Period Of Economic Crisis Research Articles

Managing during the crisis: Factors coming from inside the society

This study summarizes the arguments and counter-arguments within the scientific debate on the welfare state issue. After the years of development of the welfare state caused by the development of the economy in the post-war years, when social rights became a new form of property, the 1970s came a period of economic crisis. The welfare state crisis comes with the economic crisis and is criticized by both the right and left of the political spectrums. This research checks whether changes in the labor market caused by the workforce transition from the environment of production to the environment of services greatly affect individuals and families. The research subject is labor migration and an increase in employment in the service sector versus a decrease in employment in the production sector caused by the arrival of the fourth and, according to some experts, the fifth industrial revolution. Other factors that are the subject of the research and are responsible for the crisis of the welfare state are the family crisis and the population’s aging. These factors individually do not threaten the functioning of the welfare state, but as a complex that creates a load in a common and synchronous time frame, they are highly dangerous for the welfare state. The main goal of this research is to point out the most serious factors coming from within a society that affects the functioning of the welfare state. The literature analysis on the welfare state, social economics, social policy, and labor migration confirmed the enormous increase in pressure on the welfare state in the last two decades. This study deals with the idea of the complete demise of the welfare state when multinational insurance companies take over its function. Another option is supplementing or replacing some parts of the welfare state with another alternative. Such an alternative is shown, for example, by the measures that were used during the C-19 pandemic in the Slovak Republic. This is mainly about the financial aid that the state distributed to entrepreneurs who were forced to suspend the operation of their businesses due to the pandemic. Such assistance had many common denominators with the Unconditional Basic Income project, which is increasingly popular in the world and is proving to be a suitable supplement to the social system and a supplement to the welfare state. The results of study could be useful both for student practice and social and scientific fields. At the end of the research, the study is dedicated to finding a solution to help the welfare state in the given situation.

Mergers as a competitiveness strategy in different business sectors during economic crisis period: Evidence from Greece

This paper investigates the accounting performance of companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange after mergers by the industrial sector during the period of the financial crisis in Greece. More specifically, all mergers of listed companies during the period 2012–2016 are examined, with the analysis of a final sample of twenty-six companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange. The evaluation of the accounting statements and the performance of Greek listed companies is done by extracting and comparing various figures from them (financial ratios) before and after the implementation of mergers. This research is based on the methodology of Healy, Palepu, and Ruback (1992) and Ramaswamy and Waegelein (2003) in order to explore if there is a positive or negative result from the merger transaction. The research results did not show any statistically significant change in any of the research financial ratios after the mergers. However, the effect of the absorbing company’s industry was examined in relation to the analyzed financial ratios and no better performance was observed for those in any industry. Finally, mergers as a competitiveness strategy in the business arena managed to provide the involved companies with a stable accounting performance during the crisis period in Greece.

Da li zlato predstavlja efikasnu zaštitu od inflacije - primer Srbije

Gold today has multiple uses. In addition to the instrument for financial investments, gold is used in the jewelry industry, but also in the industry for the production of various electronic components. After the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, gold gained an increasing role as an investment instrument. The traditional view is that gold represents a safe haven in periods of economic and political crises, as well as inflation. However, in recent years there has been an increasing number of papers that question this traditional view. Therefore, the paper analyzes whether gold is a protection against in ation in Serbia. The subject of the work analysis is the last twenty years. The paper consists of four parts. In the first part of the paper, a historical account of the development of money, i.e. the gold standard, is given. The second part of the paper provides an overview of the literature dealing with the issue of the role of gold. In the third part of the paper, an analysis of gold price trends and in ation in Serbia was carried out. And at the end of the paper, concluding considerations were given.

