ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic in the first months of 2020 posed an unprecedented threat to the health of the world's population. In this longitudinal design study, we elaborated the typology of 27 European countries based on the complete beginnings of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic based on health indicators and contextual variables. Two-step analysis using factor scores to run a cluster analysis identifying 5 consistent groups of countries. We then analyze the relationship between the GHS predictive index, the restrictions and health care expenditures within countries categorized into 5 clusters. An analysis of the early stages of a pandemic confirmed that in countries where anti-pandemic measures were rapidly and consistently in place, the spread of the virus was suppressed more rapidly and the first wave of pandemics in these countries was incomparably more benign than in countries with later responses and milder restrictive measures.
ABSTRACT
Public support of training in firms corresponds to the long-term importance of the quality of human capital in the competitiveness of firms and nations. Thus, the EU supports such training via the European Social Fund (ESF). The evaluation community evaluates the support by using either qualitative or quantitative methods. The simultaneous application of these two approaches is rare. The purpose of this paper is to combine quantitative (counterfactual impact evaluation) and qualitative (qualitative comparative analysis) methods in order to fill the methodological gap. Based on the combination of both approaches, it explores their strengths, complementarity and disadvantages to evaluate public support for employee training in the Czech Republic. The combination of methods makes it possible to identify not only the impacts but also their causes. Linking the ESF support to corporate competitiveness is crucial for demonstrating the effectiveness of public spending.
