ABSTRACT This article aims to provide new and robust evidence of the effect of air pollution on migration at the level of 70 European cities in the period 2004–2019. We use factor and regression analysis and panel data conducted from Eurobarometer, Eurostat, national statistical offices, and the European Environment Agency. We set a unique approach to examine human migration as we look for a connection between the perceived quality of air of city inhabitants and net migration. The results show that both perceived quality of air and objectively measured pollution can be considered as migration factors. Moreover, we examined that, in general, Eastern European cities attract more migrants than Western European cities and that seaside cities lose more inhabitants due to migration than inland cities, but these differences are not connected to air pollution and thus can be contributed to other non-observed factors.

Abstract As the success rate of international development projects might be still below expectations, several studies have explored whether and how the use of project management (PM) tools might improve internal and external project performance. This article looks specifically at four selected Central and Eastern European countries and evaluates a newly collected data set. Based on a survey, the study examines the adoption of PM tools among project managers in the region. Furthermore, with the use of cluster analysis, it suggests that the tools are adopted progressively in four stages that differ culturally from other international studies. Last but not least, using structural equation modelling, the research indicates that among the surveyed project managers, the use of stage 1 tools might directly contribute to the improvement of internal project results and that these internal results might then have a positive impact also on the external project performance.

Abstract The paper studies the effects of foreign (the US, the UK and the Chinese) and domestic economic policy uncertainty (EPU) shocks on unemployment in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The analysis is run separately for the rates of adult and youth unemployment. Impulse responses derived from vector autoregressive models show that the magnitudes of the responses of the adult and youth segments of the labour market are quite different. Following an uncertainty shock, the youth unemployment rate increases significantly more than the adult unemployment rate. This is the case for France, Italy and Spain. The German labour market seems to be resistant to foreign (except Chinese) and domestic EPU shocks, while the remaining labour markets, foremost the Spanish and Italian ones, are susceptible to uncertainty shocks, especially to the US EPU shocks.

Abstract After a prolonged period of relatively stable price levels, the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century has brought inflation once again into the spotlight. This paper focuses on the inflation dynamics in a set of post-communist countries that eventually became members of the European Union. Due to EU accession augmented by the globalization process and involvement in global value chains (GVC), the international impacts are becoming progressively important for the domestic inflation dynamics and domestic variables are not sufficient to fully describe the domestic inflation dynamics. The employed methodology, Global Vector Autoregressive (GVAR) approach, allows modelling interactions and spillovers among countries, making the most of its advantages over the usual VAR models that model each economy separately and panel models, where countries are often treated as independent units. The results of the empirical analysis confirm that the globalisation process has led to increasing the importance of international impacts on the domestic inflation dynamics. On the other hand, the results also indicate that accounting for a larger set of countries decreases the severity of the commodity price shocks and makes them less persistent. Furthermore, monetary policy acts as a buffer against adverse shocks, especially in the countries that are still not members of the euro-zone. The findings of the paper show that the analysed countries are pronouncedly heterogeneous. Hence, each of the analysed economies has its own set of country-specific factors which, from country to country, play a more important or a less significant role in explaining national inflation dynamics. Thus, the paper should contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the inflation dynamics in the policy-making context.

Abstract Existing studies have provided evidence of job polarization in many developed countries. The issue of wage polarization is less obvious: many articles do not address it at all, and some even confuse it with job polarization. At the same time, the significance of the phenomenon of polarization results precisely from the consequence of wage polarization: the increase in wage inequality. The aim of this article is to find out whether wage polarization occurred in the Czech Republic during the period 2004–2018. Wage development in the private sphere does not imply wage polarization, but in the public sphere, results imply a very slight wage polarization mainly due to the development between 2004 and 2010. This phenomenon has occurred in both male and female occupations. Panel regression analysis shows that globalization reduces upper-tail inequality (the ratio Q90/Q50) while increasing lower-tail inequality (the ratio Q50/Q10). At the level of the whole economy, technology seems to contribute to reducing both upper-tail and lower-tail inequality. These results probably correspond to the nature of the Czech economy, which is based on middle-skilled workers with a pro-export focus.