ГОСУДАРСТВЕННАЯ ПОЛИТИКА НА РЫНКЕ ТРУДА В СТРАНАХ ЕС: ОСНОВНЫЕ ТЕНДЕНЦИИ И НАПРАВЛЕНИЯ ТРАНСФОРМАЦИИ

The aim of this paper is to determine the prospects for the development of employment programmes in the labour market and the directions for their transformation in the EU countries. The author uses general scientific methods, methods of statistical processing of information, graphical methods, and comparative analysis. The information base of the study includes statistical data and materials of international organizations (UN, ILO, Eurostat, European Commission). The research results: the article presents an analysis of labour market policy measures in the EU countries during periods of sustainable development and economic crises; considers the structure and dynamics of expenditures on various programmes and the number of their participants; identifies the government labour market policy trends and the features of its implementation in countries with developed market economies and in post-socialist countries; presents assessments of the prospects for labour market policies in the EU countries in the face of new challenges. The author concludes about the prospects for labour market policy in the EU countries in the face of new challenges and about the possibilities of using the EU experience in developing active labour market policy measures in Russia. The scope of application: the research results can be used by Russian federal and regional executive authorities in the development of active labour market policy measures.

Pozitivni finansijski aspekti migracija i dijaspore za stanovništvo i privredu Srbije

The subject of the paper is the analysis of economic and social advantages of remittance inflows from the Serbian diaspora. Remittances are important for domestic economy and people for several reasons. First and foremost, these remittances are at a high level because of a large number of Serbs that have emigrated in the decades behind us. Even though the exact amount of these remittances cannot be precisely calculated, due to the fact that a great portion of remittances comes to Serbia via informal channels, remittance inflows can have positive effects on many economic aspects of receiving countries, especially in the case of transitioning countries that have gone through difficult periods of economic and political crises, war crisis and devastations. Inflows from diaspora can affect the reduction of poverty, development of economic entities, and even the exchange rate of the country and economic development as a whole, and the diaspora can influence the improvement of political climate and economic relationships with foreign countries. In this paper, we wanted to examine the correlation and strength of the relationship (if any) between the trends of Serbia's GDP and remittances, as well as the relationship between GDP per capita in Serbia and remittances. The correlation procedure was performed in the IBM SPSS 21 program, and the World Bank data were used as a basis. It was concluded that the trend ratio of the GDP of Serbia and remittances is characterized by a positive correlation which was observed in the trend of the GDP of Serbia and remittances.

Admissions due to ambulatory care-sensitive conditions (ACSC): an analysis based on socio-demographic characteristics, Brazil and regions, 2010 to 2019.

To analyze the temporal trend of hospital admissions due to Ambulatory Care-Sensitive Conditions (ACSC) in Brazil per sex, region, cause and age group, from 2010 to 2019. This is an ecological study based on the temporal trend of ACSC rates. Standardized rates were analyzed in a simple linear regression and a generalized linear model (GLM) Gamma. The percentage change was also checked over three periods: 2010-2014, 2015-2019 and 2010-2019. There was a reduction in hospital admission rates between 2010 and 2019 for Brazil: 124.3/10,000 inhab. to 88.2/10,000 inhab. among women (-29.0%) and 119.0/10,000 inhab. to 88.2/10,000 inhab. (-25.9%) among men in all regions. The decrease was more prominent between 2010-2014 (-17.7%) and (-17.8%) than between 2015-2019 (-.2%) and (-5.9%) for females and males, respectively. The milder decline in the period from 2015 to 2019 was more noticeable among age groups 0-4y and 5-19y in all regions. As for the causes, most ICD-10 diseases had a downward trend, the more expressive ones being gastroenteritis (-60%); however, an increase was seen in cerebrovascular diseases among women (11.2%) and men (17.1%), and angina (15% %) and skin infections (56.1%) among men. There was a significant drop in ACSC rates in the period analyzed, especially for age groups 0-4y and 5-19y. The rates had a milder drop from 2015 to 2019, a period of austerity and economic crisis.

