Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

The key purpose of this research is to explore the nexus between crime, socio economic strains and the economic growth of Thailand. The study has used the ARDL technique to achieve the objectives of the study. The finding revealed the fact that the roles of crime have been well emphasized in the literature, especially on how it acts as a stoppage on the progress of the economy in terms of growth. A crime committed in the economy incurs more expenditure and causes the mobility of highly skilled labour which is worse than the formal labour market. Socioeconomic strains have similar dimensions of impacts on crime variables regarding the positive relationship based on the above results. Deterrence variables performed as expected on other crime variables except on person’s crime. Family instability showed a positive impact on property crime. The extent that socioeconomic strain affects crime variables has shown that the strain of frustration, anger and stress in people are exhibited in the social and economic factors that prevail in Thailand. Individuals facing economic hardships brought by socioeconomic factors would innovate alternative means to survive.

This is a conceptual article to study the economic effects of SMEs performance. It has become a widely recognized that entrepreneurs and Information Technology (IT) have become the backbone of the world’s economy. In fact, entrepreneurs are commonly considered an asset for the economic development of the society as well as the country. The current studies focus on the nature, process and practice of the matter SMEs and Information Technology in entrepreneurship for the development and implementation throughout the world, and provide entrepreneurs, managers and practitioners with up-to-date, comprehensive and effective strategies for business plans with an effective method of using Information Technology in society. However, massive and ongoing transformations are characteristics of this environment and business environment, which underscores the need for greater attention to be paid to the business environment. Furthermore, modern organizations do activities in complex environment and in the meantime dynamic. This paper aims to discuss the importance of entrepreneurship in today’s society. Therefore, entrepreneurs can play an important role in assisting and fostering business success to benefits the society. Extensive changes, increased complexity and competition are the most important features of today’s world. In addition, Information Technology can assist the business to create value, better performance, increase productivity and quality. Finally, information technology is important to the business sector as a management tool to optimize the processing of information to produce goods and services for profits.

This paper has aimed to consider how government expenditure contributes to economic growth by focusing on both the level and composition of government spending, in connection to the dynamics of GDP per capita growth. The investigation covers the period from 1997 to 2017. The authors have applied total expenditure approach analyzing interrelationships between government expenditure and economic growth and division approach examining and comparing the distributions of government expenditure in the selected European Union countries. The authors have applied descriptive statistics, the Pearson’s correlation, intensity rate of structural changes and Finger-Kreinin indicator. The findings have suggested the following: 1) there is no evidence on the relationship between general government expenditure and economic development in the European Union countries; 2) the countries with a greater proportion of productive spending, such as Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Hungary, Estonia, Slovakia have a low GDP per capita indicator. Economically strong countries, such as Denmark, France and Sweden have relatively low level of productive expenditure; 3) economically stronger countries have more stable compositions of government expenditure than economically weaker ones; 4) the countries with a similar real GDP per capita have been characterized by more similar government spending structures. As the economic gap between countries grows, divergence in allocation of government spending increases. The findings of this research could provide important guideline for the managing of government expenditure in the European Union countries. Moreover, it can serve as a guideline to a public budget management in the countries under consideration.

The purpose of the research paper is to observe and analyze how the economic growth of EU countries is accompanied by growth of motorization rate and fatalities during the last decades in terms of inventory on increase of motor vehicles and accidents in road traffic in order to identify regulation of the motor insurance legislation. Research methodology is statistical analysis of economic growth and motorization rate and the accidents in the EU countries during the period of 2000–2017. In the research paper the quantitative analysis and comparison method are applied. Findings: research paper shows that in the EU countries with higher income level, the rate of increase in motor vehicles is lower than the decline in fatalities per motor vehicle, and in countries with low income level the rate of increase in motor vehicles is higher than the decline in fatalities per motor vehicle. Practical implications: research paper demonstrates road traffic authorities need to know these specificities and take this into account in preparation of legislation to strengthen EU rules on motor insurance to better protect victims of motor vehicle accidentsOriginality – paper analyses the relationship between motorization levels and fatalities of different EU countries during last decades.

