The EU enlargement and economic growth in the CEE new member countries

This paper analyses whether EU enlargement contributed to economic growth and real convergence in the ten new member countries from Central and Eastern. In this paper, we aim to check whether the EU enlargement contributed to economic growth of ten new member countries from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE-10), including their real convergence towards the EU-15 development level. To this end, we econometrically test the relationships between selected macroeconomic variables linked to the EU enlargement and the rate of economic growth of the CEE-10 countries over the period 1996-2007. The variables comprise: (i) the progress of market or structural reforms, (ii) economic freedom, (iii) foreign aid, and (iv) the FDI inflow. In the first part of the study, we test the convergence hypothesis (both beta and sigma) for the CEE-10 group towards the EU-15 countries. In the subsequent parts, we build an econometric model and carry out the correlation and regression analyses, with a view to find out the possible effect of the EU membership on economic growth of the CEE countries. The last part of the paper develops possible scenarios of the real convergence of the CEE countries towards the EU-15. Our results indicate that the EU enlargement significantly contributed to economic growth of the CEE-10 countries and their catching up with the EU-15 development level. This conclusion has been supported by both the convergence analysis and the econometric test of economic growth determinants. According to our projections, the actual process of real convergence between individual CEE-10 economies and the EU-15 may take between 8 and 33 years.Growth, Financial Integration, Trade, The EU Enlargement and Economic Growth In the CEE New Member Countries, Economic Papers

Kapitalizm Patchworkowy W Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej – Nowa Konceptualizacja

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest nowa konceptualizacja istoty postkomunistycznego kapitalizmu, który pojawił się w większości byłych krajów socjalistycznych w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem jedenastu państw, które przystąpiły do Unii Europejskiej w latach 2004–2013 (EŚW11). Nasza konceptualizacja uwypukla unikalny charakter i osobliwe cechy tego kapitalizmu, wynikające z zależności ścieżkowej procesu ewolucji porządków społeczno-gospodarczych w większości krajów regionu. Na podstawie badań teoretycznych i empirycznych prowadzonych w obszarze nowej ekonomii instytucjonalnej, nowej socjologii ekonomicznej, antropologii ekonomicznej, porównawczej ekonomii politycznej i dyscyplin pokrewnych, a także stosując Weberowską metodę typu idealnego, dowodzimy, że kraje EŚW11 cechuje przede wszystkim niespójność architektur instytucjonalnych lub inaczej – brak względnie trwałych instytucjonalnych „osnów” ich porządków społeczno-gospodarczych (fundamentalnych reguł gry), które determinowałyby charakter „wątków” – organizacji i instytucji wtórnych (graczy). Pokazujemy też, że patchwork jest wynikiem wielowiekowej słabości architektur instytucjonalnych tych krajów, następnie dwóch instytucjonalnych i klasowych załamań ich trajektorii rozwojowych, które miały miejsce w latach 1939–1949 i 1989–1991, a wreszcie – unikalnego procesu „budowy kapitalizmu bez kapitalistów” w latach 90. W wyniku interakcji wielu czynników, w większości krajów EŚW11 powstał specyficzny typ kapitalizmu, który został przez nas opisany w kategoriach typu idealnego. Głównymi wyróżnikami tego typu są: (i) słabość podstawowych instytucji tworzących porządek społeczno-gospodarczy, w tym państwa i prawa, co wynika z istniejącej spuścizny historycznej i ze sposobu tworzenia go przez inteligencką „elitę przełomu”; (ii) brak dominującego typu kapitału, który narzucałby własne preferencje w zakresie „osnowy”: było to m.in. konsekwencją szerokiego dostępu kapitału zagranicznego, pochodzącego z różnych krajów oraz współistnienia różnych form własności krajowej, z których żadna nie zdobyła pozycji monopolistycznej w gospodarce; (iii) wynikający z powyższego brak dominującej klasy ekonomicznej (np. narodowej burżuazji), zainteresowanej istnieniem określonej „osnowy”, gotowej jej bronić i mającej wystarczające po temu wpływy polityczne oraz (iv) brak dostatecznie szeroko zinternalizowanych społecznie wartości kulturowych, wspierających „osnowę”. Łączne oddziaływanie tych czynników sprawia, że kapitalizm patchworkowy stał się podatny na wzrost ekonomiczny o charakterze entropijnym (pojęcie to wyjaśniamy w 3 rozdziale artykułu) dzięki otwartości na dołączanie nowych organizacji i instytucji o własnej logice działania, niczym zszywanie „patchworkowej” derki z różnorodnych łat

