@inbook {4395, title = {The origins of the EU Cohesion Policy: from regional economic development to the place-based approach}, booktitle = {EU Cohesion Policy }, year = {2024}, pages = {10{\textendash}29 }, publisher = {Edward Elgar Publishing}, organization = {Edward Elgar Publishing}, address = {Cheltenham}, abstract = {

The overarching objective of the EU Cohesion Policy is to promote the harmonious development of its regions and cities to achieve continuous, coherent, and sustainable development throughout the entire European Union, particularly those less developed. This chapter presents the changes in Cohesion Policy since the mid-1970s, highlighting the shift towards an approach focused on territorial contexts and the endogenous competitive potential of territories. The chapter concentrates on the shift from a traditional policy reducing the socioeconomic disparities between European territories through sectoral interventions to a place-based approach in which policy measures and financial resources are tailored to specific places. This place-based approach aims at bringing policies and activities from different levels of government together. Therefore, policy interventions shifted from being limited to deprived areas to constituting an inherent part of the EU{\textquoteright}s development policies.

}, keywords = {Cohesion policy; Territorial development; Territorial dimension; European Union; Place-based}, issn = {978 1 80220 939 6}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802209402.00012}, url = {https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/book/9781802209402/book-part-9781802209402-12.xml}, author = {Piotr Idczak and Ida Musia{\l}kowska and Dagmara Kociuba} } @article {4341, title = {European and Member State Policy Responses and Economic Impacts on AgriFood Markets due to the COVID-19 Pandemic}, year = {2021}, month = {March 2021}, institution = {International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium (IATRC)}, type = {Commissioned Paper No. 26}, author = {Christine Wieck and Liesbeth Dries and Victor Martinez-Gomez and Olayinka Idowu Kareem and Bettina Rudloff and Fabio Gaetano Santeramo and Magdalena {\'S}liwi{\'n}ska and Rafa{\l} {\'S}liwi{\'n}ski} } @article {4228, title = {Looking for a safe-haven in a crisis-driven Venezuela: The Caracas stock exchange vs gold, oil and bitcoin}, journal = {Transforming Government People Process and Policy }, volume = {14}, year = {2020}, month = {04/2020}, pages = {475-494}, type = {research article}, chapter = {475}, abstract = {Purpose This paper aims to find, which of the assets: gold, oil or bitcoin can be considered a safe-haven for investors in a crisis-driven Venezuela. The authors look also at the governmental change of approach towards the use and mining of cryptocurrencies being one of the assets and potential applications of bitcoin as (quasi) money. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected the daily data (a period from 01 May 2014 to 31 July 2018) on the development of the following magnitudes: Caracas Stock Exchange main index: {\'I}ndice Burs{\'a}til de Capitalisaci{\'o}n (IBC) index; gold price in US dollars, the oil price in US dollars and Bitcoin price in bolivar fuerte (VEF) (LocalBitcoins). The authors estimated a threshold VAR model between IBC and each of the possible safe-haven assets, where the trigger variable was the IBC; then the authors modelled the residuals from the TVAR model using MGARCH model with dynamic conditional correlation. Findings The results show that that gold is a better safe-haven than oil for Venezuelan investors, while bitcoin can be considered a weak safe haven. Still, bitcoin can perform (to a certain extent) money functions in a crisis-driven country. Research limitations/implications Further research after the change of local currency from VEF into bolivar soberano might be looked at on the later stage. Practical implications The authors provide evidence on which of analysed asset is the best safe-haven for the investors acting in the time of the crisis. The evidence goes in line with other authors{\textquoteright} findings, thus, the results might bring implications for investors of more universal character. Additionally, the result might be helpful for governments and/or monetary authorities while projecting institutional frameworks and conducting monetary policy. Social implications The unprecedented economic crisis in Venezuela was one of the factors that fuelled the mining and use of cryptocurrencies in the daily life of its citizens. Nowadays, the country is a leader in terms of the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in Latin America. The results show a potential application of bitcoin as a store of value or even means of payments in Venezuelan (or in other countries affected by the crisis). Originality/value The paper builds on the original data set collected by the authors and brings evidence from the models the authors constructed to verify, which asset is the best option for investors in hard times of the crisis. The authors add to the existing literature on financial assets, cryptocurrencies and behaviour of investors under different economic conditions.