The article presents the basic principles of access to health care from the perspective of economics. Accessibility to health care implies adequate health expenditures and is based on the principle of equity. Based on a statistical analysis of international survey data, the article provides a comparative assessment of the accessibility to health care in Latvia, offers realistic solutions to one of the most pressing problems to improve the quality of life of the population. The results of the original studies carried out by research teams from Lithuania and other countries are widely used. The accessibility to health care is determined by two areas of a positive development of a country – economic growth and institutional maturity synthesized by social justice. In other words, the population’s greater access to health care-related services can and should be achieved not only by increasing the labour productivity of the employed through the introduction of new technologies and other components of economic growth, but also by adjusting higher-quality state and non-state institutions, their effective interaction in order to achieve economic growth and quality of life of the population.

This paper has aimed to explore the inter-linkages of economic growth, poverty and inequality in the context of the European Union (EU) countries during the period of 2005 – 2016. Descriptive statistics analysis and econometric methods have been applied for this purpose. Research results have revealed statistically significant interrelationships between growth and poverty in half of the European Union countries. Moreover, in majority of these countries poverty has been elastic of economic growth. It should be noted, that the countries with higher level of economic development have relatively smaller share of population living below the national poverty lines. However, we cannot say the same about the growth – inequality relationships, which have varied across the EU countries. There are economically strong countries with relatively high income inequality and economically weaker countries with lower income distribution coefficients. However, in many cases poverty and income inequality tend to move in the same direction, i.e. as one increases, the other as well and vice versa. Finally, the insights of the research could be useful in developing a common strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and achieving the goals for Europe 2020.

Our paper is dealing with the issues of energy security and economic development. Our focus is on the changes and challenges that are posed in front of the many countries with regard to the threat of the shortages of energy sources and the depletion of the existing carbon sources. Economic, social and demographic changes in the world call for the novel solutions that would include innovative ways how to secure the smooth and undisrupted flow of energy for maintaining the daily lives of the citizens. We are particularly interested in showing how the integration of energy systems or the coordination between neighboring energy systems might contribute to the sustainable development and operation of the energy sector. The paper uses an example of hydro energy storage in order to show the shortcomings of the battery energy storage and the ways how it can be solved. Our results and findings show that renewable energy sources might become a viable solution to the problems specified above. Well-balanced and well-placed usage of renewables might cushion the shortcomings of the traditional energy systems and prevent major shocks to the energy security through the world and in the European Union countries.

In last two decades, several authors have already proven the existence of positive relationship between generalized trust and macroeconomic growth and this paper queues up providing the evidence based on more recent data. An analysis of sustainability of the macroeconomic growth is also very important for prediction of economic development. However, the main aim of the paper is to analyse how the impact of trust on macroeconomic growth changes upon time, trying to find the answer how fast can changes in trust and other determinants be visible in changes in economic growth of countries. For this purpose, we introduced the dynamic aspect into the “Barro-type” regression growth models used by our predecessors. We can conclude, that trust is the most dynamic growth determinant, with the impact visible after 5 years. The paper also confirmed that the higher the initial level of GDP per capita (in terms of constancy of other variables in the model), the greater the decline in the growth rate. The high level of trust also allows better implementation of effective organizational innovation and knowledge transfer within the organization, since trust is also active through the channel of building the common good.

This paper aims at determining the strategic priorities for Romanian decision makers after the Brexit. The survey shows that they perceive the development of the rural regions, education and energy management as the main challenges for the next planning period. A comparison between the performance of Romania and the rest of the EU in these areas for the periods before and after Romania accession to EU confirm the opinion of the participants. The research also presents the respondents’ opinion in regard to what can be done better to absorb the European funds and to develop economy in a sustainable way. Brexit phenomenon is being analyzed and discussed; recommendations and policy implications for Romania provided.

Our paper tackles the issue of the European energy security and economic growth. Specifically, it evaluates the relationship between natural gas consumption and economic growth in the European Union (EU). Channels along which natural gas is supplied to the EU energy markets yield dependence from the Russian Federation which presents a threat to the European energy security. Our sample includes panel time series data over the period from 1997 to 2011 for a 26 EU countries. Based on neoclassical growth model, we create a multivariate model including gross fixed capital formation and total labor forces of a country as additional explanatory variables. Using panel cointegration tests, we found that there exists a long-run relationship between economic growth, natural gas consumption, labor and capital. In the short-run there is bidirectional causality between natural gas consumption and economic growth. The causality running from economic growth to natural gas consumption is positive. On the other hand, the causality, which runs from natural gas consumption to economic growth, is negative.