Patchwork Capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe – a New Conceptualization

This paper aims at a new conceptualization of the essence of post-communist capitalism that emerged in most former socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe, with special emphasis on the eleven states that joined the European Union between 2004 and 2013 (CEE11). Our conceptualization highlights the unique nature and peculiar features of this type of capitalism, resulting from the path-dependent evolution of the socio-economic orders in most countries of the region. On the basis of theoretical and empirical research conducted in the field of new institutional economics, new economic sociology, economic anthropology, comparative political economy and related disciplines, as well as applying Weberian ideal-type method, we argue that the CEE11 countries exhibit incoherence of their institutional architectures or else – they lack the institutional 'fabric' of their socio-economic orders (fundamental rules of the game) which would determine the nature of their 'thread', i.e., organizations and secondary institutions (players). Simultaneously, we also show that this is the outcome of both the centuries-long weaknesses of the national institutional architectures in these countries, two institutional and class structure breakdowns or turning points on their development trajectories that occurred in the 1939–1949 and the 1989/1991 periods respectively, as well as the subsequent, unique process of 'building capitalism without capitalists' in the 1990s. As a result of the interaction of multiple factors, in most of the CEE11 countries a peculiar type of capitalism has emerged, which we have described in terms of an ideal type. Its essence boils down to: (i) the weakness of basic institutions making up their socio-economic order, including the state and the law, as a consequence of their historical legacy and the way it was created by the intelligentsia-based 'breakthrough elite'; (ii) the absence of a dominant form of capital able to impose its own 'fabric' preferences: this was, inter alia, a derivative of unconstrained access of foreign capital, coming from various countries, and the coexistence of various forms of national ownership, none of which has achieved or maintained a strong enough position to impose an institutional structure on the entire economy; (iii) the resultant absence of a dominant economic class (e.g. the national bourgeoisie) interested in the existence of a particular 'fabric', ready to defend it and with sufficient political influence to do so; and (iv) the lack of well-internalized – or deeply socially embedded – cultural values supporting the 'fabric'. These factors combined make patchwork capitalism vulnerable to entropic economic growth (the concept wwe discuss in Section 3 of the article) as, due to low institutional barriers to entry, any new organizations and institutions can join it relatively easily, imposing their own logics on the host institutional architectures – exactly the way a patchwork blanket is made through stitching divergent new patches. Given these peculiarities we argue that patchwork capitalism ought to be conceived as a new, distinct research category in comparative studies on post-communist capitalism. Our intention, however, is not to replace the existing typologies of capitalism in CEE11 countries with a new one; rather, we aim to complement and ameliorate them through pointing to a new, peculiar dimension of capitalism, mostly neglected in the hitherto research. The peculiarity of this dimension consists in its two-form character: it either (i) gives certain types of capitalism a patchwork feature, indicating the relative weakness of the institutional 'fabric' involved and vulnerability to transformation, or (ii) denotes a separate object, i.e., it implies the existence of a self-contained type of capitalism, labeled 'patchwork capitalism'. In the latter situation, a specific socio-economic order converges to the ideal type due to the extreme weakness of its 'fabric'. In the first case, an exemplification may be for example 'patchwork corporatism', i.e., an order in which, despite the relative weakness of its fabric, the institutional architecture concerned resembles a coordinated market economy. In turn, in the second case, the institutional fabric is so ambiguous and volatile that its unequivocal classification in conceptual terms inherent to standard typologies of capitalism becomes a challenge, which often leads researchers to qualify a given socioeconomic order as 'heterogeneity'