}, keywords = {Bitcoin, crisis, gold, oil, safe-haven, TVAR-Model, Venezuela}, issn = { 1750-6166}, doi = {10.1108/TG-01-2020-0009}, url = {https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/TG-01-2020-0009/full/html}, author = {Ida Musia{\l}kowska and Agata Kliber and Pawe{\l} Marsza{\l}ek and Katarzyna {\'S}wierczy{\'n}ska} } @article {4173, title = {Bitcoin: Safe haven, hedge or diversifier? Perception of bitcoin in the context of a country{\textquoteright}s economic situation - A stochastic volatility approach}, journal = {Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications}, volume = {524}, year = {2019}, month = {06/2019}, pages = {246-257}, chapter = {246}, abstract = {The aim of the article is to verify whether bitcoin can act as a hedge, diversifier or safe haven on various stock markets, depending on the economic situation in the countries. To diversify the sample, we include five very different countries in our study: Japan, Venezuela, China, Estonia, and Sweden. Using daily data over the period 2014{\textendash}2017, we estimate the dynamic conditional correlation model between main stock indices and bitcoin price in local currencies (Bitflyer {\textendash} in the case of the yen, Kraken {\textendash} in the case of the euro, Huobi in the case of yuan and LocalBitcoins in all the remaining cases), as well as between main stock indices and the bitcoin price in the US dollar (Bitfinex exchange). We apply the Stochastic Volatility Model with the Dynamic Conditional Correlation. We add binary variables into the dynamic correlation equation, indicating the occurrence of extreme return on the stock-exchange index in the lower 1\%, 5\% and 10\% quantile. The conclusions vary, depending whether we consider trade on the local bitcoin exchanges or in the global one. We conclude that bitcoin was treated as a safe haven asset only in the case of Venezuela and investments in bolivars. In the case of local investments in Japan and China bitcoin behaved as a diversifier. In the bitcoin-friendly economies of Sweden and Estonia it acted as a weak hedge. In the case of the USD trade, the results suggest that bitcoin is a weak hedge with respect to all of the analyzed markets. Available at: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Yz~h1M2-24ENN}, keywords = {Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Multivariate stochastic volatility, Safe haven}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physa.2019.04.145}, author = {Agata Kliber and Pawe{\l} Marsza{\l}ek and Ida Musia{\l}kowska and Katarzyna {\'S}wierczy{\'n}ska} } @inbook {4037, title = {Civic Engagement in Local Politics in Central Europe}, booktitle = {The Routledge Handbook of International Local Government}, year = {2019}, pages = {344-360}, publisher = {Routledge}, organization = {Routledge}, edition = {Richard Kerley, Joyce Liddle, Pamela T. Dunning}, chapter = {23}, address = {London}, abstract = {Civic engagement and civil society participation in political decision-making is important for efficient and sustainable public policies. However, this behaviour is difficult to achieve and maintain in countries such as post-socialist societies that have passive social attitudes and low levels of general trust. This chapter describes the development and current character of local political systems, decentralisation and civic engagement in four countries in Central Europe: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. It concentrates on civil society, direct and indirect forms of political participation, the development of civil-society organisation advocacy and citizen opinions about their likelihood of influencing policy. It highlights the low general trust and social capital, passive attitudes, and low voter turnout in these countries compared to other countries in Europe. These features are a legacy of the communist past and are attributable to the negative socioeconomic consequences of the transition process and disillusionment about democratic development. As a result, the development of civil participation in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia has been slower than in other parts of Europe.