The Productive Efficiency of Science and Technology Worldwide: A Frontier Analysis

We are interested in how codified knowledge is produced around the globe (which inputs are used to produce scientific articles and patented inventions) and the efficiency of the process (how do the best performers produce more with the same inputs or produce the same with less inputs). Using a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) efficiency frontier approach, we aim to determine which countries are more efficient at producing codified knowledge. We proxy knowledge production by publications and patents, obtained through human (researchers) and non-human (R&D expenditure) resources. We built a 15-year database with more than 800 observations of these and other variables. Our findings enable us to distinguish efficiency by country, geographical region, and income area. We run four different specifications and correlate the results with partial productivity indexes seeking consistency. Under constant returns to scale, the most traditional producers of knowledge are not fully efficient. Instead, small countries with limited resources appear to be efficient. When we add environmental conditions, both sets of countries are efficient producers of knowledge outputs. High-income regions, on the one hand, and East Asia, North America, and Europe and Central Asia, on the other, are the most efficient regions at producing knowledge.

Plaatsbepalingen: de Nederlanden in de wereld

The idea for this issue of Neerlandica Wratislaviensia arose from an interest in the Low Countries – their culture, literature, and language. This interest has translated into a number of various approaches to the concept of Nederlandsheid, seen not only through the eyes of the authorities on the Dutch language and literature from the University of Wroclaw, but also representatives of other scientific disciplines within the philology department of this university. Their focus, supplemented with a look at Low Countries from the perspective of Dutch and Flemish ‘insiders’, created an interesting mosaic presenting Low Countries in an exciting and accessible way. The articles of the 32nd issue of Neerlandica Wratislaviensia mention both the former Dutch colonies and the modern Low Countries seen through the eyes of Polish travelers; they describe authors’ auto-images and tools to make a literary work more attractive. Here we find fairy tales, non-fiction, and linguistic considerations. This number shows how small countries can strongly influence scientists’ knowledge.

El Sistema de Estados Internacional después del Neoliberalismo: Europa entre la Democracia Nacional y la Centralización Supranacional

En 1945 Karl Polanyi esbozó una visión de un sistema estatal global en tiempos de paz con una economía política en la que los países pequeños podrían ser soberanos y democráticos. Este ensayo ofrece una perspectiva histórica y comparativa entre el pasado y el presente a la luz del pensamiento polanyiano. Se presta especial atención a la historia de la Unión Europea, que tras el fin del comunismo se convirtió en un pilar del proyecto neoliberal y culminó con la restauración de un patrón oro internacional bajo la Unión Monetaria. Durante la crisis de 2008 el avance del neoliberalismo se enfrentó, no obstante, a la resistencia «populista», a la austeridad y al cambio de gobernanza del nivel nacional al supranacional. El artículo explora las perspectivas de los intentos actuales de reemplazar la «Europa social» y las narrativas economicistas trickle-down, y de la formación de superestados europeos, que han perdido toda credibilidad, por una historia sobre un ejército europeo como condición necesaria para una defensa exitosa del European way of life. In 1945 Karl Polanyi outlined a vision of a peacetime global state system with a political economy in which small countries could be both sovereign and democratic. The present essay reviews developments between then and now in the light of Polanyi’s analytical framework. Particular attention is paid to the history of the European Union, which after the end of Communism turned into a mainstay of the neoliberal project, culminating in its restoration of an international gold standard under Monetary Union. In the crisis of 2008 the advance of neoliberalism got stuck due to «populist» resistance to austerity and the shift of governance from the national to a supranational level. The paper explores the prospects of current attempts to replace the «Social Europe» and «trickle-down» narratives of European superstate formation, which have lost all credit, with a story about a European army as a necessary condition of a successful defense of «the European way of life».

A Silver Hope in the Dreadful Pandemic: Shift towards a Healthier Lifestyle, Hygiene and Cleanliness

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread its terror globally for over a year now. There is no continent that has been spared by this scourge. And perhaps a few small countries with no reported cases. Regardless, it is an irrefutable fact that this novel coronavirus pandemic has shaken the pillars of human civilization. For those unaware or living under a rock since the past year or so, the disease is caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. The first cases were reported to the World Health Organisation as a cluster of pneumonia from unknown causes from Wuhan, China on the 31st December, 2019. And, thus began its reign of terror, spreading across the world, like hot cakes sold out in a carnival. That being said, humanity has suffered a lot at the hands of the pandemic. Innumerous deaths, sufferings, unending lockdowns and curfews, social problems, people losing their livelihoods and the list goes on. It is, thus, easy to give in to the mood of gloom and doom with all that is going on around us. However, just as with anything, there is a side too, that is scarcely talked about. There have also been some positive impacts of this pandemic that one couldn’t have foreseen beforehand. So, without further ado, below we have covered a few positive side effects of this curse of a pandemic!

International competitiveness measures and “countries mapping” of the furniture industry in EU 13

International competitiveness measures and “countries mapping” of the furniture industry in EU 13 countries. The theory of economics is increasingly emphasizing the positive dimension of competition, which is an integral part of the market economy. From the point of view of the countries development, it is important to identify and support industries with special production and export potential. Hence, the main goal of the research was to assess the competitiveness of the furniture industry using selected result-oriented indices. A group of EU 13 countries was selected for the study, and a comparative analysis was carried out against the background of all Community Member States. The time range of the research was adopted for the years 2009-2017. The analysis carried out shows that the highest comparative advantages in furniture exports were generated by producers and exporters from Estonia, Poland and Lithuania. In turn, the unfavorable situation in foreign trade in furniture was noticed in Cyprus and Malta. These are small countries, showing a relatively low share of the furniture industry production value in the total industry value and a relatively low economic labour productivity. In the entire period covered by the analysis seven EU 13 countries (i.e. the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia) belonged to the group of net exporters, i.e. it was characterized by a positive trade balance of furniture and additionally obtained a comparative advantage in this area.