Métodos de extração de compostos fenólicos do bagaço da oliva : uma revisão da literatura

Os resíduos agrícolas e alimentares representam um problema ambiental e econômico em todo o planeta, o que significa que a valorização dessas matrizes é de extremo interesse e necessidade do ponto de vista da economia circular. A indústria do processamento do óleo de oliva produz uma grande quantidade de resíduos, de modo que o número de estudos relacionados a esse tema está crescendo significativamente. O processamento em duas fases da oliva gera um único subproduto, que é o bagaço semissólido rico em compostos bioativos, principalmente em compostos fenólicos com características antioxidantes. A procura por antioxidantes naturais faz com que haja interesse no desenvolvimento de métodos de extração desses compostos para aplicações diversas, principalmente, por meio de técnicas com menor impacto ambiental. O objetivo do presente trabalho é realizar uma revisão narrativa da literatura e discutir os métodos encontrados para a extração de compostos fenólicos do bagaço da oliva. A metodologia adotada definiu critérios de inclusão e exclusão para tornar a pesquisa menos tendenciosa, mais abrangente e relevante possível. Os métodos encontrados na literatura e analisados nesse trabalho investigam diferentes técnicas de extração de compostos fenólicos como: extração por solventes convencionais e alternativos, bem como extração assistida por ultrassom (EAU), por micro-ondas (EAM), por membranas (EAMM), por homogeneização de alto cisalhamento (EAH), por alta pressão hidrostática (EAAPH) e por fluído supercrítico. Além dos diferentes métodos encontrados, outro fator importante para obtenção da matriz fenólica de interesse é a escolha do solvente. Por isso, os estudos mais recentes, além de investigar a técnica, realizam testes com solventes menos poluentes, como por exemplo: etanol e solventes eutéticos naturais. Por fim, os diversos métodos de extração de componentes fenólicos do bagaço da oliva, demonstraram resultados positivos e promissores para a utilização desses compostos em aplicações como alimentos funcionais, cosméticos e fármacos.Agricultural and food waste represent an environmental and economic issue across the globe, which means that the recovery of these by-product has extreme interest and necessity from circular economy perspective. The olive oil processing industry produces a substantial amount of waste and the number of studies related to this topic is growing significantly. The two-phase processing of olive generates only one by-product: the semi-solid pomace rich in bioactive compounds, mainly in phenolic compounds with antioxidant activity. The interest for natural antioxidants brings the need to develop extraction methods of these compounds for different applications mainly through techniques with less environmental impact. The aim of this work is to conduct a narrative review of the literature and discuss the methods for the extraction of phenolic compounds from olive pomace. The adopted methodology defined inclusion and exclusion criteria to make the research less biased, as comprehensive, and as relevant as possible. The methods found and analyzed in this work investigate different techniques of extraction of phenolic compounds such as: extraction by conventional and alternative solvents, as well as ultrasound assisted-extraction (EAU), microwave assisted-extraction (EAM), membranes assisted-extraction (EAMM), high shear homogenate assisted-extraction (EAH), high hydrostatic pressure assisted-extraction (EAAPH) and by supercritical fluid extraction. In addition to the different methods, another important factor for obtaining the phenolic matrix is the choice of solvent. Therefore, in addition to investigating the technique the most recent studies conduct tests with less polluting solvents, such as ethanol and natural eutectic solvents. Finally, the various phenolic compounds extraction methods from olive pomace have shown positive and promising results considering the use of these compounds in applications such as functional foods, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals

Comparative Analysis of Industrial Relations and Labour Markets in Central Eastern and Western Europe