}, isbn = {9781315306261}, issn = {9781138234727}, doi = {10.4324/9781315306278}, url = {https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315306278/chapters/10.4324/9781315306278-23}, author = {Potluka, Oto and Kalman, Judit and Ida Musia{\l}kowska and Piotr Idczak} } @article {3954, title = {Non-profit leadership at local level: Reflections from Central and Eastern Europe}, journal = {Local Economy}, volume = {32}, year = {2017}, month = {06/2017}, pages = {297-315}, abstract = {Successful leadership in local development requires not only a vision, but good communication skills, stakeholder involvement, strategic planning and coordination and popular support via public participation. Our empirical study contributes to filling the gap in the literature about the role of non-profit leadership in urban and regional development. We study the characteristics of politicians in civil society and that of civil society{\textquoteright}s leaders in politics as a prerequisite for successful local development. For this, we draw on the survey data of 374 local politicians from four large cities in Central Europe: Prague, Bratislava, Budapest and Pozna{\'n}. The research affirms that non-profit non-governmental organisations do play an important role in local development and reveals similarities in all analysed cities, though with some variance. Local political elites are identified as engaging significantly in civil society organisations, despite low levels of general trust in these countries. About two-thirds of the local politicians who took part in the survey participate actively in civil society organisations in their respective cities but not coming from a previous non-profit non-governmental organisation employment. Not only are they active, but many of them also have positions as managers or directors, or as members of the board of directors in these organisations. Although neither membership nor leadership in non-profit non-governmental organisations appears to increase a local politician{\textquoteright}s chance of being elected, except when those are engaged in local development or environmental issues. As spatial leadership plays an important role in the construction of new agendas and identities we have also investigated the views of local politicians on decentralisation, government service provision efficiency and the importance of several local policy topics, and found some puzzling differences across our V4 cities that possibly reflect cultural differences. Non-profit leadership in urban development is a neglected topic so far in the literature, our study adds empirical results from Central and Eastern Europe, yet there is ample room for future research.}, keywords = {Central and Eastern Europe, Czech Republic, Hungary, leadership, local development, local elections, non-profit organizations, Poland, Slovakia}, issn = {1470-9325 }, doi = {10.1177/0269094217707281}, url = {http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0269094217707281}, author = {Oto Potluka and Judit Kalman and Ida Musia{\l}kowska and Piotr Idczak} } @book {3466, title = {Local Participation in Visegrad Countries: How Are Politicians Rooted in the Civil Society?}, year = {2014}, pages = {109}, publisher = {IREAS}, organization = {IREAS}, address = {Praga}, abstract = {

This year, the Visegrad countries celebrate together twenty ve years since the socio, economic and political changes lead in collapse of totalitarian regimes. But the political transition brought also problems and new challenges not know previously. The rst free elections were held in the Visegrad countries that time and their inhabitants could choose their political representatives. Many of them came originally from the civil society and revolution movements. However, the political decision-making became disconnected from the civil society over time. We study the present rootedness of local political representatives in the civil society measured by their membership and leadership in civil society organisations in all four Visegrad countries. We are as well interested in engagement of activists from the civil society in an institutionalised political life, i.e. political parties and political movements. The purpose of this book is to discuss development of local democracy, local development initiatives and local social capital in growing urban areas in post-transition countries in which the civil society was almost absent or very weak twenty ve years ago. This publication comes up with overviews of the situation in four cities, one in each of the Visegrad countries. First the Polish case of Poznan is discussed. Then three capital cities follow: Czech Prague, Slovakian Bratislava and Hungarian Budapest.

}, keywords = {Bratislava, Budapest, civil society, civil society organisations, European Union, leaders, local elections, local participation, Poznan, Prague, regions, Visegrad Countries}, issn = {978-80-86684-98-7}, url = {http://www.ireas.cz/images/projekty/lea/lea_publikace.pdf}, author = {Potluka, Oto and Piotr Idczak and Ida Musia{\l}kowska and Kalman, Judit and Spacek, Martin and Kostal, Ctibor and Ovadek, Michal and Tholtova, Barbora} }