University of Minnesota, Duluth
AgEcon Search - Research in Agricultural & Applied EconomicsNot a member yet
211830 research outputs found
Sort by
Usługi biznesowe oparte na wiedzy a innowacyjność przedsiębiorstw przetwórczych w krajach Unii Europejskiej
No full textThe aim of this article is to examine the innovation performance of manufacturing companies across the European Union and their use of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) as measured by the number of patent applications. Methodology of this research concentrates on the use of comparative analysis and the rank correlation. The study is based on data from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) and Eurostat. It covers EU countries in the 1995–2012 period. The study results show that manufacturing companies in EU15 countries were more intensive and more innovative in terms of KIBS in the study period than manufacturing companies in EU12 countries. There is a positive, statistically significant correlation between KIBS intensity in both the broad and narrow sense and the number of patent applications filed by manufacturing companies. A stronger correlation occurred with respect to KIBS in the narrow sense and in more technologically advanced sectors. The findings of the study have potential implications for innovation policy, which is currently focused on supporting R&D activities. The study shows that, in order to strengthen the innovativeness of manufacturing companies, it is necessary to support not only R&D activities but also the development of KIBS companies and the innovation systems they help create
Crowdfunding - zjawisko, problemy, regulacja
Full text linkThe objective of this paper is to look into crowdfunding as a new way of providing funding to those in need. The author also evaluates the need for regulating crowdfunding in the European Union. The analysis makes use of the concept of two-sided markets [Rochet and Tirole, 2004], and it also refers to institutional economics for its theoretical framework. When discussing the benefits and risks of crowdfunding, I underline the substantial risk faced by investors. Often, due to the use of a business model in which their decisions are replaced by the platform, they cannot protect themselves against risk. As to small and medium-sized enterprises, besides the benefits of easier and possibly cheaper access to funds, I underline the importance of negative selection and moral hazard, which are detrimental not only to the investors, but also to the fundraisers. Additionally, the features of investors (who often make emotional decisions) and of platforms (liquidity risk and risk of default) amplify the risks for business participants, including SMEs as fundraisers. The substantial asymmetry of the negotiating power of the platform over other participants and the divergence of their interests-considering that the platform is much less exposed to financial risk than the investors-creates a specific institutional situation that prevents spontaneous adjustment of the rules governing the functioning of a platform to the diverging interests of participants. In this context, I reflect on the need for future harmonised regulation of crowdfunding in the European Union. I particularly highlight the need to regulate loan-based crowdfunding, which is the least regulated form of crowdfunding at the national level. Besides the protection of investors, which is already addressed by national regulations in most member countries, the issue of protection of fundraisers should also be given due attention
Efektywność funkcjonowania urzędów wojewódzkich w Polsce w ujęciu nieparametrycznym
Full text linkThis article focuses on the efficiency of public administration in Poland in the broad sense. It presents the results of the authors’ own research into the efficiency of province-level Voivodship Offices in Poland from 2008 to 2012. The research made it possible to identify the degree of variation in the efficiency of functioning of these offices and to indicate the underlying causes of the differences. The efficiency of functioning of Voivodship Offices was measured based on a nonparametric approach with use of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. It was found that the investigated offices differ considerably in terms of efficiency of functioning. Based on the identified differences in the efficiency levels, a ranking of the offices was also compiled. The results of the research indicate a clear occurrence of a scale effect in the functioning of Voivodship Offices. This, in practice, means that the number of people and businesses they serve is too small in relation to the resources and inputs used. In the course of the research, the unit costs of selected administrative services were evaluated as well as the relationship between the number of employees and the number of analysed services. Conclusions drawn from the research made it possible to formulate recommendations regarding necessary action to be taken in order to improve the efficiency of functioning of Poland’s Voivodship Offices
Szoki technologiczne związane z wykorzystaniem energii w modelu CGE dla gospodarki Polski
Full text linkDespite the increasing popularity of computable general equilibrium (CGE) models in energy-economy-environment analyses, Polish data still provide a modest disaggregation of energy-related sectors. Hence, CGE modellers need to disaggregate corresponding products and industries on their own – to not only obtain more detailed insights, but also avoid the problem of an “aggregation bias”. The aim of this paper is to test for such a bias in Poland’s case using a small open economy, CGE model called GEMPOL, with an in-house split of energy sectors. Three alternative versions of the model are calibrated and solved. The first version includes energy sectors in their original breakdown. The second version includes their in-house split, with particular values of Armington elasticities derived directly from “parent” sectors. In the third version, Armington elasticities are increased in order to reflect the higher degree of international competition for smaller sub-products. Through a simulation shock, imposed under comparative-statics mode, an exogenous energy efficiency improvement is modelled. Finally, the results obtained from all the variants of the model are compared. It turns out that the simulation results produced by both aggregations and all three specifications of the model are similar from the macroeconomic perspective, but they vary significantly between different aggregations at the sectoral level
