ABSTRACT
The permanent changes in society affect, among other, the environment. This is why environmental efficiency plays a very important role, being quantified in different forms. In our paper we have developed a composite index of ecological efficiency taking into account two dimensions, environmental pollution and resource consumption, each one being characterized by specific indicators. Thus, using this index, the aim was to evaluate and rank the level of greening of each country in Europe. Crises over time, including the health crisis caused by coronavirus, have focused to resilience, so we have highlighted whether it is significantly influenced by the ecological efficiency index. In addition, we analyzed whether ecological efficiency is related to investments in a country, financial, material and technological potential.
ABSTRACT
Women are facing deep and lasting inequalities on the labor market. The effect of the pandemic on women's employment is evident after two years of pandemic, it has significantly affected the level of employment and increased the risk of women at work, inequalities have deepened and the recovery period will be longer than for men. In this paper we present an econometric analysis of occupational gender disparities at European level, considering as predictors the educational level and the countries' development level. We inspected the influence of pandemic on employment gender gap focusing on the gender occupational gap, gender disparities in education and whether the gender disparities in employment significantly differs depending on the countries' development level. Main findings refer to the statistically proved influence of the pandemic factors on employment gender gap, more significant for employees with tertiary education and in the countries with a higher level of development. The data used in the analysis is provided by EU official statistics.
ABSTRACT
This study aims to reconsider the role of foreign direct investment determinants for European national development and to analyze the impacts of the pandemic situation caused by COVID-19. Foreign direct investment is a source of development;therefore, this study includes empirical applications, specifically the random effect model, for EU countries, during the pandemic period. This study provides some valuable conclusions regarding the changes caused by the main determinants of foreign direct investment, such as unemployment, interest rates, economic growth, inflation, and business confidence. Additionally, the proxies of COVID-19 are the number of cases and number of deaths, both appearing to positively contribute to FDI outflow, the former with a higher impact than the latter. Based on the availability of the data, this paper deals with 22 European Union countries for Q1, Q2, and Q3 of 2020. Data for all the chosen variables were not available for the fourth quarter (Q4);thus, this period was not considered, which constitutes a limitation of this study, but confirms the need for robust FDI inflows to support the sustainable post-pandemic development recovery of less-developed EU countries. As the need for external funding sources, i.e., FDI inflow, grows in times of crisis, governments should take suitable measures to uplift the confidence of socially responsible foreign investors during difficult times generated by black swan events. There is almost no detailed research regarding the impact of COVID-19 on FDI flows received by European Union countries. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
ABSTRACT
The migration of the population is a phenomenon related to the change of a person’s place of living. The numerous existing forms of mobility have imposed a classification according to certain criteria, among which: the duration of the trip, its purpose, the distance traveled, or the degree of freedom of the person making the trip. Migrations involve a lasting or permanent change of residence and most of the time of the activity involves important changes in the lives of the engaged persons. These trips often require a change in the way of life of the people involved, are long-lasting or permanent, and almost always express an imbalance between the living conditions offered at the place of departure and those that exist or are expected to exist at the place of arrival. In order to highlight the current and future trends of migration, this paper will analyze its economic and social effects and the impact of COVID-19 on the migration phenomenon. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.