ABSTRACT
Human capital is an important factor for economic growth and the development of socio-economic systems. However, the appropriate expression of the value of human capital, the mechanism and its impact on economic development are still under discussion. It is hypothesised that there is a relationship between human capital and economic growth. To test this hypothesis, data on the group of Visegrad (V4) countries for the period 2000–2019 was analysed. The study examines the presence of a causal link between some attributes of human capital and economic growth and the conditions, under which its positive effects can be expected based on statistical methods. It also deals with the role and the applicability of some of its characteristics to express the impact of human capital on economic growth. The model revealed a positive, statistically significant relationship between gross domestic product per capita and the innovative capacity of human capital and the qualifications of employees. The impact of tools for human capital creation and development extends over a longer period and is reduced by the simultaneous action of other labour market factors. Currently, economies are affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Corresponding changes are also noticeable in the way work is done, with more weight on the home office. It will be interesting to examine how this transformation will affect economic growth. The changes in the position of employees and the care of companies for human capital are also a good topic for further research that can be conducted every few years. © Daňová M., Širá E. Text. 2023.
ABSTRACT
Solitude is a rising phenomenon in the western world. The share of people affected by solitude has been rising for some time and the Covid-19 pandemic has further brought this trend to the fore. Yet, we know next to nothing about the aggregate subnational economic impact of the rise in solitude. In this paper, we analyse the consequences of solitude on regional economic performance across Europe, distinguishing between two of its key dimensions: alone living, proxied by the regional share of single-person households and loneliness, proxied by the aggregate share of social interactions. We find that solitude has important implications for economic development, but that these go in different directions. While alone living is a substantial driver of economic growth across European regions, high shares of lonely people undermine it. The connection of loneliness with economic growth is, however, dependent on the frequency of in-person meetings, with large shares of the population meeting others socially on a weekly basis, alongside a small percentage of people who never meet others, yielding the best economic returns. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Environment & Planning A is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has changed the world since 2020, and the field of water specifically, boosting scientific productivity (in terms of published articles). This paper focuses on the influence of COVID-19 on scientific productivity with respect to four water variables: (i) wastewater, (ii) renewable water resources, (iii) freshwater withdrawal, and (iv) access to improved and safe drinking water. The field's literature was firstly reviewed, and then the maps were built, emphasizing the strong connections between COVID-19 and water-related variables. A total of 94 countries with publications that assess COVID-19 vs. water were considered and evaluated for how they clustered. The final step of the research shows that, on average, scientific productivity on the water topic was mostly conducted in countries with lower COVID-19 infection rates but higher development levels as represented by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and the human development index (HDI). According to the statistical analysis, the water-related variables are highly significant, with positive coefficients. This validates that countries with higher water-related values conducted more research on the relationship with COVID-19. Wastewater and freshwater withdrawal had the highest impact on the scientific productivity with respect to COVID-19. Access to safe drinking water becomes insignificant in the presence of the development parameters.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Drinking Water , Humans , Wastewater , COVID-19/epidemiology , Publications , Gross Domestic ProductABSTRACT
Background: Understanding and minimizing existing global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination disparities is critical to global population health and eliminating health inequities. The study aims to investigate the disparities of vaccination coverage and progression and the associated economic and educational determinants to inform global COVID-19 vaccination strategies. Methods: COVID-19 vaccination coverage data from 206 countries used in the study were derived from "Our World in Data" website. After obtaining the vaccination coverage indicators, we fitted the progression indicators for vaccination. Correlation and multiple linear regression analysis were used to examine the effects of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, Gini index, education, and their interactions on the coverage and progression of the COVID-19 vaccination. Results: The coverage of COVID-19 vaccination ranged from less than 30 doses to more than 150 doses per hundred people, from less than 15% to more than 75% for proportion of people vaccinated, from less than 15% to more than 60% for proportion of people fully vaccinated. Similarly, the progression of vaccination ranged from less than 0.1 to more than 0.6 for progression of total number of doses, from less than 0.1 to more than 0.3 for progression of proportion of people vaccinated, and from less than 0.1 to more than 0.4 for progression of proportion of people fully vaccinated. GDP per capita and education were positively associated with the coverage and progression, while Gini index was negatively associated with the coverage and progression. Negative interaction between GDP per capita and education was also observed for coverage (ß = -0.012 to -0.011, P < 0.05) and progression (ß = -0.012 to -0.011, P < 0.05). Conclusions: Substantial geographic disparities existed for the coverage and progression of COVID-19 vaccination. Economy and education are two important factors contributing to the disparities. Different countries may adopt varied strategies to promote the national distribution and vaccination of COVID-19 vaccines.