A metafrontier Global Malmquist framework for hospitals productivity and quality measurement: Evidence from the Greek economic recession

• This study develops a framework that measures the quality effects into a separate component of the metafrontier global Malmquist index. • The proposed approach make use and derive benefit from the transitivity property of the developed index to overcome the possible data scarcity problems and provide consistent assessments with and without quality data. • We use the developed methodological framework, to better understanding the interrelationships between production and quality within the healthcare setting. • From a managerial perspective this study provides an empirical analysis of productivity drivers of Greek hospitals during the period of economic crisis to explore how the fiscal pressure affects hospital management. The main purpose of the study is to examine how the global economic crisis has affected the hospital productivity growth and quality performance of public hospitals in Greece. Through the nonparametric estimation of a quality-adjusted metafrontier Malmquist index, the study accounts the heterogeneity of hospitals according to the hierarchical levels of the healthcare system (primary, secondary and tertiary care) to examine the trends of efficiency change, innovation change, and leadership change during the period 2009-2013. The proposed approach relies on a novel methodological framework for measuring quality into a separate component of the metafrontier Malmquist. To understand the effect of the economic crisis in healthcare the study further explores the association between productivity and quality in the hospital sector. The results show that the implemented austerity measures have had a negative impact particularly on the quality of the tertiary hospitals that exhibited an overall productivity regress.

Sustainable tourism: Gen Z?

Tourism is a system that has social, environmental and economic impacts on a global scale. A system of this size has inevitable consequences. These results, which become a chronic problem especially in the balance of environmental conservation and economic outputs, need to be evaluated from different perspectives. At this point, sustainable tourism is an important approach. Economic gain, balanced resource consumption and consideration of future generations are the core of this approach. The focus of sustainable tourism, which has conceptually different definitions, is concept of generation. Therefore, it is important to reinterpret sustainable tourism in the context of today's generations. Today's young people, called Generation Z (Gen Z), have quite different characteristics from previous generations. As natives of the digital world Gen Z’ers, born and growing in a period of economic crises, wars and environmental problems. This generation is innovative and has a strong communication network. In addition, this new generation, which uses technology extensively and easily accesses information, is an interesting subject of investigation for the applicability of the concept of sustainable tourism. In this study, the diverging and adaptive aspects of the concepts of sustainable tourism and Gen Z are examined and various inferences have been made in the context of today's world.

Sustainable business models to create sustainable competitive advantages: strategic approach to overcoming COVID-19 crisis and improve financial performance

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to evaluate whether the implementation of sustainable business models contributes to improving a firm’s performance during a global crisis, such as the one caused by COVID-19. Based on the triple bottom line theory, the paper explores the relation between the creation of value through solid corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies, United Nations (UN) Global Compact’s (GC) business model proposals and Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) reporting scheme.Design/methodology/approachThe present paper studies companies within the European Union, focusing specifically on the long-term impact of using the world’s most widely used standards for sustainability reporting – the GRI’s standards and/or the UNGC management models, as well as on the firm’s performance based on the financial results during COVID-19 crisis. To achieve this goal, the study analyses the share price of firms publicly listed in the FTSEMIB (benchmark index of Italy’s largest trading platform) out of those companies that are implementing the UN and GRI’s tools.FindingsFindings show how a commitment to sustainable business models and long-term CSR strategies can contribute to firm’s ability to overcome periods of economic crisis. Furthermore, implementing GRI standards and UNGC guidelines within the business model seems to have a positive impact in overcoming a hard context such as COVID-19. In addition, it contributes to a better understanding of stakeholders’ needs, consumer profiling and value creation.Originality/valueThis study evaluates firms’ business models, considering the effects of decisions made in the context of COVID-19. The role of UNGC and GRI is evaluated in terms of their contribution to firms’ financial performance and corporate reputation during a context of hardship. Consequently, this study contributes to academia and practice, adding value in areas related to strategic planning and business model design.

LABOUR MARKET AND PECULIARITIES OF INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC

In terms of overcoming the socio-economic problems in Georgia, great importance is attached to efficient functioning of the labour market. It must ensure a radical change the sphere of social-labour relations, accordingly, efficient overcoming the chronic unemployment in the country and efficient employment of labour force. The results of the research confirms, that adequate labour market of normal market environment is still on the formation stage with serious problems and challenges which is developed in Georgia. In 1990s at the initial stage of formation the national labour market difficult economic situation which was in the country, give a push negative developments in the field of labour relations, among which before nowadays invincible challenge is the growing trend of informal employment. It can be said, that this one took on a large-scale character in the current period of financial and economic crisis caused by the global pandemic. In fact, the informal sector in Georgia has become an independent segment of the labour market, which has a significant impact on employment of the population, standard of living and on the overall process of economic development. Informal employment, as an important study socio-economic event and phenomenon, assess its level and scale, it can be said convincingly that it will not lose its relevance for many years. Negative consequences of informal employment, needs analysis and evaluation factors affecting the influx of economically active population into the informal sector of the labour market. Also its important discuss and evaluate the positive aspects of informal employment in the short term, which manifested in facilitation reasons socio-economic and psychological consequences of unemployment. In the work researched certain aspects of informal employment, analyzed its forms, faces, identified peculiarities of informal employment and rated its scale against the background of the global pandemic. Substantiated, that informal segment of the labour market requires depth research and evaluation. By the research identified the main factors for the growth and development of employment in the informal sector of economy in the Georgian labour market, from which we must distinguish: high levels and scale of poverty in the country, chronic unemployment and inefficient employment; insecurity social principle of justice in the field of employment; equal employment opportunities for job seekers; lack of proper conditions for equal realization of labour rights; population low availability on different types of labour market services and events, inadequate rates of economic development; reduced demand for labour, accordingly limited employment opportunities and prospects; low level and quality of development of vocational education system, which not fully focused on labour market demands, social protection of the unemployed, none of insurance mechanism; difficulties in training and retraining the unemployed; low level of remuneration; low level of stimulation, motivation and labour organization, underdevelopment of labour market infrastructure and its management information system, problems in the field of management and regulation of social-labour relations, which connected to the development of the legislative-normative base, lack of a complete mechanism for controlling the working conditions of employees and etc. The main results of the research are summarized in the concluding part of the work

“COVID-19” Pandemic: Rethinking Defence Spending in Bulgaria

This paper investigates defence spending in Bulgaria in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyses military expenditures on both regional and national scales and tries to compare the post-financial and economic crisis period of the first decade of the 21st century to the current pandemic situation. The paper argues that it is unlikely that the ever evolving threat landscape will lead to a significant decrease in defence spending, while requiring its rethinking in Bulgaria with a focus on investments in technologies and related activities. Due to the ongoing pandemic and the fact that relatively little time has passed since its emergence, part of the conclusions drawn are primarily prospective in nature.

Епоха турбулентності і суспільні метаморфози як фактори ризиків державного управління

Розкрито сутність причино-наслідкового зв’язку між турбулентністю іметаморфозами суспільства. Наголошено, що головною метаморфозою сучасного суспільства є перетворення його в турбулентний стан, де основною ознакою є потокова реальність, і в силу цього суспільство пронизане хаотичними, неконтрольованими процесами. Зазначено, що нестабільне середовище продукує як високі ризики, так і високі шанси для держави не втратити управлінські функції. Зауважено, що важливим завданням є розуміння нових реалій і вироблення відповідної політики. Вказано, що варіантом вирішення проблеми може стати симбіоз делегування широких повноважень на локальний рівень при належному контролі центру і “культури безпеки” як форми реалізації турботи про себе.

Tourism price normalities in two Adriatic east coast 'euro' countries

This debut work offers a stunning look at real vs nominal prices that consider more than just inflation. The inadequate examination of hospitality price comparison is investigated between two non-neighbouring Adriatic east coast countries – Slovenia and Montenegro – using the euro. Hospitality prices are an essential indicator in hospitality markets, destination marketing and management planning. Using 73 monthly time-series data for the economic crisis period from December 2008 to December 2014, this period covers one shock in a series. One of the key managerial features of cointegrated spatial hospitality price spread was that Montenegro followed Slovenian hospitality prices. Hospitality prices in Montenegro and Slovenia tend to be weakly integrated into the long term and seasonally driven in the short term. In addition, the econometric experimentation has given a theoretical novelty for underpinned and undermined tourism economy modelling in normalities. This state-of-the-art econometric feature is included in a customary vector error correction model (VECM). Robust applied results recognise that hospitality prices in Montenegro are domestic driven and in Slovenia Eurozone driven. This finding is relevant for applied economics on obtaining a normally distributed price model. Its theoretical and managerial implications are vital for hospitality economics, marketing and tourism management.

