The Post-soviet Countries – Development and Structure of Economy: Is there any Potential for Future Regional Integration?

AbstractThis article analyses GDP over time in the post-Soviet republics over the 2000–2014 period. Its aim is to characterise the evolution of the economies of each country with respect to opportunities for mutual co-operation. Particular features of each country are identified in terms of GDP structure and creation. Over the period looked at, GDP rose very significantly. Russia and Kazakhstan can be included amongst the main driving forces behind this growth. The growth was affected by the transformation of the economies of the countries looked at, growth in prices of mineral resources and a major influx of foreign investments. Growth in the Russian Federation's GDP is also linked to a growth of transfers which should contribute to a higher standard of living, but which also contribute to increasing household consumption. Another growth factor is the impact of gross fixed investments. These two variables contributed most to GDP creation. In contrast, GDP elasticity in relation to the value of resources and the balance of external relations is negative for many of the countries looked at

ANALYSIS OF THE MUTUAL TRADE BETWEEN THE EU AND INDONESIA

Mutual trade between EU countries and Indonesia is a bilateral commodity trade flow exceeding 17 billion Euros. Analysis of the trade between the two entities is an important contribution leading to the definition of the significance that the ongoing cooperation between the EU and Indonesia has. EU is for Indonesia very important trading partner, for EU is Indonesia a strategic political partner. The bilateral trade is currently greatly benefiting Indonesia, however, this market has a potential for EU due to the fact, that it is one of the most populous country in the Asian region and the in world in general. The trade exchange is based on export and import of most basic aggregate commodities; while between the two partners exist significant differences in terms of available comparative advantages. A specificity of the mutual trade is the limited territorial structure of this exchange, as the main volume of transactions is realized between Indonesia and only a few EU countries.   Keywords: EU, Indonesia, mutual, foreign trade, commodity, territory, structure, analysis, competitivenes

ANALYSIS OF DIVERSIFICATION EFFORTS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

Study of agriculture enjoys less popularity over time in most of the developed countries, including Canada and the Czech Republic. Analysis in this paper provides interesting findings about activities of agricultural universities to increase enrollment into their programs. While the study is focused on Canada, it is possible to draw implications also for the Czech Republic as many of the characteristics pertaining to the education and agricultural sectors are similar. Enrollment into educational programs in agriculture in North America has been steadily declining in the last several decades. While the overall share of agriculture on national gross domestic product has also been falling, the need for qualified people in agriculture is still eminent as the shift to sustainable agriculture appears to be one of the key priorities of governments in the US and Canada. One of the ways how to facilitate interest of prospective students to study agriculture is to diversify the programs through offering of more major options. It is important to study the motivation and other stimuli for the choice of major in order to adapt the educational programs and attract more students. In the paper, factors influencing the choice of major are studied by analyzing survey data from the only agricultural college in Atlantic Canada. The results show significant differences in the socio-economic background among the prospective students based on the choice of major. For example, students interested in social sciences much more appraise more choices of major than students in biophysical fields. Based on the findings from the analysis, several recommendations are made. It is suggested, for example, that for students interested in biophysical sciences, sport plays an important role and thus, appropriate promotional campaign about recreation and sport facilities of a post-secondary agricultural educational institutions should be conducted. Analysis in this paper may serve many educational institutions in agriculture as a guide how to deal with existing or potential decline in enrollment by diversifying their major portfolio using appropriate promotional campaigns

Convergence behaviours of energy series and GDP nexus hypothesis: a non-parametric Bayesian application

With the EU Green Deal initiatives, European members seek to launch the first climate neutral continent by 2050. This paper assesses the stochastic convergence of per capita energy consumption series for an illustrative sample of 15 EU countries with memberships prior to the 2004 enlargement, using data spanning the 1970–2018 period. Results from the confidence interval subsampling (asymmetric and equal-tailed) highlight that 11 out of the 15 EU series exhibit a long-run memory behaviour, while a diverging pattern was observed for the UK, Germany, Portugal, and Italy. Finally, per capita energy use series persist but fail to reveal one of the above dynamics for Ireland and Spain. Also, findings from the nonparametric Bayesian application (ANOVA/linear Dependent Dirichlet Process (DDP) mixture model) show how economic growth operates as a converging energy consumption-enabler over the long-run, from which the EU membership cannot be excluded. In particular, we highlight how the nature of energy-GDP hypotheses vary with the stochastic properties of energy use (converging behaviour with temporary shocks, converging pattern with permanent shocks, and diverging dynamic). Finally, our conclusions overcome the well-established development stage argument as we claim that countries with similar energy convergence patterns may need to adopt similar energy policies

Analysis of the Mutual Trade Between the Eu and Indonesia

Mutual trade between EU countries and Indonesia is a bilateral commodity trade flow exceeding 17 billion Euros. Analysis of the trade between the two entities is an important contribution leading to the definition of the significance that the ongoing cooperation between the EU and Indonesia has. EU is for Indonesia very important trading partner, for EU is Indonesia a strategic political partner. The bilateral trade is currently greatly benefiting Indonesia, however, this market has a potential for EU due to the fact, that it is one of the most populous country in the Asian region and the in world in general. The trade exchange is based on export and import of most basic aggregate commodities; while between the two partners exist significant differences in terms of available comparative advantages. A specificity of the mutual trade is the limited territorial structure of this exchange, as the main volume of transactions is realized between Indonesia and only a few EU countries. Keywords: EU, Indonesia, mutual, foreign trade, commodity, territory, structure, analysis, competitivenes

