Around the Bloc: Russian Energy Exports On a Rising Trend
New oil pipeline to China, record gas sales to Europe underline Russia’s energy prowess.
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New oil pipeline to China, record gas sales to Europe underline Russia’s energy prowess.
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In this study, Turkey's foreign trade with countries in terms of manufacturing industries Intra-Industry Trade analysis was performed. In this direction, between 2001 and 2014, the manufacturing industry (SITC-Rev.3) was made with 3-digit foreign trade data. Calculations were made with Grubel-Lloyd index, which is the most used in the literature. Within the scope of Turkey's foreign trade with countries manufacturing industry it has been faced with intra-industry trade ratio over 0.50 since 2010. In addition, manufacturing industry sectors have been studied in detail. The highest rates of IIT have been found in the machinery and transport sector. In addition, the main processed goods sector has encountered IIT rates above 0,50.
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There are over 20 million small businesses in the United States. Enterprises of this size are dominant in well developed and developing free market economies and largely contribute to the GDP creation. They actively take part in shaping markets, lower the level of unemployment and contribute to the high level of competition. One of the key elements that contribute to the development of small businesses is their access to financing. This article is devoted to the issues of the American small business development with special emphasis on the current problems faced by entrepreneurs in the light of the financial crisis. Conducting business activity with uncertainty and exceptionally high risk due to the economic downturn resulting from the recession has not been easy. The structure of the financial market for small business is presented. Moreover, the policy towards small business sector in the United States is discussed.
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Looking for model quality assessment of small business as well as their predictions insolvency, in this study were applied parameters Chesser's model for estimating non-performance of congratual obligations to banks for small business in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The research was conducted at the forty-three small enterprises, of which twenty-four companies three years after the analysis of financial indicators, taken from the balance sheet and income statement, had continuity in operations, as well as nineteen companies that are in period of three years after the analysis had done registered blockade transaction accounts at banks, and they could not fulfil their contractual obligations. In a sample is tested Chesser's model to estimate non-fulfillment of contractual obligations to banks. The research results show that the application of Chesser's model is not adequate in credit analysis of small enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because of the characteristics of small enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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The topic of the paper is of a high importance and interest for Croatia since it covers the sector which provides many jobs in professions with a shortage of workers. Besides historical and comparative methods, theoretical methods such as analysis, synthesis, induction and deduction were also used in this research. The main objective was to describe and explain the way the Export Credit Insurance division of Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) has contributed to the Croatian shipbuilding industry's recovery through managerial aspect. Analysis of the shipbuilding managerial economics in the scope of national economy reveals different models of government influence on recovery of the industry: financial support, restructuring, privatization, and export credit insurance. Considering a high degree of risk present in export, export credit insurance has a major impact on the domestic shipbuilding recovery. The main goal of export credit insurance is to increase the competitiveness of Croatian shipyards abroad.
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The paper provides an overview of bank levy, i.e. a tax on financial institutions that is applicable in most of the EU member states. The paper contains a comprehensive comparative analysis of relevant solutions adopted, as well as analysis of bank levy in legal and economic terms. The authors also discuss the consequences of the introduction of bank levy in Poland and Hungary. Furthermore, they present possible changes to the Polish legal regulations in order to make them more precise and effect.
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The banking industry has undergone significant growth in recent decades. These changes are in progress and are expected to continue in the future. Regarding the current study, one of the major elements of the analysis is the conditions and the development of the banking environment in Greece and the Balkan countries.Having examined the external factors of the banking environment in Greece and the other Balkan countries, the current study examines three hypotheses: H1: GDP growth rate has a positive effect to banks’ profitability. H2: A higher capital adequacy ratio has a negative effect to banks’ Return on Assets and Return on Equity. H3. Total liquidity has a negative effect to banks’ Return on Assets and Return on Equity.In the study, there is a regression analysis, for the four banks in Bulgaria and Romania –subsidiaries of Greek banks- in order to identify the relation between the performance of the banks. As indicators of performance are, in one case the Return on Assets (ROA) and in the other case the Return on Equity (ROE).One key conclusion of the research is that Bulgarian and Romanian banks have higher efficiency than the Greek banks, which are the parent companies. Another key point that resulted in the financial problems of Greek banks was the fact that they were increasing their loans provided to the Greek governments.
