PurposeThe study's objective is to measure the response of the food prices to the aggregate and disaggregate geopolitical risk events, Russia's geopolitical risks and global energy prices in the ...context of two European regions, i.e. Eastern and Western Europe covering the monthly data from January 2001 to March 2022.Design/methodology/approachThe authors apply a novel and sophisticated econometric method, the cross-quantilogram (CQ) approach, to analyse the authors’ monthly data properties. This method detects the causal relationship between the variables under the bi-variate modelling approach. More importantly, the CQ procedure divulges the bearish and bullish states of the causal association between the variables under short, medium and long memories.FindingsThe authors find that aggregate measures of geopolitical risk reduce food prices in the short term in the Eastern Europe but increases food prices in the Western Europe. Besides, the decomposed measures of geopolitical risk “threats” and “acts” have heterogeneous effects on the food prices. More importantly, Russia's geopolitical risk events and global energy prices enhance the food inflation under long memory.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors provide diverse policy implications for Eastern and Western Europe based on the authors’ findings. First, the European policymakers should take concrete and joint policy measures to tackle the detrimental effects of geopolitical risks to bring stability to the food markets. Second, this region should emphasize utilizing their unused agricultural lands to grow more crops to avoid external dependence on food. Third, the European Union and its partners should begin global initiatives to help smallholder farmers because of their contribution to the resilience of disadvantaged, predominantly rural communities. Fourth, geopolitically affected European countries like Ukraine should deal with a crippled supply chain to safeguard their production infrastructure. Fifth, fuel (oil) scarcity in the European region due to the Russia-Ukraine war should be mitigated by searching for alternative sources (countries) for smooth food transportation for trade. Finally, as Europe and its Allies impose new sanctions in response to the Russia-Ukraine war, it can have immediate and long-run disastrous consequences on the European and the global total food systems. In this case, all European blocks mandate cultivating stratagems to safeguard food security and evade a long-run cataclysm with multitudinous geopolitical magnitudes for European countries and the rest of the world.Originality/valueThis is the maiden study that considers the aggregated and disaggregated measures of the geopolitical risk events, Russia's geopolitical risks and global energy prices and delves into these dynamics' effects on food prices. Notably, linking the context of the Russia-Ukraine war is a significant value addition to the existing piece of food literature.
Even if creating jobs and fostering economic growth are two of the tourist industry's most important roles, preserving its sustainability is a big issue on a global scale. Our research aims to ...provide a bibliometric analysis of the relevant literature used in the VOSviewer software's examination of the sustainability of the industry. The goal is to evaluate the current status of research on environmental aspects of sustainable tourism development and to pinpoint the key areas, journals, articles, and authors from 1996 to 2021. A total of 337 relevant papers on subjects like the utilization of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, energy indicators, and sustainability in the tourism industry were analysed in the Scopus database, based on their authors, publication year, geographic location, and number of citations. This study provides helpful information to promote theoretical and practical research in this area by adopting a systematic and visual review of all studies pertinent to the development of sustainable tourism.
The article analyses to what extent individual's socio-demographic and economic characteristics relate to citizens' perceived difficulty of living on present income. The analysis is carried out by ...using ordered logit and partial proportional odds (P.P.O.) model on European Social Survey (E.S.S.) data. Results confirm that individual's income can be used as an indicator of financial capacity both in general and for retirees as a focus group. Respondents in financial difficulty had to draw in a higher extent on their savings or incur debt to cover living expenses. Respondents with less than a secondary education, in poor health and those dissatisfied with the current state of the economy, were more likely to perceive their income as inadequate. Findings confirm that older respondents are generally more satisfied with their income compared to middle-aged and younger adults. Respondents living with a child/children were more likely to report financial difficulty. On the other hand, result suggest that gender, region and living area had no significant effect on income adequacy perception. We see similar results when focusing on retired respondents. Individual determinants are significant predictors of citizens' perceived financial difficulty and should be taken into account when devising economic policy measures and legal framework for personal insolvency procedures.