ABSTRACT
The article discloses the pathway for enforcing gender equality via legal measures to stimulate economic growth enhancing economic security of EU member-states and Ukraine. Our calculations using Spearman coefficient have shown that the rank correlation coefficient of GDP per capita and gender gap in EU member-states is statistically significant. Therefore, there is a direct and weak connection between gender gap levels and GDP per capita at current market prices of EU member-states. Female empowerment overcoming stereotypes, including gradual eradicating of the false concept of so-called “masculine” jobs, still needs further expansion as only a small percentage of women reach the highest echelons of power influencing domestic and international political, economic and social processes. The global Covid-pandemic creates numerous threats and opportunities caused by social and economic restructuring including the expansion of flexible and remote works, online learning, welfare challenges, etc. The article proves that governments should concentrate on achieving gender equality in health care, education, finance, economy, politics and other spheres to respond to modern challenges. The experience of developed countries, including EU member-states, shows that guaranteeing gender equality results in social and economic progress, therefore, ensuring economic security of the state. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
ABSTRACT
The outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic put the world in quarantine, tourism being the most severely affected of all major economic sectors. The paper aims to capture the impact of COVID-19 shock on the tourism industry and economic progress using a dynamic distribution lag model. The data from 2001 to 2019 along with the epidemic shock are used to produce forecasts for Germany, France, Spain, and Italy until 2030. The results reveal that Germany's "smokeless industry" will fall by 6.9%, which puts 1.09 million jobs at risk. The declining trends will continue until 2023;however, they will match the current trends in 2024. Similarly, the expected losses for France, Spain, and Italy during 2020 are 9.63%, 9.35%, and 9.34%, respectively. The lockdown situation will shrink the real output and dampen GDP per capita. The highest per capita losses of 7.31% are recorded for Spain, while individual outputs in Germany, France, and Italy will fall by 6.55%, 6.73% and 7.2%, respectively. Thus, public-private cooperation is required for responsible tourism after the travel bans are lifted. The Governments should develop and communicate post-pandemic policies for the tourism value chain, go for smart lockdowns in order to protect jobs, and uplift the real outputs. © 2022, Institute for Economic Forecasting. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Outliers, or outlying observations, are values in data, which appear unusual. It is quite essential to analyze various unexpected events or anomalies in economic domain like sudden crash of stock market, mismatch between country’s per capita incomes and overall development, abrupt change in unemployment rate and steep falling of bank interest to find the insights for the benefit of humankind. These situations can arise due to several reasons, out of which pandemic is a major one. The present COVID-19 pandemic also disrupted the global economy largely as various countries faced various types of difficulties. This motivates the present researchers to identify a few such difficult areas in economic domain, arises due to the pandemic situation and identify the countries, which are affected most under each bucket. Two well-known machine-learning techniques DBSCAN (density based clustering approach) and Z-score (statistical technique) are utilized in this analysis. The results can be used as suggestive measures to the administrative bodies, which show the effectiveness of the study. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
The research aims at studying and predicting the migration process in Romania over the last 20 years and at identifying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study analyzes several models for estimating migration through linear regression, but also a VAR (Vector autoregression) analysis, as the variables can influence each other. Vector autoregression (VAR) is also used to model multivariate time series, and it can analyze the dynamics of a migration process. Therefore, the best model for forecasting the migration process in Romania is Model 1 of linear regression. This phenomenon generates many positive and negative economic, demographic and political effects. The migration process has become particularly important for Romania in the last 20 years, and its socio-economic, political and cultural effects affect the Romanian state. That is why flexible policies are needed in order to be coherent, to have as main purpose keeping specialists in the country in certain basic economic fields, as well to implement measures to determine the return of specialists and students who have left to study abroad.
