Comparative Analysis of the Evolution of Public Debt in the European Union

In the context of the difficult economic situation experienced over the past decade, most EU Member States are calling for increased tax rates to cover budget deficits, but also resort to loans. The effect of the loans was the emergence and accentuation of public debt. In this article we aim to analyze the evolution of public debt at the level of the European Union during 2007-2017, both in terms of its structure and its dynamics. The conclusion we reach is that very few Member States have met the conditions imposed by the Maastricht Treaty on public debt

Linking financial development to environmental performance index—the case of Romania

To make steps in society towards a more sustainable future, countries must meet the targets established by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Thus, factors that could impact the environmental indicators should be analysed. Therefore, this study aims to identify the correlations between financial development and environmental performance in Romania, during the period 1995–2018. Using composite indexes to assess financial development and the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) to express environmental performance, important results are obtained through the Canonical Cointegrating Regression (CCR) method. The explanatory variables used in the study are specific to the evaluation of the financial development of a country: access, depth and efficiency. The results show that, in the case of financial institutions, the access index and the depth index have a negative influence on the environmental performance index, while in the case of financial markets, the negative impact of the access index of financial markets can be observed. The efficiency index, both in the case of financial institutions and financial markets, generates a positive influence on environmental performance in Romania. Financial markets also address positive influences on the evolution of the environmental performance index

Could “digital gold” resist global supply chain pressure?

Exploring the safe-haven characteristics of bitcoin from novel perspectives is crucial to diversify the investment and reap the benefits. This investigation employs bootstrap full-and sub-sample techniques to probe time-varying interrelation between global supply chain pressure (GSCP) and bitcoin price (BP), and further answer if “digital gold” could resist the strains of global supply chain. The empirical outcomes suggest that GSCP positively and negatively affects BP. The positive influence points out that high GSCP might boost the international bitcoin market, driving BP to rise, which indicates that “digital gold” could resist the pressures of global supply chain. But the negative effect of GSCP on BP could not support the above view, mainly affected by the weak purchasing power and more valuable assets, which is not consistent with the assumption of the inter-temporal capital asset pricing model (ICAPM). In turn, GSCP is adversely affected by BP, highlighting that the international bitcoin market may be viewed as a stress reliever for the global supply chain. Against a backdrop of the deteriorative Russia-Ukraine war and the intensifying global supply chain crisis, the above conclusions could bring significative lessons to the public, enterprises and related economies. First published online 17 April 202

Online education management: a multivariate analysis of students' perspectives and challenges during online classes

The aim of the present study is to find solutions for better management of online education, starting from students’ perspectives regarding the challenges they encountered in the last two years when online courses were imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research methodology we used was partial least squares structural equation modelling based on data collected by applying a survey among students in Romanian universities. The novelty of our study consists in the proposed model, which has five variables: communication problems specific to online education, professors’ skill in conducting online classes, the quality of online education, the stress felt by students during online education, and the technical requirements of online education. The results revealed that despite challenges during online classes students benefited from a high-quality education because they had the support of their professors, all the educational resources that they needed, a device to connect from, and a very good internet connection. These findings are helpful for managers in the higher education system to create better educational strategies meant to satisfy the educational needs of students in the digital age

Testing the macroeconomic impact of the budget deficit in EU Member States using linear regression with fixed effects

The article aims to research impact of budget balance, whether surplus or deficit, on the main indicator characterizing the economic growth of a country, namely GDP and the inflation rate in the 27 European Union Member States and the United Kingdom. For this analysis was used panel data, taking into account the period from 2001 to 2015. The method used for the analysis is the linear regression with fixed effects and with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors. The dependent variables are the growth rate of real GDP and the inflation rate, and the independent variable is the budget balance (surplus or deficit). The results obtained after using econometric software Stata shows a positive impact of budget balance on growth in the European Union for the analyzed period

Financing the Agri-Environmental Policy: Consequences on the Economic Growth and Environmental Quality in Romania

The aim of this research is to point out the impact that the application of the agri-environmental policy has on the economic growth and on the quality of the environment, these being the main aspects targeted by the practice of a sustainable agriculture. The research is conducted based on the agri-environment indicators for Romania for the period of time between 1997 and 2019. In order to answer the objectives of this whole research, we performed stationarity tests, a cointegration test and used the Fully Modified Least Squares (FMOLS) method to estimate the relationships between the variables included in the three proposed models. The obtained results highlighted the positive influence exerted by the area that was arranged for irrigation and the agricultural area that was arranged with drainage works on the GDP, but also the negative influence of the amount of natural fertilizers used in agriculture. The use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides generates an increase in environmental degradation, meaning CO2 emissions, while an increase in the agricultural area arranged with erosion control and land improvement works, leads to reducing environmental degradations. The limitations of this research lie in the fact that the agri-environmental indicators are specific to each country in the European Union and, therefore, it is difficult to make comparisons with other member states or to apply the measures recommended for Romania to other states with similar agricultural and economic systems