Theoretical Background for a Strategy of Development of Cultural Literacy in Schools

Aim. Based on the analysis of two social-cultural cases (Lithuania and Georgia), the aim of the research is to reveal the necessity to create a strategy for the development of cultural literacy in schools; to examine the corpus of theory that deals with the concept of cultural literacy and based on the analysis of the latter to suggest a hypothesis for the development of cultural literacy. Methods. The theoretical literature review (i.e., its relevance in academic discourse and international organisations as well as individual countries) has helped to establish the already existing definitions of the concept of cultural literacy, their interaction and to develop a new hypothesis to be tested for the development of cultural literacy in schools. Results and conclusion. The literature review has shown that representatives of different theories offer different definitions of cultural literacy, although there is a common theoretical line on the basis of which I offer to the reader my own structure of cultural literacy development strategy. The analysis of historical and geographical contexts of Lithuania and Georgia has revealed that nowadays even small countries’ society, with a dominant single nation, in some ways can be considered as a multicultural society. Schools in the said countries have become an intercultural place of learning, where reemigrants, migrants, ethnical minorities and locals are brought together. The analysis has led to the conclusion that taking into account modern challenges, the importance of the development of cultural literacy in schools is growing both for international organisations and for individual countries. The concept of cultural literacy is considered value-based knowledge, which comes as a response to the requirements of society’s sustainable coexistence.

Analysis of selection for wrestling for the Olympic Games in Tokyo

Purpose: to analyze the qualification requirements for athletes to obtain Olympic licenses to participate in the XXXII Olympic Games in Tokyo in wrestling. Materials and methods of research. Research methods: theoretical analysis and generalization of literature data and the Internet, methods of mathematical statistics. The initial results of the performances are taken from the official website of the International Wrestling Federation (United World Wrestling) (https://uww.org/). MS Excel was used for statistical data processing and graphical presentation of results. Results: it is established that according to the requirements of the IOC in wrestling competitions at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo can participate no more than 288 athletes (16 wrestlers in 12 weight categories in men's competitions and 16 participants in six weight categories in women's competitions). For the right to participate in the Olympics in wrestling, a rather intense selection was carried out, which included several stages. It was found that none of the strongest «wrestling» countries in the world has obtained the maximum number of licenses (18) for the Olympics. Russia has obtained 17 licenses, the United States – 15, 12 – from Cuba and Japan, 11 – in Iran, Kazakhstan and China, 10 – in Tunisia and Ukraine. 10 or more participants will represent the 9 strongest «wrestling» states at the Olympics, which amounted to 37,85 % of all wrestlers. In total, the right to participate in the Olympics was won by representatives of 62 countries. Representatives of 14 countries obtained 52,43 % of licenses. 20 countries will be able to put only one athlete at the Olympics, despite the fact that they include countries that have a long wrestling tradition. However, small countries have also won tickets to the Olympics, which testifies to the popularization of the struggle and the expansion of its geography in the world. The largest number of tickets to the Olympics in Tokyo traditionally won the representatives of Europe – 122 licenses (42.36%), they lost to wrestlers from Asia – 84 licenses (29,17 %), much fewer licenses from the representatives of America – 44 (15,28 %), Africa and Oceania – 38 (13,19 %). Conclusions. Limiting the number of wrestlers participating in the Olympics forces wrestling experts to be in constant search of the optimal system of selection of athletes, and such selection should, firstly, ensure the participation in the Olympics of all the strongest wrestlers on the planet and, secondly, give equal rights to different countries and continents in competition for this participation. The postponement of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic made adjustments to the qualification selection calendar and affected the results of the selection itself. All this together had a negative effect on the efficiency of selection, and a significant part of high-class wrestlers were not able to qualify for the Olympics. Keywords: selection system, Olympic license, wrestling, Olympic Games, stage, country, continent, qualifying tournament.

Conducting national burden of disease studies in small countries in Europe– a feasible challenge?

Background Burden of Disease (BoD) studies use disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) as a population health metric to quantify the years of life lost due to morbidity and premature mortality for diseases, injuries and risk factors occurring in a region or a country. Small countries usually face a number of challenges to conduct epidemiological studies, such as national BoD studies, due to the lack of specific expertise and resources or absence of adequate data. Considering Europe’s small countries of Cyprus, Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta and Montenegro, the aim was to assess whether the various national data sources identified are appropriate to perform national BoD studies. Main body The five small countries have a well-established mortality registers following the ICD10 classification, which makes calculation of years of life lost (YLL) feasible. A number of health information data sources were identified in each country, which can provide prevalence data for the calculation of years lived with disability (YLD) for various conditions. These sources include disease-specific registers, hospital discharge data, primary health care data and epidemiological studies, provided by different organisations such as health directorates, institutes of public health, statistical offices and other bodies. Hence, DALYs can be estimated at a national level through the combination of the YLL and YLD information. On the other hand, small countries face unique challenges such as difficulty to ensure sample representativeness, variations in prevalence estimates especially for rarer diseases, existence of a substantial proportion of non-residents affiliated to healthcare systems and potential exclusion from some European or international initiatives. Recently established BoD networks may provide a platform for small countries to share experiences, expertise, and engage with countries and institutions that have long-standing experience with BoD assessment. Conclusion Apart from mortality registries, adequate health data sources, notably for cancer, are potentially available at the small states to perform national BoD studies. Investing in sharing expert knowledge through engagement of researchers in BoD networks can enable the conduct of country specific BoD studies and the establishment of more accurate DALYs estimates. Such estimates can enable local policymakers to reflect on the relative burden of the different conditions that are contributing to morbidity and mortality at a country level.