Economic aspects of public procurement parameters in tertiary education sector

Public procurement is a very important area of competitiveness development of the countries. Significant public sector financial resources are allocated through public procurement. Over the last decade, there has been a growing demand for an investigation of the efficiency of public procurement processes. In the research studies, analyses focusing on methodological aspects, efficiency assessment models, economic and transaction costs and other economic parameters in relation to public procurement have begun to appear gradually. Their importance has increased in the recent period, especially in the era associated with a lack of financial resources in the economic and social spheres. A correct determination of the mechanisms ensuring the implementation of transparent competition is able to allow improvement of competitive environment. Such aspects prompt this study, which is aimed at examination of the selected parameters of public procurement in the tertiary education sector and their impact on the final cost of the public procurement contract. There are no such sectoral analyses within the national environments, making it difficult to create an international comparative basis. The aim of the paper is to investigate the impact of the selected public procurement parameters on the final price. These parameters are subcontractor participation, European funds funding, usage of electronic auction, type of procured item, and procurement procedure. Besides these ones, public procurement processes also influence the final price. Approximately, a share of 95 % from the expected price is reflected in the final price, whilst a mean regression coefficient of the number of offers reaches a level of-17499.07 in the year 2017. The outcome of the analysis can help the procurers to identify the behavior of public procurement and to confirm or disprove the significance of the parameters that are examined using the quantitative methods. The results of this analysis are beneficial for national policymakers as well as national and international benchmarking. © 2019, Bucharest University of Economic Studies Publishing House. All rights reserved

Quantification of similarity relationships according to parameters of day surgery system

Performing day surgery should minimise a number of hospitalisation cases, but its use is determined by many factors. It takes advantage of the latest advances in surgical care, enabling better use of highly costly specialised operating room equipment. This analysis of the day surgery system of the Slovak Republic stands on an examination of the five specialised fields-surgery, gynaecology, ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, and urology. The explored period covers the years 2009 to 2017. The whole analysis is divided into the two sections-the youth category and for the adult category. For each case, a hospitalisation ratio is computed. A map visualisation supports the analysis outcome. A quantification of the similarity relationships between the regions is done according to a Euclidean distance approach and it is illustrated through the heat map. The centremost region is the Žilina Region with distance at a level of 1.9821, meaning that it performs as the most similar region to a development of a hospitalisation ratio in the whole Slovak Republic regarding all the examined aspects. The findings introduce an important platform for a creation of regional and national health plans in the area of healthcare provision for the population of the country.Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Sport of the Slovak Republic (Ministerstvo skolstva, vedy, vyskumu a sportu Slovenskej republiky); Slovak Academy Sciences (Slovenska akademia vied) [VEGA 1/0846/18

Dimensions and Evaluation of Social Capital and Its Regional Distribution in the Slovak Republic

The paper deals with the dimensions of social capital in the Slovak Republic. The aim is to assess how social capital is distributed socially among the citizens of the Slovak Republic and geographically among the regions of the country. Social capital is evaluated on a basis of the three dimensions, where networks, trust and civism belong. The paper analyses the data from the European Values Study survey, especially the 2008 wave. The results of this study show that social capital has kept a decreasing tendency in the Slovak Republic throughout the period from the year 1991 to the year 2008. The reasons behind this may lie in the historical development of the country - the transformation of the economy and the dissolution of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. With respect to a social distribution, social capital is generally higher among more educated, right-wing Slovaks with higher earnings. In the terms of a geographical distribution, the Trnava Region and the Trenčín Region appear to have less developed social capital compared to the other regions in Slovak Republic

Comparison of Selected Market Indicators During the Dot-Com Bubble

Since the outbreak of the recent financial crisis in 2007, central banks around the world have lowered interest rates while stock markets soared. On the example of North America, Europe, and Asia and in particular the United States, Germany, and China, the situation as of December 2015 is compared on the basis of economic theory and selected key performance indicators to the United States dot-com bubble in the nineties years of the twentieth century. Literature review offers a complex general view on the issue of market bubbles with a historical review of the situation in 2007 and 2008. The only indication of a bubble can be found in the China Securities Index 300, more specifically in the technology sector. The further aim of the paper is related to analyse and compare returns of the explored indices among the regions and the sectors. On a broader level, the study finds that even though there are similarities, the current rise in indices does not qualify for an asset price bubble. Conclusion sums all the observed findings on both the levels – regional and national. Also, it offers suggestions for discussion about the situation on the markets after the financial crisis

