scholarly journals Location differences of services and industry: A Central European dichotomy

Author(s):  
Gabor Lux

In post-socialist spatial restructuring, over-industrialised economies experienced a period of intense tertiarisation and the decline of industrial employment. However, the role of services in this process shows strong sectoral and spatial differences. In addition to structural correction, tertiarisation may be interpreted as the bearer of economic modernisation, but also a symptom of weakness where services dominate due to an absence of economic alternatives. Advanced business services are strongly concentrated in central regions, while elsewhere economic growth is still mainly driven by industry, whose location shows high path-dependency going back to the quantitative and qualitative factor supply, as well as a broader societal and institutional background that encourages the reproduction of industrial milieus.Using empirical evidence from Central and South-Eastern European countries, the author examines how the sub-national location differences of services and industry reshape and recreate the region’s traditional centre–periphery differences: evidence points to differentiation between not only central and non-central regions, but also the Central and South-Eastern European group of new EU members and candidate states.

Author(s):  
Marzena Tambor ◽  
Jacek Klich ◽  
Alicja Domagała

After the fall of communism, the healthcare systems of Central and Eastern European countries underwent enormous transformation, resulting in departure from publicly financed healthcare. This had significant adverse effects on equity in healthcare, which are still evident. In this paper, we analyzed the role of government and households in financing healthcare in eight countries (EU-8): Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. A desk research method was applied to collect quantitative data on healthcare expenditures and qualitative data on gaps in universal health coverage. A linear regression analysis was used to analyze a trend in health expenditure over the years 2000–2018. Our results indicate that a high reliance on out-of-pocket payments persists in many EU-8 countries, and only a few countries have shown a significant downward trend over time. The gaps in universal coverage in the EU-8 countries are due to explicit rationing (a limited benefit package, patient cost sharing) and implicit mechanisms (wait times). There is need to increase the role of public financing in CEE countries through budget prioritization, reducing patient co-payments for medical products and medicines, and extending the benefit package for these goods, as well as improving the quality of care.


Author(s):  
Ali Sabri Taylan ◽  
Hüseyin Tatlidil

Credit risk pricing is perhaps an understudied topic in comparisons to its profound impact on the world’s financial markets and economies. This study uses established price discovery techniques to develop a method of price discovery for credit risk in three financial markets: equity, debt, and credit derivative. This chapter is motivated by the development of credit-related instruments and signals of stock price movements of South-Eastern European countries—Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Turkey—during the recent financial crisis. In this study, the authors evaluate the dynamics of fiscal risk or country risk measured by sovereign Credit Default Swap (CDS), liquidity risk measured bond markets, and stock markets for the monthly based September 2008 – February 2011 period. The study examines monthly data observing 38 months and 8 countries. A panel vector autoregression model is proposed for changes in Long-Term Interest Rate (LTIR), changes in CDS spreads (CDS), and changes in stock index. In conclusion, CDS markets and stock markets are more significant than bond markets in explaining the post-crisis relationship among developing South-Eastern European countries. The analysis displays that long-term monetary policy did not affect CDS premium and stock index level. A strong relationship is found between the CDS spread and stock market. During financial crisis and after the crisis, the correlations among CDS, stock, and bond markets are collapsed by panicked investors’ rapid movement and wild speculators. This risk perception can explain the difference between the finance theory and practices in the market.


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