Digitization and Financial Performance of Banking Sectors Facing COVID-19 Challenges in Central and Eastern European Countries

The COVID-19 pandemic deeply impacted not only human wealth but also all segments of the economy as well as the field of technology. Thus, the purpose of this paper was to analyze the effects that the pandemic crisis and digitization have had on the financial performance of banks in Central and Eastern European Union countries (CEEC) during the 2010–2021 period. In order to capture an overview of the financial performance of the banking systems in the 10 CEECs, we used three variables—ROA, ROE and NPL—as reference indicators. In order to highlight the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the performance of banking systems, we used the number of reported cases as a variable, and to highlight the impact of digitization, we used as indicators the number of automated teller machines (ATMs) per 100,000 adults, number of certificates of secure internet servers, number of credit cards, number of debit cards, percentage of individuals using internet banking, and the number of commercial bank branches per 100,000 adults. Thus, the impact of digitization and the pandemic crisis generated by the COVID-19 virus on the performance of the banking systems in the 10 CEECs is outlined through three regression models using the robust regression model. The obtained results show that, as the infection rates with COVID-19 increased, the performance of banks measured by ROE and ROA decreased. Regarding the impact of digitization on performance, we note that an increase in the use of internet banking and the security of bank servers generated positive effects on the performance of banks. The results of the study are useful for banking product development departments, who should consider the important role of digitization in increasing the performance of banking services and thus design new digital products or ways to expand existing ones on a larger scale

Does Banking Accessibility Matter in Assuring the Economic Growth in the Digitization Context? Evidence from Central and Eastern European Countries

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nexus between financial (banking) accessibility and economic growth in the context of the digitization process. Thus, we built a panel model to evaluate the correlations between the banking accessibility and economic growth during 2010–2021 period for the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). Furthermore, we applied the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) method with eight independent variables measuring the degree of banking accessibility and the dependent variable for economic growth. The results show that improving financial accessibility positively influences economic growth and greater access to banking services does not necessarily stimulate economic growth. In the digitization context, the results are relevant for the policymakers outlining that investing more in digitization is important, but this does not necessarily help people to have more access to banking services because there is also a lack of will and financial education that restrain them from embracing the digital changes

Is the Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment and Energy Sufficiently Debated Nowadays?

The aim of this review was to analyze to what extent the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR), environment and energy has been addressed in the specialized literature and which are the deficient segments in this regard. VOSviewer was used for data extraction, mapping and grouping the articles from journals that have been indexed in Web of Science (WOS). A total of 102 papers were found approaching the topic of corporate social responsibility, environment and energy policy, 5192 research papers for CSR and the environment and 320 on CSR and energy policy. Following the bibliometric analysis, we can conclude that we are facing a shortage of works that analyze the relationship between the three fields together. The number of published articles was reduced to establish the direction of influence between the three variables, as well as the impact between them. However, the advantage that emerges from this lack of works is that there are many opportunities to find news on this subject and to discover solutions to improve the quality of life. This study can be used as an impetus for researchers to examine the trends of this research topic

Linking the government expenditures to the achievement of the Europe 2020 strategy indicators. Evidence from Central and Eastern European Countries

In order to evaluate the degree of sustainable development at CEEC (Central and Eastern European Countries) by means of an aggregate indicator and to determine if the government expenditures in the field of environment, environment protection, fuel, energy, education and social protection could influence the achievement of the Europa 2020 targets, a data panel of 10 CEEC for 2007–2018 period was analysed through Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) method and a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). To calculate the indicator, an algorithm that included six steps was used. The results of the study show, on long-term, statistically significant correlations between the target indicator and all the selected variables, except for the government expenditures with the education variable. However, on short-term, there were identified strong connections reflected in bidirectional causality between government expenditures with social protection and the target indicator. Also, on short-term, a strong causal relationship was identified from target indicator to the total government expenditures for education, from the environmental protection government expenditures to the government expenditures for social protection and from the total government expenditures for social protection to the total government expenditures for education. First published online 17 March 202