The Okun Misery Index in the European Union Countries from 2000 to 2009

The study is composed of four main parts and a summary. The first part, introduction, discusses various measures of the economic system's efficiency that are used in practice. Part two emphasises that the GDP per capita according to purchasing power parity still remains the most popular among those measures. Further, it presents the ranking of the European Union countries taking that measure into account, the research period being 1999-2009. Part three points out that it is also the level of poverty (misery) that determines the economic system's efficiency. That level can be measured by means of various indicators, among others, the so called HPI-2 index calculated by the UN. It will be the Okun misery index, however, computed as the sum of inflation and unemployment rates that will be presented as an alternative being of interest from the macroeconomic point of view. The ranking of the European Union member states according to that measure in the 2000-2004 and 2005-2009 periods will be provided in part four. The article will end in a summary containing synthetic conclusions drawn from earlier observations.Opracowanie składa się z czterech części zasadniczych i podsumowania. W punkcie pierwszym omówiono różnorodne mierniki sprawności systemu gospodarczego wykorzystywane w praktyce. W części drugiej podkreślono, iż nadal najpopularniejszym z nich jest PKB per capita według parytetu siły nabywczej. Zgodnie z tym miernikiem przedstawiono ranking państw Unii Europejskiej w latach 1999-2009. W punkcie trzecim podkreślono, że o sprawności systemu gospodarczego decyduje także poziom ubóstwa. Może być on mierzony różnymi wskaźnikami, m.in. tzw. indeksem HPI-2 obliczanym przez ONZ. Jako ciekawą z makroekonomicznego punktu widzenia alternatywę ukazano jednak miarę wskaźnika ubóstwa Okuna obliczanego poprzez zsumowanie stopy inflacji i stopy bezrobocia. Ranking państw Unii Europejskiej według tej miary w okresach 2000-2004 oraz 2005-2009 zaprezentowano w części czwartej. Całość zamknięto podsumowaniem, w którym zawarto syntetyczne wnioski z przeprowadzonych obserwacji

The assesment of the effectiveness of selected innovation support instruments used in Poland in 2007-2013

The international competitiveness of the national economy largely depends on the innovative abilities of companies and domestic industry. In this context, adequate shaping of national innovation policy is of crucial importance. It is essential to direct innovation policy in such a way that it should lead to the development of opportunities associated with current and future competitive advantages of the economy. The article contains an assessment of the impact of selected public support instruments used in Poland in the period 2007-2013 for the intensification of the innovation processes in the domestic economy. The purpose of the research is to analyse and assess the effectiveness of selected public support instruments implemented in Poland in the 2007 – 2013 period. This leads to the following research hypothesis: public support instruments implemented in Poland in the years 2007 – 2013 had an impact on the level of innovativeness of Polish economy when compared to 2004 – 2006 period. The research method included the evaluation of: 1) the compliance of the aims of the investigated instruments with the general and detailed objectives of “Dynamic Poland 2020” strategy and 2) the influence of the investigated instruments on the changes of the indicators that measure innovation performance (innovation enablers and innovation results)