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The raising importance of rivalry between the employees in the relations of production nowadays, makes the adaptation between worker and work more substantial. The job satisfaction which expresses the employee’s contentment about his/her job becomes a target for the employee and also for the firm based on the provided material/ moral satiety. In the services sector which consists of human resources as its most leading and determinant input, building a relationship between the specialties of work and intelligence, skills and abilities of workers depending on job satisfaction is decisive for individual and organizational success also. In the banking sector which is a crucial member of services sector because of the dimensions of the usage of high technology, the need of quality services production and the competition, satisfaction of employees becomes significant. This study aims to investigate the effects of individual factors (age, gender, marital status, education level, operating status of branch/operating status of head office, title, service time, the existence or nonexistence of other bankers in the family, expectations for the future) on job satisfaction. In the consequence of a field work about a public bank, it’s found out that the level of bank personnel’s job satisfaction is changed by the effect of individual factors.
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The purpose of the study is to explore relationship level between accounting information and market value of firms. Ohlson approach modeling firm value as a function of reported accounting information has been used in the study. In this approach, variables explaining firm’s market value per share are book value per share and earnings per share. 2005-2011 period has been determined as the study period. Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE)-Financial Sector firms’ financial statements at the end of December have been used as explanatory variables while the price data at the end of April have been used as response variable. Findings of the study, whose analyses have been diversified on the basis of industry and year, confirm the importance of accounting information. Value relevance of accounting information has been supported empirically in the basis of ISE-Financial Index firms.
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It is important to detect the effect of herding behavior in markets in order to assess the validity of rational asset pricing models and diversification opportunities. In this study, the existence of herding behavior effect has been researched at Istanbul Stocks Exchange (ISE) by utilizing two different models developed by Christie and Huang (1995) and Chang, Cheng, and Khorana (2000). Research data consists of daily logarithmic stock returns for the time period of January 1997 – July 2012. Study has been diversified by dividing the time period into two sub-periods, 1997-2004 and 2005- 2012. Findings are in the direction that herding behavior effect has been felt intensively at the first sub-period in rising market conditions. The effect has fallen at the second sub-period. Hence, it can be said that diversification opportunities has risen as of the second sub-period.
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The enterprise reforms of the 1990s profoundly changed the structure of the economy in China. Using a firm-level dataset collected annually during the period of 1998–2007, this paper examines the variation of productivity volatility across firms of different characteristics as well as its evolution over time, and investigates the sources of productivity volatility at the fi rm level. The results suggest that in general, productivity volatility at the firm level declined over time in China. Large firms, old firms, foreign firms, and firms located in the coastal provinces are less volatile.Firm size and location are the two major factors that drive changes in productivity volatility – one in a positive way and one in a negative way. While the gaps of volatility between smaller firms and larger firms declined, the gaps between firms located in the coastal provinces and inland provinces increased.
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Recent studies on the relationship between financial development and poverty have been inconclusive. Some claim that, by allowing more entrepreneurs to obtain financing, financial development improves the allocation of capital, which has a particularly large impact on the poor. Others argue that it is primarily the rich and politically connected who benefit from improvements in the financial system. This paper looks at a sample of 37 countries in sub-Saharan Africa from 1992 through 2006. Its results suggest that financial deepening could widen income inequality and increase poverty, if not accompanied by stronger property rights. Similarly, interest rate and lending liberalization alone could be detrimental to the poor without institutional reforms, in particular stronger property rights and wider access to credit information.
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The main purpose of the study is to verify the hypothesis on the occurrence of a long-term relationship between the average prices of 1m2 UFA (i.e. Usable Floor Area) and the construction costs of residential real estate per 1m2 for selected 5 cities of Eastern Poland (Białystok, Kielce, Lublin, Olsztyn & Rzeszów). The panel model for cointegrated variables and panel cointegration tests are the tools of the analysis. On the basis of the econometric model constructed, the long-term elasticity coefficient, which shows how average prices of flats change (i.e. the price of 1m2 UFA) in selected cities of Eastern Poland as a result of changes in their production costs, was estimated.
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The purpose of this article is to examine the effectiveness of investment funds in the case of bull and bear market on the example of commodity funds. We highlighted 5 periods of decline and 4 periods of bull market in 2008–2016. The study included 10 commodity funds in Poland. The results show that the commodity fund managers were not able to avoid negative rates of return during periods of downturn and did not provide positive rates of return in bull markets.
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The main objective of this study is to examine whether foreign direct investments (FDI) have enhanced the performance of the volume of trade in 23 transition economies of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe during the period 2000 to 2015. For this purpose, we employ different econometrics techniques such as the models of fixed effects, random effect, the Hausman-Taylor IV, and the generalized method of moment (GMM). The findings show that FDI has a positive effect on the volume of trade in the countries in transition. Other factors that show positive effects with the level of trade are investments (gross capital formation in percent of GDP) and trade liberalization index (TLI). The factors that have no significant effect regarding the volume of trade are GDP and the exchange rate (ER). The study suggests that the countries in transition should develop strategies that improve the level of infrastructure, human resources, governance, or business environment. Since the FDI has positive effect on the level of export, the result could be recommended to Government’s policymakers as a course of action to take institutional mprovements, and to provide more incentives for foreign companies and implementing new appropriate reform in order to attract more FDI, which in turn leads to higher growth of export.
