Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

The article presents a multidimensional comparative analysis of the impact of crude oil and liquefied petroleum gasses (LPG) prices on the housing price index in 28 European countries. Research shows that the COVID-19 pandemic and the attack of Russia on Ukraine have led to similar large fluctuations in crude oil and LPG prices. This, in turn, contributed to an increase in inflation and house price indices in the 28 analyzed European countries. Such an increase was driven by higher total construction costs, including higher prices for materials, energy and charges for building services. Housing prices in respective European countries vary. The study examines the dynamics of their changes and compares them with the use of ranking.

Effective use of Big Data can significantly support the development of smart cities and the new digital economy. The aim of the article is a multi-criteria evaluation of IT systems in terms of Big Data processing, taking into account the support for the development of smart cities. The article includes theoretical and empirical research. The adopted criteria for assessing the architecture of IT systems relate to barriers to the implementation of the digital economy in smart cities and the guidelines of international data strategies. The evaluation covered, among other things, cybersecurity and the effectiveness of organizing, storing, and producing new information. The research results allowed us to identify the key factors of Big Data processing efficiency. Based on the research results, an effective model of Big Data processing in organizations was developed. In particular, various data models were analyzed as one of the main elements of software architecture of information systems. The research also focused on data processing techniques such as data warehousing, machine learning, and distributed computing. The efficiency factors of IT systems identified in the research reduce barriers to developing global data strategies and smart cities.

This research article aims to investigate the customs smuggling of intellectual property rights infringing goods in the EU. There is no doubt that it is a phenomenon that has accompanied humanity from the beginning of the development of trade, it cannot be eliminated, but its scale can be limited (D. Matthews, P. Žikovska, 2013). The analysis used data taken from reports on intellectual property right enforcement in the EU in 2009-2020. The results show the scale and new trends in customs smuggling of goods on the EU market, but the analyses carried out do not provide a clear basis lo conclude [hat the EU customs authorities are winning the fight against customs smuggling, despite the observed decrease in confiscated goods or the number of opened proceedings, as these drops are largely related to the lockdown due lo Covid-19 and the placing of goods with high customs risk under customs control.

The multidimensional comparative analysis and the forecasting of minimum salaries in 21 European countries were conducted in the study. The research began with the ranking of the data, the amount of salary rates taken as a basis, the rise expressed in euro and the values of dynamics indices on a constant base. Then the data was aggregated. The time series of the lowest salaries in 21 European countries was analyzed and evaluated. Thus, regularities were observed that were used to select the Holt-Winters’ exponential smoothing method for the forecasting of these salaries. The obtained forecasts were analyzed and evaluated with the use of indices, such as forecasting errors.