Green recovery in the mature manufacturing industry: The role of the green-circular premium and sustainability certification in innovative efforts

Sustainability is an essential goal for companies to pursue alongside their efforts to cope with a period of economic crisis and uncertainty. Technologically mature manufacturing sectors need to preserve their competitiveness, and process and product innovation may no longer be sufficient to stimulate demand. Strategic innovation is one possible option to address this challenge. However, methods to implement this new paradigm are still underexplored. This paper analyzes the Italian and Spanish ceramic tile industries as a prime example of process digitalization and environmental practices in the European manufacturing context. Through the application of multi-criteria analysis, this study aims to investigate the possibilities provided by strategic innovation to companies in this sector, in order to be able to compete with producers in emerging countries who use price strategies as the only lever of their competitiveness. To this end, dimensions relating to operations, market, economy, society and the environment are considered herein. Our results show that the multidimensionality of industrial organizations should stimulate manufacturing firms not only to look at customer needs from a price point of view, but to commit to including social and environmental attributes in their products, such as the green-circular premium and sustainability certification. These two practices represent strategic innovation. This presents a complex challenge involving widespread change that concerns entrepreneurship, management and industrial policies.

The Impact of the Pandemic on Economic Crime

Abstract This paper aims to outline possible directions of criminal activity that are part of both state and global economic crime. It is not a novelty that periods of economic crises carry particular criminogenic potential, affecting the scale and dynamics of specific crime categories. The ongoing pandemic makes precise data collection or statistical calculations, in the context of the problems described in this paper, difficult. Nevertheless, at this stage, it is possible to indicate certain areas which, from the perspective of criminal law, should be of interest for criminal law specialists, but also criminologists aiming to develop tools to combat the most serious pathologies in business trading.

Spatial Differentiation of the Socio-Economic Development of Poland–“Invisible” Historical Heritage

The analysis aims to identify spatial variations of socio-economic development in Poland at the local level and to determine their correlation with conditions resulting from the historical political divisions of today’s areas of the country. The research procedure helps to verify the hypothesis that spatial differentiation of socio-economic development in Poland is permanent and does not show significant changes during periods of economic growth and crisis. We can emphasize at the same time the persisting differences between cities and their functional areas on the one hand and rural areas on the other. The study applied an innovative procedure of determining the synthetic index. The procedure of classifying local units presented in the text was based on the original random forest method. The outcomes confirm that contemporary spatial diversification at the level of socio-economic development in Poland is still strongly conditioned by history, especially by the socio-economic consequences of the partition of Poland between the three superpowers (Russia, Prussia and Austria). This is evident in the synthetic presentation of the level of socio-economic development. However, in the case of certain socio-economic phenomena, the values of indicators describing them no longer directly relate in their diversity to historical borders, particularly the former partition borders.

Dysfunctional Internet Use by Adolescents in an Urban Environment: Α Case-Control Study

Background: Dysfunctional internet use (DIU), or Internet Addiction Disorder, refers to excessive engagement with internet use which results in significant impairment of the individual’s ability to function in various fields of life, for an extended period of time. This multifactorial phenomenon concerns every society throughout the contemporary world. The present study examines personal, familial and social factors associated with DIU in adolescents who grew up in an urban environment during a period of severe economic crisis. Materials and methods: DIU cases were matched 1:1 by age and gender to controls in a retrospective case-control study. The clinical sample consisted of adolescents who had been referred to the Adolescent Health Unit of the 2nd Department of Pediatrics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and diagnosed as "Internet Addicted". Adolescents in the control group had been referred to the same Department for reasons other than DIU. Analysis was by conditional logistic regression with the presence of DIU as dependent variable. Results: In multivariate analysis, family status (the adolescent not living with both parents) was a statistically significant risk factor for DIU (odds ratio 5.03, 95% confidence interval 1.20 – 21.0). Protective factors were participation in physical activity (odds ratio 0.05, 0.01 – 0.19) and antisocial behavior (odds ratio 0.10, 0.04 – 0.25). Conclusions: Our findings indicate factors strongly associated with adolescent DIU in an urban setting during the economic crisis and complement other studies which have largely been based on self-report school surveys.