ABSTRACT
Ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic is not only health crisis but the economic challenge. The future of society depends on how successfully the authorities find a balance between imposition of stringent restrictions and economic development. Tax policies play a role in reducing losses caused by the Covid-19 lockdowns. All countries are taking tax measures to mitigate the impact of the effects of Covid-19 pandemic on society. While the Covid-19 pandemic has not yet been defeated, it is too early to draw conclusions about which tax measures against the effects of Covid-19 are efficient. On the other hand, correct trajectory of economic recovery can be missed if not to analyze the other countries experience. The object of this study is tax measures in the European countries against the effects of Covid-19. The subject of the study is the fuzzy set theory to assess the efficiency of tax measures in the European countries against the effects of Covid-19. The aim of the study is to find out which European countries have been more succeeded in tax measures implementing and type of their immediate crisis response. The analysis is carried out in 29 European countries. The result of the study allows to state that the number of tax measures against the effects of Covid-19 does not affect their efficiency and the most popular type of immediate crisis response has been the business cash-flow enhances. © 2022, Politechnika Lubelska. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic had huge impacts on the global world, with both a negative impact on society and economy but a positive one on nature. But this universal effect resulted in different infection rates from country to country. We analyzed the relationship between the pandemic and ecological, economic, and social conditions. All of these data were collected in 140 countries at six time points. Correlations were studied using univariate and multivariate regression models. The world was interpreted as a single global ecosystem consisting of ecosystem units representing countries. We first studied 140 countries around the world together, and infection rates were related to per capita GDP, Ecological Footprint, median age, urban population, and Biological Capacity, globally. We then ranked the 140 countries according to infection rates. We created four groups with 35 countries each. In the first group of countries, the infection rate was very high and correlated with the Ecological Footprint (consumption) and GDP per capita (production). This group is dominated by developed countries, and their ecological conditions have proved to be particularly significant. In country groups 2, 3, and 4, infection rates were high, medium, and low, respectively, and were mainly related to median age and urban population. In the scientific discussion, we have interpreted why infection rates are very high in developed countries. Sustainable ecosystems are balanced, unlike the ecosystems of developed countries. The resilience and the health of both natural ecosystems and humans are closely linked to the world of microbial communities, the microbiomes of the biosphere. It is clear that both the economy and society need to be in harmony with nature, creating sustainable ecosystems in developed countries as well.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Ecosystem , Humans , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2 , Social ConditionsABSTRACT
The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that caused the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), generating high numbers of COVID-19 related infected individuals and deaths, is still circulating in 2021 with new variants of the coronavirus, such that the state of emergency remains in manifold countries. Currently, there is still a lack of a full understanding of the factors determining the COVID-19 diffusion that clarify the causes of the variability of infections across different provinces and regions within countries. The main goal of this study is to explain new and main determinants underlying the diffusion of COVID-19 in society. This study focuses on international trade because this factor, in a globalized world, can synthetize different drivers of virus spread, such as mobility patterns, economic potentialities, and social interactions of an investigated areas. A case study research is performed on 107 provinces of Italy, one of the first countries to experience a rapid increase in confirmed cases and deaths. Statistical analyses from March 2020 to February 2021 suggest that total import and export of provinces has a high association with confirmed cases over time (average r > 0.78, p-value <.001). Overall, then, this study suggests total import and export as complex indicator of COVID-19 transmission dynamics that outclasses other common parameters used to justify the COVID-19 spread, given by economic, demographic, environmental, and climate factors. In addition, this study proposes, for the first time, a time-dependent correlation analysis between trade data and COVID-19 infection cases to explain the relation between confirmed cases and social interactions that are a main source of the diffusion of SARS-CoV-2 and subsequent negative impact in society. These novel findings have main theoretical and practical implications directed to include a new parameter in modelling of the diffusion of COVID-19 pandemic to support effective policy responses of crisis management directed to constrain the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and similar infectious diseases in society.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Pandemics , Commerce , Demography , Humans , Internationality , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has affected all countries globally. We explore associations between the change in new COVID-19 registered cases per million population and various macroeconomic and well-being indicators in 38 European countries over a 2-month period (1st April-31st May 2020). A statistically significant (p = 0.002) negative association was estimated between the change in new COVID-19 cases and GDP per capita, after controlling for key health determinants including public expenditure on health, life expectancy, smoking tobacco and sanitation. The country with the highest GDP per capita in Europe (i.e., Luxemburg) was found to experience the lowest change in new COVID-19 cases within the time period whilst the opposite was found for countries with lower GDP per capita (i.e., Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Romania). The outcomes of this study indicate that, in the first wave of the pandemic in Europe, a country's GDP per capita might be associated with a lower rate of new COVID-19 cases. The study concludes by suggesting that in European regions a country's economic performance should be a critical health priority for policy makers.