Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an extremely important factor that promotes national competitiveness and economic development through technology transfer, new management skills, foreign trade, corporate productivity, etc. This study aims to analyze the significance of FDI and its impact on tax revenue and competitiveness, focusing on the European Union (EU) economy. An empirical analysis is conducted to determine the relationship between inward and outward FDI and tax revenue by employing data on EU countries between 1999 and 2019. The data were extracted from the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) database and the World Development Indicators database (WDI) of the World Bank. To fulfill the objective of this study and to determine the effect of FDI on tax revenue, an econometric model was developed. The research methods include systematic and comparative analysis of scientific literature, panel data analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The regression analysis was based on the least-squares method, and the estimates of the econometric models were calculated by identifying robust heteroscedasticity-consistent standard errors. The study results reveal that the outward FDI has a significant stimulating impact on total tax revenue. In contrast, inward FDI has a dampening effect on tax revenue. The analysis of the lagging effect of FDI on tax revenue in the EU member states revealed a statistically significant lagging impact of the outward FDI made two years before. The estimations indicate that the lagging effect is an incentive. No statistically significant lagging effect of the inward FDI flows on tax revenue was found.

The substantial improvements in development information and communication technologies led many economic and non-economic implications for the countries and in turn motivated the researchers to question the various effects of ICT especially in the light of economic crime. This study explores the short and long run influence of information and communication technologies on the shadow economy in 11 post-transition EU members over 1996-2015 period through second generation panel cointegration and causality tests regarding the cross-sectional dependence. The economic analyses disclosed that ICT indicators and human development had significant effects on the size of shadow economy in both short and long run. It was found that growing ICTs lead to reduction on the size of the shadow economy; in addition, human capital improvement policies serve as an important factor when tackling the shadow economy.

The scientific periodical journal (indexed on Web of Science) published by the Tomas Bata University in Zlin offers results of basic and applied economic research in the English language.

The main goal of setting energy efficiency priorities is to find ways to reduce energy consumption without harming consumers and the environment. The renovation of buildings can be considered one of the main aspects of energy efficiency in the European Union (EU). In the EU, only 5% of the renovation projects have been able to yield energy-saving at the deep renovation level. No other study has thus far ranked the EU member states according to achieved results in terms of increased usage in renewable sources, a decrease in energy usage and import, and reduction in harmful gas emissions due to energy usage. The main purpose of this article is to perform a comparative analysis of EU economies according to selected indicators related to the usage of renewable resources, energy efficiency, and emissions of harmful gasses as a result of energy usage. The methodological contribution of our study is related to developing a complex and robust research method for investment efficiency assessment allowing the study of three groups of indicators related to the usage of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and ecological aspects of energy. It was based on the PROMETHEE II method and allows testing it in other time periods, as well as modifying it for research purposes. The EU member states were categorized by such criteria as energy from renewables and biofuels, final energy consumption from renewables and biofuels, gross electricity generation from renewables and biofuels and import dependency, and usage of renewables and biofuels for heating and cooling. The results of energy per unit of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions per million inhabitants (ECO2), energy per capita, the share of CO₂ emissions from public electricity, and heat production from total CO₂ emissions revealed that Latvia, Sweden, Portugal, Croatia, Austria, Lithuania, Romania, Denmark, and Finland are the nine most advanced countries in the area under consideration. In the group of the most advanced countries, energy consumption from renewables and biofuels is higher than the EU average.

The Covid-19 pandemic mainly affected those target groups who, due to the nature of their duties, were unable to isolate themselves. The consequences of such work are psychological tension with various symptoms. In this situation, the formation of a system for localizing its consequences becomes a very important task. Three parts are distinguished: a quantitative assessment of the scale and nature of the pandemic, a quantitative assessment of the need to localize the consequences and the analysis of current system; third, the formation of a monitoring system. The chosen system allows verbal assessments to be transformed into quantitative ones. Based on it, the aggregated values of seven essential signs of psychological stress in the target groups (medical and social workers, police, customs officers, educators, pharmacists, and entrepreneurs) were identified: anxiety (0.80), stress (0.78), aggression (0.63), insomnia (0.62), persistent fatigue (0.61), depression (0.56), sadness (0.49). The application of the methodology allows forming a monitoring system considering the scale of the pandemic impact and the psychological consequences. The mental distress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has been shown to be characterized by such negative effects as anxiety, stress, insomnia, persistent fatigue, depression and persistent sadness. The study revealed that the major shortcomings in the system developed for localizing the negative effects are as follows: insufficient efforts of state institutions even in the case the negative effects are getting worse; inadequate provision of psychological assistance conditioned by unreasonably high prices and deficient legal framework.