Analysis of Hydrous Ethanol Price Competitiveness after the Implementation of the Fossil Fuel Import Price Parity Policy in Brazil

Competition is a relevant element in any open economy. Public policies are necessary to induce economic efficiency and to create conditions to preserve or stimulate a competitive environment. This paper aims to assess the competitiveness of hydrous ethanol price in a period of political, social and economic crises, in 15 Brazilian state capitals between the years 2012 and 2019. We compared the ethanol–gasoline price ratio behavior in two different periods, before and after the import parity price policy implemented by Petrobras in 2016. Mann–Whitney and Levene’s tests, two non-parametric statistical methods, were applied to verify significant changes between these periods. The implementation of changes in Petrobras’ pricing policy from 2016 onwards caused a statistically significant increase in the ratio coefficient of variation in two-thirds of the distribution market and more than the half of analyzed retail markets. Second, overall, the cities that showed statistically significant changes in the median and coefficient of variation in the distribution market price ratio were followed by the retail market. Our findings suggest that government interventions in the fuel and byproduct final selling prices to distributors negatively impact competition between companies that are part of the fuel distribution and retail chain, also affecting the sale of biofuels in Brazil and discouraging the initiatives to use renewable fuels to reduce the emission of pollutants.

Suicide in French Polynesia: a retrospective analysis based on medicolegal documents and interview with family.

ObjectiveTo analyse the epidemiological data on suicide in French Polynesia (FP).MethodsData on suicides were collected from the Public Health Direction, Judicial Police Investigations Court of Justice records, the Centre d’Opérations et de Renseignements de la Gendarmerie, patient records for those hospitalized in psychiatry and from psychological autopsies.ResultsThe dataset consisted of 316 suicide cases in FP over 25 years (1992–2016). In FP, suicide was more frequent in men (sex ratio 3.2:1), young people (mean age, 34.4 years) and individuals with previously diagnosed psychiatric disorders (100 of 316; 31.6%) The most common method of suicide was hanging (276 of 316; 87.3%). A history of previous suicide attempts was found in 25 of 56 (44.6%) of suicide cases, when documented. The most common potential triggering factors for suicide were emotional problems. The suicide rates have remained stable during 1992–2016 (mean 10.6/100 000 inhabitants per year), with periods of economic crises increasing suicide rates.ConclusionsThese results provide valuable information to enable the effective targeting of suicide prevention strategies toward those at high risk. Economic crises had larger impacts in the French overseas territories than mainland France. Given the unprecedented economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in FP, there is an urgent need to implement suicide epidemiological surveillance and prevention programmes.

Entrepreneurial career outcomes of women who switch to self-employment during the crises

This paper aims to reveal the implication of transitions from paid to self-employment during the period of economic crises, and whether such a transition may widen the gender gap in career outcomes. We use insights from the career perspective in entrepreneurship to study career outcomes in three steps. First, we study the survival rate and the career patterns of individuals who switch to self-employment in the post-crisis period. Second, we examine income, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction, as the subjective and objective measure of career success of individuals who survive in self-employment. Lastly, we look at the possible differences in entrepreneurial career outcomes between male and female self-employed in our samples. We use descriptive statistics and entropy balancing to examine the changes in career outcomes of individuals who switch to self-employment during the 1998 Asian financial crisis in Indonesia and the 2008 global financial crisis in the United Kingdom. Our findings demonstrate that in both countries, the survival rate is less than 50% for over 5 years following the transitions, with the risk of experiencing downward job mobility for those who do not survive in self-employment. In addition, our study reveals that transitions to self-employment give no gains to the individuals; as the career outcomes of those who switch to self-employment are relatively similar or even not any better than similar individuals who remain in paid employment. Lastly, we found a smaller proportion of females survive in self-employment in the long term, as those who switch to and survive in self-employment in both countries are dominated by males.