The number of passengers transported by air in the world and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air passenger transport in the USA in terms of economic security

PURPOSE: The ever-growing dynamics of life increases the demand for fast and safe means of transport. One of the most frequently chosen express means of transport is air transport. The aim of the study is to analyze the number of passengers transported by air in 153 countries in the world between 2010-2018 and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on passenger air transport in the USA in terms of economic security. The subject of the research is 153 countries of the world, and the object of the study is the number of passengers transported by air between 2010-2020.DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: One of the research methods used was literature analysis which concerns issues related to air transport, multidimensional analyzes and security. The research tools used for the study were: categorized line and bar charts and indices of dynamics with a constant base. The use of a multidimensional comparative analysis allowed for the evaluation of the number of passengers transported by passenger air in the continents under consideration, as well as in the USA before and during the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.RESULTS: The world leader in terms of the number of passengers transported is the United States. In 2020, compared to 2019, in the USA, for the identical period from March 1 to October 17, a decrease in the number of passengers transported by 429 141 477 was observed. Thus, there was a decrease in passenger transport by 77,28 percentage points.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The results obtained from the conducted research indicate a significant weakening of the passenger air transport sector in 2020 and the need for action aimed at its gradual reconstruction.ORIGINALITY: The juxtaposition of many groups of dependent variables in identical time units allowed to observe (emphasize) the similarities and differences between the studied objects and indicated the trend phenomenon and its breakdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.peer-reviewe

Barriers to Development of Municipal Entrepreneurship

The article aims at showing and discussing the thresholds appearing on the path of local entrepreneurship development. The self-government system is and will always be a resultant of wishes and goals, on the one hand, and effects of various types of resistence, which has to be overcome, on the other hand. The appearing barriers not only hamper the implementation of set goals but they frequently also impede the economic and social development of the country’s administrative districts. The pace and effectiveness of overcoming them are determined by the local authority’s skills of thinking and acting. It is an extremely important issue to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a given district. This can be facilitated by designing a strategy of the district’s development. Unfortunately, it is not a common phenomenon, although a marked growth of interest in these issues can be observed at the beginning of the second, term of office of the local self-government.Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 dofinansowane zostało ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę

Some Problems of Communal Public Utilities

The article is an attempt at an analysis of the functioning of public utilities. The new socio-political situation of Poland creates a necessity of carrying out technical-crganizational-legal changes in these companies. Its reflection are attempts to transform their financial system, Increase their decision-making rights, and also facilitate ownership changes. These companies executing communal tasks faced by the local self-government must concentrate their efforts on enhancing the quality of their services (supply of water, gas,electricity, sanitation etc.). It seems advisable to leave them under control of a superior body such as the local self-government. This is necessitated by the character of services provided by them.Zadanie pt. Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki nr 885/P-DUN/2014 zostało dofinansowane ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej nauk

Sustainable Development of Polish Macroregions—Study by Means of the Kernel Discriminant Coordinates Method

The aim of this study was to investigate if the macroregions of Poland are homogeneous in terms of the observed spatio-temporal data characterizing their sustainable development. So far, works related to the sustainable development of selected territorial units have been based on data relating to a specific year rather than many years. The solution to the problem of macroregion homogeneity goes through two stages. In step one, the original spatio-temporal data space (matrix space) was transformed into a kernel discriminant coordinates space. The obtained kernel discriminant coordinates function as synthetic measures of the level of sustainable development of Polish macroregions. These measures contain complete information on the values of 27 diagnostic features examined over 15 years. In the second step, cluster analysis was used in order to identify groups of homogeneous macroregions in the space of kernel discriminant coordinates. The agglomeration method and the Ward method were chosen as commonly used methods. By means of both methods, three super macroregions composed of homogeneous macroregions were identified. Within the kernel discriminant coordinates, the differentiating power of a selected set of 27 features characterizing the sustainable development of macroregions was also assessed. To this end, five different and most commonly used methods of discriminant analysis were used to test the correctness of the classification. Depending on the method, the classification errors amounted to zero or were close to zero, which proves a well-chosen set of diagnostic features. Although the data relate only to a specific country (Poland), the presented statistical methodology is universal and can be applied to any territorial unit and spatial-temporal dynamic data

A novel Spatio-temporal principal component analysis based on Geary's contiguity ratio

Multivariate statistics have gained a respectable place in quantitative research, especially in the economic geography, socio-economic development, urban and regional planning and spatio-temporal analysis. The main goal is to reduce multidimensional data to simple, but meaningful representative information. One of the powerful methods in multivariate statistics is Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The aim of this paper is to define a novel Spatio-Temporal Principal Component Analysis (STPCA). It is the first solution that sensibly combines at the same time variability of the values of the observed features, time of observation of the considered features and place of observation. It is therefore a solution for spatio-temporal data and a very valuable tool for practitioners wishing to obtain useful inferences from a PCA. The inclusion of the time and place of observation, in addition to the variability of the values of features, results in more detailed division of the examined objects into homogeneous clusters. Space and time, which interact with each other, are used on equal terms in the construction of the STPCA. The definition of these principal components is based on the product of two factors. The first factor is equal to the variance of the functional principal components, and the second factor is Geary's contiguity ratio C. The proposed new method of Spatio-Temporal Principal Components was used to show the mutual location of 16 Polish regions characterized by 12 socio-economic features observed in the years 2002–2018 in the system of the first two principal components and to identify homogeneous clusters of these regions in the system of all 15 constructed principal components.</p