Political-economic cycle models of economy of Greece

The political-economic cycle can be caused as the consequence of the wrong political decisions, made with the aim of re-election and maintaining the political power. These decisions influence the macroeconomic indicators of the country and their presence is problematic in the advanced economies. The main objective of this study is to verify the existence of the political-economic cycle model in the case of Greece and to identify the type of this cycle. The basement is given by the approach of Alesina and Roubini (1992), which observes the relationship between the political dummy variables and the selected macroeconomic variables such as gross domestic product, unemployment rate and inflation rate. The eight linear regression models are developed in the R software environment, while the three of them are opportunistic and the five are ideological. These models are identified as statistically significant and according to the methodology, tested for the presence of serial correlation, heteroscedasticity and residual normality. As the models do not confirm the presence of an opportunistic or ideological political-economic cycle, according to the data, the influence of the political parties on changes in the macroeconomic variables before the election is not proved for the case of Greece

Investigation of selected key indicators of circular economy for implementation processes in sectorial dimensions

The main goal of this study is to investigate and to evaluate the selected indicators of the circular economy to advance the development of effective tools and policies regarding the circular economy system. This investigation is supported by the three research questions covering the topics of dependence of the circular economy on the use of reusable material, help with the reuse of circular material for economic sectors to establish a platform for effective policy development and implementation, and finally, the necessity of quantifying circular economy indicators to obtain an accurate picture of the circular economy sector relationships. The eight research hypotheses are considered, five of which are rejected. The gross investment of the circular economy sector in tangible goods in the both explored variants – expressed in the currency units also as the share of gross domestic product, circular economy sector value added at factor cost, the glass packaging waste recycling rate, the metallic packaging waste recycling rate, and the municipal waste act in the statistically significant way. The study applies a regression analysis technique with consistently validating test outcomes. The discussion section introduces the implications of the analytical outcomes with a potential of the setting current policies in the circular economy system and the construction of the new ones. © 2023 The Author(s)Agentúra na Podporu Výskumu a Vývoja, APVV, (APVV-21-0188)Slovak Research and Develop-ment Agency [APVV-21-0188

Differences and Similarities in Patterns of Ageing Society in the European Union

Population ageing is a demographic issue that emphasises the need to be interested in the lives of the most vulnerable population group: the elderly population. The paper investigates the ageing process and their relations among the European Union member countries from 2009 to 2019. These countries are assessed and dispersed to the appropriate clusters according to several indicators related to the areas that affect the lives of the elderly population: namely, the health status, the labour market conditions, and financial security. The focus is on the age group 55 years and over as it is a disadvantaged age group in the job application process regarding ageing society. It is a significant aspect of public finance system. The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, the Labour Force Survey, and the European System of Integrated Social Protection Statistics data are involved. The quantitative approaches are applied in the cluster analysis and followed by the panel data linear regression analysis. The dendrograms visualise the three clusters representing the mutual relations and the ageing patterns among the explored countries. The heat maps are created to prove the potential relations among the observed countries. The panel regression model demonstrates that the three variables – part-time employment, the income inequality, and the material and social deprivation – are statistically significant in all the regression models for the whole area and the three clusters. The analytical outcome could be applied as a valuable resource to government and national representatives. It can help identify the objectionable determinants for a custom policy and implement appropriate measures to improve the situation of the elderly population

Gender and regional disparities in income level perspectives in United States agriculture sector

Agriculture, as one of the most important sectors of the economy of many countries, has to deal with gender inequality, which is part of it, among other problems. For centuries, women have been excluded from this area, but nowadays, they have the opportunity to participate in agricultural activities to the same extent as men and achieve an adequate income. The success of women in US agriculture in the form of their income can be explained through the six indicators: age, family involvement, farm area, farming period, female operators, and partnership by applying the regression analysis. The coefficient of determination shows that the Heartland Region regression model has the highest statistical significance, explaining 51.03 % of the investigated data variability. The second position is kept very closely by the Upper Midwest Region with a value of 50.06 %; the next ones are the Delta Region with a value of 46.37 %, the Great Lakes Region with 44.44 %, and the Northwest Region with 43.24 %. All the regression models assigned to these regions are suitable for explaining. Surprisingly, there are cases where a mutual ratio of the regression coefficients of the same indicator for the two specific regions is twice as high or lower. It reveals there are deliberate regional disparities