Spatial determinants of farmers’ interest in European Union’s pro-investment programs in Poland

The purpose of the paper is to investigate spatial determinants of farmers’ interest in pro-investment programs co-financed by the EU, by identifying and describing the territorial clusters of rural areas in Poland where the applications rates for these programs were above or below the national average. We tested for spatial autocorrelation using Moran’s global spatial autocorrelation index, while the search for clusters was done using a local version of Moran’s statistics. The results show significant regional variation in the farmers’ interest in these programs in Poland. This interest was higher in regions with a greater level of agricultural development and better agrarian structure. In Poland, both of these factors are related not only to natural conditions, but also to strong historical context. We conclude that the pro-investment programs contribute to the deepening of development differences in Polish agriculture in the territorial dimension, which is not in line with the basic assumptions of cohesion policy.

Types of Crime, Poverty, Population Density and Presence of Police in the Metropolitan District of Quito

This exploratory study identifies spatial patterns of crimes and their associations with the index of Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN), with Communitarian Policy Units (CPU) density, as well as with population density. The case study is the Metropolitan District of Quito. Correlation analyses were applied between number of registers of each type of crime, and the UBN index, CPU density and population density measures. The spatial autocorrelation index of Getis-Ord Gi* was calculated to identify hotspots of the different types of crime. Ordinary least squares regressions and geographically weighted regressions considering types of crime as dependent variables, were calculated. Larceny and robbery were found to be the predominant crimes in the study area. An inverse relationship between the UBN index and number of crimes was identified for each type of crime, while positive relationships were found between crimes and CPU density, and between crimes and population density. Significant hotspots of fraud, homicide, larceny, murder, rape and robbery were found in all urban parishes. Additionally, crime hotspots were identified in eastern rural parishes adjacent to urban parishes. This study provides important implications for crime prevention in the Metropolitan District of Quito (MDQ), and the obtained results contribute to the ecology of crime research in the study area.

BARRIERS IN FINANCING MICROENTERPRISES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CZECH AND SLOVAK MICROENTREPRENEURS

This paper compares how Czech and Slovak microentrepreneurs perceive the volume and ease of access to finance that they face. Having an adequate number of sources of finance and easier access to them can help improve both enterprise and country performance. Chi-square and Z score tests for population proportions were used to test hypotheses. 740 microenterprises from Czech Republic and 287 microenterprises from Slovakia were included for the analyses that were performed by this study. The results show that Czech microentrepreneurs feel they have more sources of finance and have easier access to them than their Slovak counterparts. These differences may in part be linked to other factors such as the experience and age of microentrepreneurs and micro-firms, amount of business loans and microfinancing organizations, credit interest rates and credit rejection rates, the relative degree of economic freedom, the volume of government guarantees, relative GDP levels, the quality of business environment and ease of doing business. Additionally, The Moran’s I spatial autocorrelation index was performed to evaluate influence of location on the perception of Czech and Slovak microenterprises that were located in different regions of both countries. The paper also discusses the results’ policy implications for governments and financial institutions.

Zróżnicowanie przestrzenne wykorzystania środków na modernizację gospodarstw rolnych z Programu Rozwoju Obszarów Wiejskich

The aim of the study is to determine changes in utilization of spatial diversity for the modernization of farms in Poland under the Rural Development Program for 2007–2013 and 2014–2020. The analysis covered the period 2007–2018. The analysis was conducted on the basis of data obtained from ARMA, GUS and Eurostat. Moran spatial autocorrelation index (Ig) was used to assess changes in spatial diversity. It was found that within the RDP 2014–2020 there were changes in the spatial distribution of the use of subsidies to support investments in agricultural holdings. It was observed that there was an increase in the intensity of use of subsidies for investments in voivodships in which large farms prevailed, and limiting the activity in using this measure in voivodships with fragmented agriculture. This may mean that small farms do not generate sufficient surplus needed to co-finance development investments. Support for investment for modernization of farms under the RDPs can be used primarily by economically large farms. Small farms do not have sufficient funds to co-finance development investments.