Opodatkowanie konsumpcji, pracy i kapitału w krajach Unii Europejskiej
Full text linkThe aim of this article is to present long-term trends regarding taxation of consumption, labour and capital in European Union countries, with particular emphasis on the specific features of tax policy in Poland. Based on statistical data from the European Commission and the OECD for the 1995-2016 period and a review of the literature, an attempt was made to verify the following hypotheses: 1. In the face of a financial crisis, government revenues from taxes fell, and the main burden of mitigating the budget deficit rested with consumption taxes. 2. Despite numerous changes in the taxation of labour in the European Union, the share of personal income tax and social security contributions in budget revenues was at a similar level. 3. Tax competition initiated by new EU members and the need to stimulate an economic recovery after the crisis meant that economic operators were less involved in supplying budget revenues from taxes. 4. Tax policy in Poland differs significantly from those in Western European countries and shows many features typical of countries with a “southern” tax approach. The analysis confirmed the hypotheses, at least partially. At the same time, it indicates that the tax systems of European Union countries are diverse. Therefore, the conclusions must be carefully formulated. This particularly applies to taxpayers referred to as self-employed because they constitute a heterogeneous category. According to Eurostat statistics, their income is treated as capital income, while in Poland a significant part of this can be treated as income from work
Pracownicze Plany Kapitałowe - ewaluacja ex ante w warunkach niepełnej racjonalności
Full text linkWe provide an ex ante welfare, fiscal and general macroeconomic evaluation of the voluntary old-age saving scheme recently introduced in Poland and known as Employee Capital Plans. ECPs provide tax redemptions as well as lump-sum transfers with the objective to foster old-age savings. A reduction in capital income tax revenue and a rise in expenditure need to be compensated for through adjustments in other taxes. We employ an overlapping-generations model (OLG) to gauge the plausible magnitude of macroeconomic and welfare effects and to provide insights into the microfoundations of these adjustments. Our OLG model features voluntary participation and innovates relative to the literature by introducing agents with hand-to-mouth preferences. We find a relatively strong crowding-out of private savings. In our preferred specification, roughly PLN 0.08–0.09 of every PLN 1 allocated to ECPs is actually new savings, the rest being displaced from unincentivised private voluntary savings. The plausible values of effective capital growth in ECPs range between 0.03 and 0.42 of PLN 1. ECPs reduce the welfare of fully rational agents unless a sufficiently large annuity is offered. ECPs provide consumption smoothing and interest income to HTM agents
Crowdfunding – cechy i typologia
No full textDue to its dynamic growth during the last decade, crowdfunding has become a kind of phenomenon among the methods of investing and raising capital. There is also a growing interest in crowdfunding among researchers and scientists. This article attempts to systematise the concepts and classifications of crowdfunding on the basis of the constantly developing literature on the subject. The paper analyses existing crowdfunding definitions to embed the concept more accurately among other models concerning value co-creation. The author highlights the features of crowdfunding that are often perceived as the essence of the trend, by citing various definitions created in recent years. A secondary goal is to propose an extension of English-to-Polish translations of terminology and to add arguments to the discussion while offering inspiration for further research. The main research method used is a descriptive method supported by a critical analysis of the literature on the subject
Wykorzystanie nowego instrumentu do lokalnego pomiaru wpływu prywatyzacji na wyniki przedsiębiorstw
No full textDespite an apparent consensus in the literature that privatisation universally leads to an increase in firm performance, the problem of endogeneity bias is profound and has been emphasised in a number of meta-analyses. We propose a new instrument to address the endogeneity bias and apply it to Polish medium-sized and large firms in the period of 1995 to 2008. We find that improvements in firm performance are not universal; in particular, we find no improvement among manufacturing firms privatised to domestic investors
Interstate Trade Barriers
No full textExcerpts: The leading forms of trade barriers are those applied under the taxing, licensing and police powers. Under the former, special and discriminatory taxes end license fees and obstructive regulations are laid upon "foreign" corporations, insurance companies, certain types of merchandising corporations and foreign trucks and buses. Some of these taxes and fees are levied by the states, others by municipalities within the states. One of the newest nuisances is the use tax, applied without “offsets” for sales taxes already paid, to goods purchased in other states by residents of states having retail sales taxes. The police power is used extensively in excluding from certain states the agricultural and dairy products of their neighbors