Abstract
We analyze the sustainability factors that are pertinent to the tourism industry by exploring the effects of economic, environmental and social determinants on sustainable value added (SVA) ...in a two-stage analysis on a sample of 27 EU countries for the 2013–2019 period. In the first stage, we determine the relative efficiency based on DEA. In the second stage, we use the obtained variables in a dynamic panel data analysis setup. Contrary to the omnipresent push for complete green and sustainable transformation we find that increased GHG emissions will lead to an initial increase in SVA as the tourism sector needs time and effort to transition from a resource-oriented to an environmental-oriented production process. Contrary to previous findings, we show that environmental policies are not effective and that environmental taxation-related policies and procedures need to be revised. Economic growth implies increased pollution as well as increased SVA, as it requires more inputs and thus consumes more natural resources. Because of this it is of utmost importance to pay more attention to the quality of economic development in order to mitigate negative environmental externalities in the tourism sector.
Tourism is one of the most important industries in the Mediterranean countries, which strongly contributes to the economic activity, capital investment and job creation. Therefore, the purpose of ...this paper is to examine the determinants influencing profitability of hotel companies in selected Mediterranean countries. Thereby, dynamic panel data models are estimated on an extensive dataset for the period from 2007 to 2015. The paper provides evidence on differences among internal profitability determinants of hotel companies operating in tourism competitive countries. The results indicate that the cash flow to operating revenue has a statistically significant and positive impact on profitability in all observed countries. The total asset turnover ratio is significant for all countries except Portugal, while labour productivity is significant only for Spain, which is also the country with the highest turnover per employee. The solvency ratio is positively related to profitability, except for Greece as the most indebted country. Size proved to be significant for hotels in Spain and Portugal, while age is the variable by which the countries mostly differ, as findings show a different impact of underlying variable on hotel profitability. Findings provide information to shareholders that would ensure profitability of hotel companies operating in different countries.
We explore the relationship between economic growth and energy consumption using regional level data for 2004–2014 period. Data on electricity consumption for regional distributional areas cannot be ...used with the economic data for county/regional level since the borders of regional electricity distributional areas do not correspond to administrative NUTS-3 borders. We use a proprietary dataset of actual electricity consumption for Croatian counties which allows us to revisit the energy-growth nexus dilemma from a disaggregated viewpoint. We find significant policy implications stemming from comovement between counties and long term positive influence of energy, capital and labour on industrial output.
•Electricity distribution areas do not fully correspond with NUTS-3 borders.•Energy consumption and economic activity affect each other simultaneously.•Electricity consumption, capital and labour positively influence industrial output.•Economic growth should be decoupled from energy consumption to avoid negative impact.
Using an extensive dataset of over 44,000 firms for a period that includes an economic upswing and a recession, this article examines how time-varying, firm-specific variables and changes in the ...macroeconomic environment affect the probability of firms' financial distress. Traditional single-period approaches used to predict financial distress are based on unrealistically restrictive assumptions and cannot dynamically account for changes in financial indicators and macroeconomic conditions. Therefore discrete-time hazard models (using logit and cloglog) are applied; these indicate that the probability of distress is strongly influenced by both firm-specific and macroeconomic variables. Although firm-specific variables play an essential role, the results show that macroeconomic variables are important for understanding the fluctuations in the probability of distress over time. Furthermore, the findings provide evidence that both the legal criteria and a firm's financial health should be considered when identifying firms in emerging economies that are in distress because existing bankruptcy laws are not applied.
The latest regulatory framework, which has been introduced globally in the form of Basel III, and its implementation in the legislation of the member states of the European Union has generated much ...interest in the impact of regulation on the efficiency and profitability of banks. This study aims to examine the impact of the introduction of two major regulatory changes (Basel II and Basel III) on bank performance, in terms of bank size and bank-specific and macroeconomic variables. A two-stage empirical analysis was conducted on a sample of 433 European commercial banks over the 2006–2015 period. In the first stage, relative efficiency was calculated using non-parametric data envelopment analysis. In the second stage, the generalized method of moments was used to examine the impact of bank-specific and macroeconomic variables as well as regulation on bank performance, that is, profitability and efficiency. Considering bank size, the results show a diverse impact of regulation on bank performance. Regarding large- and medium-sized banks, regulation positively affects both efficiency and profitability, whereas, for small banks, it negatively affects performance. The results suggest that larger banks have skillfully adapted to the new regulatory environment. In contrast, small banks have problems with profitability and efficiency because the new regulatory framework has imposed additional administrative and regulatory burdens. This could result in future failure or mergers with larger banks, resulting in a higher concentration in the banking sector and increased systemic risk. Our results strongly suggest that regulation should not be implemented equally for all banks; that is, on a one size fits all terms. A distinction between small and large banks when introducing new regulatory frameworks should be made if a reasonable level of competition is to be preserved.
