland). It is interesting to investigate whether the reaction of labour markets to changes in the global economic situation in post-communist countries is similar to that in the old EU countries. The similarity of changes can be measured using the DTW method. There is an empirical research gap in this respect. Therefore, the added value is the use of this method in assessing similarities of changes in the labour market situation in post-communist countries in comparison to the Western European ones.

Traditional and Developing Segments of the Sharing Economy from the Point of View of Customers

The sharing economy represents a phenomenon which is increasing in importance as time goes by, even from the point of view of less developed countries. The aim of the study is to evaluate the knowledge of traditional and developing segments of the sharing economy and their platforms and to analyse and evaluate the level of their use employing the example of customers (the younger and the older generation) in one of the post-communist countries – the Czech Republic. Data was collected on the basis of a questionnaire survey (N=614). This was processed using descriptive statistics tools. The study shows that respondents are the most familiar with forms of sharing not only from traditional segments (passenger transportation and accommodation) but also from the financial segment. The best-known platforms include Uber, Airbnb and Zonky. Platforms from traditional segments are used the most. The younger generation has better awareness, both about possible forms of sharing and also about the existing platforms. However, the study did not prove any differences in the level of use of platforms between the younger and older generation.

Religion and Europe after the Fall of the Iron Curtain

This chapter presents the situation regarding religion in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe and Russia after 1989. In much of the region, religious groups refused to sit back and watch passively as the politicians shaped their countries into Western-style liberal democracies, preferring instead to be actively involved in the process. Thus, religion has become an important actor in societies which otherwise could have secularized relatively fast, following the example of the Western democracies that the former communist countries were trying to emulate. Several issues are examined in order to illustrate how religion evolved after the fall of the Iron Curtain: these include dealing with the past, living with newly acquired religious freedom, nationalism and religion, religion and refugees, religious education in state schools, and sexuality and religion.

Economic Performance in Post-Soviet and Post-Communist Countries – Evidence from Panel Data and Multivariate Statistical Analysis

The study examines the effect of sets of determinants of economic growth, which are widely emphasised in the literature, in a group of 27 selected post-Soviet, post-communist and transition countries from Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Mongolia during 1997–2017. The set of baseline variables includes, among others, trade openness, investment rate, public consumption spending, and selected demographic factors. The methodology uses panel data and it is supported by multivariate statistical methods of grouping objects. The panel data provides results that are mainly consistent with the literature review. However, the effects of demographic factors are rather not significant, but the role of investment has been emphasised. In turn, the multivariate statistical approaches indicate the shifts in regional (dis)similarity between the analysed countries with respect to the performance of the selected variables over the last 20 years.

Stosunek do przeszłości jako czynnik kształtujący pokoleniowe autoidentyfikacje młodzieży w krajach postkomunistycznych

When we observe the social and political life in post-communist countries, we can also notice that generations of people born after the fall of communism are beginning to play an increasingly important role in shaping the views and political preferences of the whole society. Young people socialized in significantly different conditions than their parents’ generation represent (in many areas) attitudes that indicate their “generational difference”. The aim of the article is to describe and explain to what extent the assessments of systemic transformation in chosen post-communist countries are determined by the age of citizens. The author analyzes secondary data from surveys on public opinion in the following countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine. In order to explain how young people perceive their position in relation to the older generation, which remembers the communist era, an appropriate case study was conducted. The study was conducted among students from six academic centers in Ukraine (Kyiv, Lviv, Nizhyn, Pereiaslav, Sumy, and Uzhhorod). It was found that the strength of the relationship between age and the perception of systemic change varies across countries. The deepest divisions between the older and younger generations were identified in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Bulgaria. It was also found that the young generation of contemporary Ukraine is trying to emphasize its own generational difference by creating its own political identity in opposition to the features attributed to older generations.