Abstract The aim of the authors is to provide a critical statistical-analytical view of the current pension system of the Slovak Republic with special regard to old -age pension savings in its fifteen-year existence, resulting in proposals for adjustments to its operation. It includes an analysis of the sustainability of pension systems, an analysis of the age distribution of savers as well as possible investment strategies of savers and the distribution of their property savings in pension funds. We model the investment strategy of a participant in old-age pension savings. We draw attention to the evaluation of old -age pension savings in pension funds during its existence and quantify the potential loss caused by an inappropriate investment strategy of savers. The an alysis showed that the Slovak participant in old-age pension savings invests mainly in conservative pension assets, which bring low volatility in the short term, which may not be optimal in the long run. In order to achieve change, we also outline the possibilities of changing the attitudes of savers to value their savings and propose reform steps that would contribute to ensuring a balance between the financial and social sustainability of the pension system.

Abstract Distribution cartels in the automotive sector used to be frequently dismantled and sanctioned by the European Commission and the EU Courts still some 15 years ago. In recent years, however, only a few cases have been reported at the national level of EU Member States. Is it because the distribution of new cars really ceased to be a competition problem as the European Commission declared when it removed this part of the automotive business from the specific Block Exemption Regulation for the automotive sector in 2010? The purpose of the present analysis is first to inspect the car distribution cases that emerged in the EU after the year 2000 and, second, to speculate somewhat whether new forms of distribution, brought by the digitalization of marketing and sales, cannot bring about also new risks to cartel agreements and other types of distortions of competition in car sales.

Abstract The article analyses the prevalence of part-time employment in different EU countries with a focus on the factors affecting the rate of part-time employment across the EU. Based on the literature review, a distinction is made between three groups of factors that are relevant for the rate of part-time employment, in particular, cyclical factors, political and institutional factors, and structural factors. The article analyses how these factors influence part-time employment rates in EU countries. The linear regression analysis based on EU-28 macroeconomic data for the period of 2007-2018 has shown that all three groups of determinants (i.e. cyclical, political and institutional as well as structural factors) affect the rate of part-time employment in the EU-28. Part-time employment is a complex phenomenon which depends on a number of factors. However, the regression analysis has found that the following political and institutional as well as structural independent variables are also significant predictors of part-time employment rates in EU Member States (EU-28): average annual wages, the tax rate on low wage earners, expenditures on children and family benefits as a percentage of gross domestic product, trade union density, and the activity rate of people aged 15-24 and 55-64. Cyclical factors (the unemployment rate in Model (1) and real GDP per capita in Model (2)) have also been found to have a significant effect on part-time employment in EU-28 countries.

Abstract A disparity exists between mainstream perception and reality with regard to American economic history. There is widespread belief among the public, media, and even some scholars that the U.S. amassed its wealth and prosperity from the adoption of exclusively free-market principles from the onset of the union. This is far from reality. Since 1980, the U.S. government has adopted policies that largely support the free-market ideology and can be classified as neoliberal. However, As Chang (2002) and Cohen and DeLong (2016) have shown, during the early stages of economic development and critical junctures whilst a middle-income country, the U.S. record is one of active government intervention in targeted industries, the creation of important institutions to complement free-market competition, and the widespread use of trade protection in support of infant industries. This misconception has significant ramifications for present-day developing countries, which are routinely advised to adopt neoliberal policies with insufficient regard for the idiosyncratic stage of economic development. This paper documents the misconceptions by examining the theoretical basis and historical record of U.S. industrial and trade policy. We detail how this misconception became widespread and ultimately entered policymaking by analyzing two contributing factors: the rise of neoliberalism, and the standard economics curriculum.

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to study whether innovations in monetary and fiscal policy are a leading indicator of future business and consumer confidence and reverse applying the panel Granger causality analysis to two periods in the history of the euro area: before and after the start of the Great Recession. The results show that Granger causality interaction between the confidence of economic agents and the stance of monetary policy (measured by the shadow rate) is stronger than between the former and the fiscal policy instruments. The European Central Bank (ECB) shadow rate innovations Granger caused business and consumer confidence in both periods, but also indicators of confidence Granger caused the shadow rate. No such feedback could be established between two fiscal policy instruments (government expenditure and revenue growth) and the indicators of confidence. Government spending and revenues Granger caused business confidence in the first subperiod, but not in the second subperiod when the causality reversed. The government revenues Granger caused consumer confidence in the first subperiod, while government expenditures in the second subperiod. Consumer confidence Granger caused government spending in the first subperiod.