Post-soviet economics in the context of international trade: opportunities and threats from mutual cooperation

Regional cooperation represents a viable alternative to the ongoing process of globalization, in which countries can optimally respond to the changes in the external environment through regional integration, while a larger market size tends to provide better sales opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to identify common determinants of the impact of economic and trade cooperation on the convergence of the economies of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). We attempt to define a conceptual framework for cooperation between post- Soviet countries with an emphasis on their diversity. In this article, we are using the extrapolation methods that involve the estimation of the parameters of approximating dependences with the ordinary least squares method (OLS) and its modifications as well as the exponential smoothing method. The main reason for conducting this study as well as the major value-added of this paper is in its focus on the regional cooperation of the post-Soviet countries with the assessment of its role on accelerating economic growth, while the main limitation of this study is its focus on predicting the values for one year only which is subjected to the lack of more recent data

Environmental protection or economic growth? The effects of preferences for individual freedoms

Environmental protection is often seen in conflict with individual freedom and economic growth. The proponents of environmental protection suggest that the environment is a global resource that must be protected for future generations, even at the expense of economic growth and individual freedoms. The opponents claim that environmental protection should not come at the expense of individual rights and liberties, economic growth included. This paper studies the associations between public preferences for environmental protection, economic growth, and individual freedoms in eleven post-soviet countries on a representative dataset (N = 20006, age 18+, M ± SD: 46,04 ± 17,07; 58% women, 46,8% upper education). Methodologically we rely on correlations, principal component analysis, and ordinal regression analyses. The results suggest that preferences for most personal freedoms studied predict environmental protection and economic growth preferences. In addition, preferences for civil rights, rights for democracy, gender equality, income inequality, and the low role of the army in politics predicted higher preferences for environmental protection and economic growth. Interestingly, the government’s right to video surveillance in public areas, though diminishing personal freedoms in terms of anonymity, predicted higher preferences for environmental protection and economic growth. The importance of God in lives proved to increase preferences for environmental protection but was negatively related to preferences for economic growth. We suggest the government communicate the need for environmental protection as a part of the rights for individual freedom to live in a clean environment

It starts from home? Explaining environmentally responsible resource and waste management

Resource and waste management are indispensable to environmentally conscious action and a large part of EU Green politics. Little is known about factors affecting individual propensity for resource and waste management. The article examines the effects of environmental concerns, perceptions of climate change, preferences for EU integration, and media exposure (traditional and new) on the propensity to save resources and waste management employing a representative sample of 904 respondents in the Czech Republic. Methodologically we rely on principal component analysis, correlations, and a set of ordinal regression analyses. The results suggest that environmental and climate concerns increase the propensity to save resources and separate waste. The preferences for EU integration and media exposure were unrelated to saving resources and waste management, except exposure to online news, which negatively affected the environmentally motivated reduction of unnecessary car trips. The results imply immense consequences on the conceptual and policy-making levels. On the conceptual level the results suggest, that the mass media stopped to fulfill its developmental and persuasive functions, as generally people do not relate their pro-environmental behavior to the mass media exposure. From the policy-making perspective the mass media proves to be a poor resource for the pro-environmental actions as in case of social networks the role of mass media on waste management proved negative. We also suggest that saving resources and waste management stopped to be a topic of political and media influence but transferred to the domain of personal values and economic decisions

Rebalancing agri-food trade flows due to Russian import ban: the case of direct neighbors

In recent years, research on trade rebalancing in agri-food supply chains has gained prominence due to trade sanctions, supply chain disruptions, and vulnerabilities exposed by pandemics and conflicts. This study focuses on the recalibration of agri-food trade dynamics, using the 2014 Russian import ban as a case study. The ban significantly altered the structure of agri-food export destinations for affected countries, particularly those sharing a border with Russia (e.g., Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). Employing a cross-section regression model and structural break tests, we assess the trade rebalancing process. Our findings reveal short-term trade rebalancing effects, primarily observed in product groups not traditionally considered main trade specializations. There is evidence that significant part of the lost trade was redirected to EU28 or EAEU countries and end up in the common trade areas of these countries. Furthermore, we argue that the Russian import ban initiated a long-term structural shift in export patterns for non-traditionally traded banned products, while rebalancing for traditionally traded products was significantly quicker

Can the intention to protect the environment lead to reduced consumption among business students?

Purpose: Modifying patterns of overconsumption towards reducing consumption as a degrowth-oriented consumer attitude is crucial to mitigating the environmental impact of high-consumption households. The aim of this article is to develop a model of the intention to reduce consumption for environmental reasons and test it among business students. Methodology/approach: Grounded in the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the paper develops a model of consumption reduction intention. Based on a survey conducted among business students from six European Union countries, the model is tested using structural equation modelling. Findings: The study revealed the twofold influence of the intention to protect the environment on intention to reduce consumption: direct and indirect. The predictive power of the intention to protect the environment and willingness to accept the economic sacrifices in the intention to reduce consumption is confirmed as a direct effect. Additionally, the impact is mediated by a willingness to accept economic sacrifices. Originality/value: Our paper contributes to a better understanding of the intention to reduce consumption as a degrowth-oriented consumer attitude for environmental protection