Tematika stečaja nad imovinom fizičke osobe koja je dužnik pojedinac, potrošač, tek je dio znatno šire teme koja potresa globalnu ekonomiju opterećenu problemima. Potreba za institutom potrošačkog ...stečaja postoji, na šta ukazuje ekonomska stvarnost kroz sve veći broj prezaduženih subjekata koji po dospjelosti nisu u mogućnosti otplatiti dug, pa im je nerijetko ugrožena egzistencija, koja pored brojnih psiholoških i socijalnih reperkusija ima za posljedicu i dodatno opterećenje državnog proračuna, kroz obvezne socijalne prestacije. Svrha je rada teorijski i empirijski sagledati problem prezaduženosti potrošača postavljajući postulate koji će biti primjenjivi pri implementaciji rješenja iz Nacrta (2014.) u pravni poredak Hrvatske. Naime, u vremenima recesije, broj blokiranih građana i njihove neizvršene obveze znatno su više u odnosu na razdoblja ekonomskog prosperiteta. Jedan od ciljeva rada je ispitati utječe li opće gospodarsko stanje na kretanje ukupnog broja blokiranih građana i njihovih neizvršenih obveza. Primjenom metode višestruke regresije nad podacima o kretanju ukupnog broja blokiranih hrvatskih građana i njihovih neizvršenih obveza, prepoznat je značajan utjecaj rasta nezaposlenosti, promjene deviznog tečaja i pada odobrenih kredita na rast broja građana u blokadi i njihovih neizvršenih obveza. Rezultati ukazuju i da povećanje broja građana u blokadi i njihovih neizvršenih obveza utječe na smanjenje odobravanja kredita, odnosno banke smanjuju ponudu kredita zbog povećanja rizičnosti naplate uslijed pogoršanih uvjeta u makroekonomskom okruženju. Tako se zaduženiji građani mogu naći u situaciji gdje ne mogu platiti dospjele obveze, ali ih ne mogu niti refinancirati, što dodatno utječe na povećanje broja insolventnih osoba.
Česti su slučajevi u Republici Hrvatskoj (RH) kada su poslovni subjekti platežno nesposobni i po nekoliko godina, a da istovremeno nije pokrenut stečajni postupak. Stečajni postupak je po svojoj ...prirodi i zakonskim propisima, žuran postupak u cilju očuvanja vrijednosti sredstava i zaštite interesa vjerovnika koji se naplaćuju iz njih. Istraživanje Ministarstva financija pokazuje da stečajni postupci traju u prosjeku 3-5 godina. Štoviše, provođenje pojedinih stečajnih postupaka trajalo je i 10 godina. Dugotrajnost stečajnih postupaka značajno povećava troškove postupka pa oni u RH čine i do 90% vrijednosti stečajne mase. Visoki troškovi stečajnog postupka negativno utječu na stupanj namirenja vjerovnika. Strateškim dokumentima Vlade RH isticana je potreba za revizijom postojećeg stanja, što je u konačnici rezultiralo donošenjem Zakon o financijskom poslovanju i predstečajnoj nagodbi (ZFPPN). Imajući u vidu navedeno, u radu se analiziraju problemi prisutni u provedbi stečajnog zakonodavstva, kao i oni koji potječu iz nedorečenosti i nedosljednosti ZFPPN-a. Temeljem iznesenih kritičkih promišljanja u radu se iznose prijedlozi koji služe poboljšanju funkcioniranja predstečajnih nagodbi i stečajnog zakonodavstva te se mogu koristiti u otklanjanju glavnih uzroka problema s kojima se u praksi susreću sudionici u postupku.
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