Income and consumption inequality in Poland, 1998–2008

This paper estimates a variety of inequality indices to study the evolution of income and consumption inequality in Poland between 1998 and 2008. We use robust methods to adjust for the impact of extremely large observations. We also conduct statistical tests on inequality changes using methods, which account for the complexity of the household sample design. All analyses are performed for the entire population, for rural and urban subpopulations, and for the three largest cities. The main result is that during 1998–2008 there was a statistically significant rise in economic inequalities in Poland, which depending on the inequality index, ranged from 8.7% to 19.6% in case of income distribution and from 6.5% to 12.3% in case of consumption distribution. Among the studied subpopulations, economic inequalities are both the highest and the fastest-growing in Warsaw, where consumption inequality as measured by the Gini index increased during the studied period by as much as almost 23%.income inequality, consumption inequality, Pareto model, robust estimation, statistical inference, Poland

What keeps "living dead" alive : demography of a small and isolated population of Maculinea (= Phengaris) alcon

Small and isolated populations are prone to future extinctions and thus perceived as living dead'. Although generally considered to be of low conservation value, their existence can still enhance species survival at the landscape scale through improving the connectivity of other populations and facilitating some (even if little) gene flow. We investigated the demography and genetic status of a tiny and highly isolated local population of Maculinea (=Phengaris) alcon near its distribution margin with the aim of identifying the features that allow it to persist. The study comprised intensive mark-recapture, surveys of Gentiana pneumonanthe foodplants and butterfly eggs laid on them, as well as genetic analyses. The population has been found to be characterised by low genetic diversity and estimated at only a few tens of individuals. The foodplant availability turned out to be the most obvious factor limiting M. alcon abundance. Nevertheless, the life expectancy of adult butterflies is fairly long, and their flight period very short, implying that most individuals occur within the same time window. Together with the relatively little protandry observed, i.e. almost synchronous emergence of males and females, this increases the chances of random mating among the individuals. Moreover, the butterflies move freely across the core habitat fragment. All things concerned, the effective population size is presumably not much lower than the recorded population size. Our findings provide guidelines for pinpointing those among "living dead" populations that are likely to be the most persistent and thus worth conservation efforts aimed at preserving them

Social Capital in Economic Theory

The article analyzes the concept of social capital popular in social sciences in recent years. The author outlines the theoretical frameworks of the concept and reflects on the importance of social capital for economic analysis. The first part of the article presents definitions, various interpretations and research into social capital. The next part shows the different approaches adopted by researchers such as Bourdieu, Coleman, Putnam and Fukuyama. Further on, the article refers to the discussion on the economic significance of the term (according to economic terminology) and presents several methods to measure it. It then examines the issue of social capital in the context of economic research and presents conclusions on the influence of this factor on economic systems. The article ends with concluding remarks about the "dark side" of social capital, or its negative effects on society and the economy

Cultural Factors in Economics

The paper examines the role of cultural factors in economic analyses. It aims to identify and examine areas in which economic analysis takes into account cultural factors that play a role in business. The first part of the paper lists arguments on why economic research should be more sensitive to cultural factors. This primarily results from the fact that economics, like all other areas of human endeavor, is part of global culture, Kostra writes. The second part of the article describes the aspects of culture that are closely related to socioeconomic life. It discusses the idea of economic culture, or value systems linked with business, knowledge and models of behavior. The author also reviews research achievements in this area. The analysis takes into account the results of studies carried out by researchers such as Geert Hofstede, Richard Gesteland, Lawrence Harrison, and Mariano Grondona. Another related notion that is examined in this part of the paper is organizational culture. The third part of the paper deals with the achievements of institutional economics and shows links and relationships between cultural and social institutions. The author sets out to determine if the role of cultural factors in economic processes will decrease as globalization gains momentum. He concludes that despite the convergence of economic systems around the world, based on the emergence of a universal system of values, beliefs and attitudes, cultural differences continue to exist. This largely explains why some countries still hold an advantage over others, Kostro notes

The Economic Thought of Late Spanish Scholastics

The paper analyzes the economic thought of the late Spanish scholastics andshows that they have made a meaningful contribution to the development ofeconomics. The objective of the paper is to prove that these authors deservethe name of originators of the scientific economic knowledge. The literary output of the 16th century?s Spanish thinkers includes, apart from theological andjuridical texts, also reflections on economic problems that, by their substanceand nature, have been ahead of many economic conceptions. The reflectionsdeveloped by the Spanish scholastics make the germ of progressive thoughtsand ideas to-day considered as free-market and liberal. Their reflections alsopresent sometimes very radical appraisal of certain phenomena and suggesta just, from the point of view of moral philosophy, solution to the difficultiesthat appear in the economic life. The paper starts with considerations that describe this group and bring nearertheir times. The main part of the paper is a presentation of the most importanteconomic ideas of the representatives of the Spanish scholastic economics.Then, the perception and appraisal of their output in the economic literatureare presented. The paper ends with discussion on the links between the scholastic economics and the Austrian school of economics.