The paper presents a comparative analysis of industrial relations and labour market systems in eleven European Union new member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE11), against the backdrop of selected ‘old’ EU members representing four models of Western European capitalism. The analysis, based on the application of the similarity coefficients method, showed that in 2005 the institutional architecture of the area examined in most of the CEE11 countries exhibited the highest relative resemblance to the Continental model of capitalism. The next nine years (2005–2014) saw the strongest relative convergence trend toward the Anglo-Saxon model. However, in both 2005 and 2014, industrial relations and labour markets in CEE11 countries revealed a polycentric pattern of a simultaneous similarity to more than one model of Western European capitalism. Moreover, the empirical results of the study point to the institutional ambiguity and incoherence of the industrial relations and labour market area in these countries. Based on their key findings, the authors argue that the emerging institutional architecture in this area in CEE11 countries may be seen as a new research category, distinct from the patterns prevailing in Western Europe, which they dub a ‘patchwork capitalism’

Zarys historii obrządków wschodnich na północnych obszarach Królestwa Węgier

 Eastern rite churches in the northern areas of the Kingdom of Hungary – historical outline The article provides an overview of the history of Eastern rites in the northern areas of the Kingdom of Hungary, focusing chiefly on the historical-graphic position of Karpatho-Rusyn The lands belonging today to Slovakia and Carpathian Ukraine from the Middle Ages, and the division of Christianity into two branches, were populated by a large group of believers who did not recognize the supremacy of the Roman Church. It was only in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that the power of the popes was recognized in exchange for the preservation of their traditional, religious rites. The text reconstructs the specific societal fate of the region. The article discusses the issues of the colonization of the territory, the history of the local church institutions, the fate of this area of Europe during the times of the Reformation, the establishment of the union between the Orthodox Church and Rome, and finally the era of the emergence of modern nationalisms. This study clarifies the discourse of today’s social and national activists. It reconstructs contemporary narratives and myths and proposes an overview of the creation of the cultural and political amalgam on the slopes of the Carpathian Mountains while asking questions concerning the origins of religious syncretism

Using registries to integrate bioinformatics tools and services into workbench environments

The diversity and complexity of bioinformatics resources presents significant challenges to their localisation, deployment and use, creating a need for reliable systems that address these issues. Meanwhile, users demand increasingly usable and integrated ways to access and analyse data, especially within convenient, integrated “workbench” environments. Resource descriptions are the core element of registry and workbench systems, which are used to both help the user find and comprehend available software tools, data resources, and Web Services, and to localise, execute and combine them. The descriptions are, however, hard and expensive to create and maintain, because they are volatile and require an exhaustive knowledge of the described resource, its applicability to biological research, and the data model and syntax used to describe it. We present here the Workbench Integration Enabler, a software component that will ease the integration of bioinformatics resources in a workbench environment, using their description provided by the existing ELIXIR Tools and Data Services Registry

FurIOS: a web-based tool for identification of Vibrionaceae species using the fur gene

Gene based methods for identification of species from the Vibrionaceae family have been developed during the last decades to address the limitations of the commonly used 16S rRNA gene phylogeny. Recently, we found that the ferric-uptake regulator gene (fur) can be used as a single identification marker providing species discrimination, consistent with multi-locus sequencing analyses and whole genome phylogenies. To allow for broader and easy use of this marker, we have developed an online prediction service that allows the identification of Vibrionaceae species based on their fur-sequence. The input is a DNA sequence that can be uploaded on the web service; the output is a table containing the strain identifier, e-value, and percentage of identity for each of the matches with rows colored in green for hits with high probability of being the same species. The service is available on the web at: http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/furIOS-1.0/. The fur-sequences can be derived either from genome sequences or from PCR-amplification of the genomic region encoding the fur gene. We have used 191 strains identified as Vibrionaceae based on 16S rRNA gene sequence to test the PCR method and the web service on a large dataset. We were able to classify 171 of 191 strains at the species level and 20 strains remained unclassified. Furthermore, the fur phylogenetics and subsequent in silico DNA-DNA hybridization demonstrated that two strains (ATCC 33789 and ZS-139) previously identified as Vibrio splendidus are more closely related to V. tasmaniensis and V. cyclitrophicus, respectively. FurIOS is an easy-to-use online service that allows the identification of bacteria from the Vibrionaceae family at the species level using the fur gene as a single marker. Its simplistic design and straightforward pipeline makes it suitable for any research environment, from academia to industry

Ryszard Rapacki

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