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An efficient insolvency system, facilitating the return of the debtor to normal activity after successful restructuring and supporting the recovery of the receivables by the creditors, is an essential factor for the growth of the market economy and for the creation of jobs, by setting the rules distributing the risk of bankruptcy in a predictable manner. At the same time, the insolvency facilitates the settlement of the conflicts between multiple creditors, as well as the elimination of the inefficient companies from the economy, thus allowing for the new companies to penetrate the market. The insolvency system also has other divergent functions, such as: allowing for the “saving” or reorganization of a business encountering temporary financial difficulties, but is worth being saved, since the reorganization procedures often become important during the financial crisis periods, when the economy is already affected by this global phenomenon. Although the regulatory base in itself is extremely important (and, at the same time, complex, as it combines the material and procedural norms), its implementation by the courts, insolvency specialists, banks and society in general is however, in essence, much more important.
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Financial market participants are influenced by the news reaching them from all manner of sources, including the country’s central bank. In this paper we model daily returns of WIG20 index with respect to announcements made by the National Bank of Poland (NBP) regarding the changes of the official interest rate of open market operations (the so-called reference rate) during the period of 2004-2016. The goal is to examine whether the NBP’s announcements have an impact on either stock returns or volatility and whether the content of such communiqué (either interest rate cut or raise) matters. The FIGARCH model is found to be an appropriate specification for the data. Moreover, the results suggest that, in fact, interest rate changes do have a significant impact on both returns and volatility. However, the reactions to news are different with respect to the type of announcement.
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The main objective of the article is to present the results and analysis of the surveys that refer to the use of mobile banking services provided by the commercial banks for individual clients. The research results presented in this paper focus on mobile banking applications, which are offered for the mobile devices by most banks in Poland. These applications work with three operating systems available on the mobile devices, i.e. Android, iOS, and WindowsPhone. The structure of the article is as follows. The first part presents the research methodology and description of the research sample, the next part deals with the theory connected with mobile banking. The final section presents the results of questionnaire surveys related to the motives influencing the use of mobile banking among a specific group of customers. The summary of the article presents the benefits and risks associated with the use of mobile banking. Findings: The ever-evolving information technology, especially the ever-increasing computing power of mobile devices and increasing data throughput, allows data to be used regardless of time and location. Therefore, more and more frequent use of mobile technologies by the banks has been observed. Banks, using innovation in information technology, create mobile banking applications for portable electronic devices that are used in everyday life. The article brings cognitive value in the topic of the use of mobile banking applications and the perception of this usage determined by the economic and functional factors from the users’ point of view.
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Transfer of newly created money through unconventional monetary measures follows the official European Central Bank distribution key. Yet, it does not take into account the ability of individual countries to drive growth process in other economies. Money spent to boost domestic credit provisioning in growth pole-like economies is more likely to spill over to other adjoined economies and help them to recover, even in the presence of depressed domestic demand and/or overleveraged domestic banking sector. Purpose of the article: This paper reports growth pole scores for 19 euro area countries, and compares it to the official distribution key used to transmit newly created source of funding. Methods: We modify the procedure developed in World Bank (2011) for growth pole computation in order to account for strength of linkages connecting member states. Findings & Value added: Our results suggest that the official distribution key might not be completely optimal once looking at the growth pole scores. Countries small in economic size (Baltic states, Slovakia and Slovenia) would benefit from a more differentiated distribution, as they strongly outperform their benchmark set by the official distribution key. On the other hand, big euro area economies do not achieve the levels used in official distribution key, taking into account their growth pole potential for other euro area economies.
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Currently, the logistics sector is mostly shaped by e-commerce and the constantly changing delivery methods. The driving force here are: increase in consumption and online shopping. Since the online sale of goods is still growing dynamically by more than 15% annually. Forecasts for Europe say that by 2020, e-commerce will be responsible for 45% of total sales revenues. This is caused by a significant increase in retail e-commerce in small and big cities all over the world, not only in Europe. The effect of this phenomenon is the creation of new, innovative warehouse and distribution spaces designed to solve the most important problems occurring in this sector, both at the initial stage of the so-called „first mile” and at the „last mile” stage. Activities leading to the improvement of infrastructure are also still important here, allowing for the development of local transport and creating synergy between borders UE. In this context, it is clear that the importance of logistics is growing and it is becoming a strategic factor in the functioning of economies determining their competitiveness.
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