Improving energy efficiency includes a number of measures implemented as part of the greening of the energy industry, which in turn is a prerequisite for the creation of a sustainable energy industry to ensure energy and environmental security for the world. Despite the adoption of the EU directives on energy efficiency, there is still insufficient public awareness in this area in Poland and Slovakia. This is particularly surprising because improving energy efficiency not only brings national and global benefits, but also has a significant impact on the well-being of individuals and households. The main purpose of the paper is to analyze the national policies of Poland and Slovakia, which are based on the European Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency, and which introduce new measures aimed not only at increasing energy efficiency, but also at increasing the well-being of households and individuals. Methods of desk research and content analysis were used. The current situation in both countries is illustrated by case studies that document the administrative process (Slovakia) and the calculation of energy savings (Poland) when using renewable energy sources in the case of family houses.

The paper focuses on impact of macroeconomic indicators on the development of public debt in Slovakia. The aim of the paper was to identify those macroeconomic indicators which influence the most significantly public debt in Slovakia and to elaborate and verify simple model for public debt prediction. Research was based on the analysis of chosen macroeconomic indicators. Selection of macroeconomic indicators resulted from theoretical knowledge and study of various research papers. Authors used several scientific methods, such as content-causal analysis, comparison, mathematical and statistical methods, including simple linear regression. Macroeconomic indicators, which authors proved to be statistically significant, are GDP growth rate, openness of economy, size of public sector, government bond yields, and unemployment rate. Authors elaborated model of the public debt development in Slovakia by using a simple linear regression model. Regression model was calculated using the data for 1995-2016. Authors confirmed correctness of the model by using data for 2017. Research was limited by the fact, that there are limited data available for analysis (time series of 22 years) because of short existence of independent Slovakia. It will be necessary to continue with the research and to verify correctness of chosen indicators in longer period. Keyword : public debt, macroeconomic indicators, linear regression model, prediction model, Slovakia, short-term period This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Critical situations in the operations of companies, both evitable and inevitable, usually have a certain pattern and development trend but are different as to the duration, sector or region. Many of them ask for some legal procedure, the most critical ones lead to a bankruptcy process. The purpose of the research is the rapid increase in number of bankruptcies in Slovakia in recent years. The main aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution of the bankruptcy as a type of critical situation in Slovak companies and specify it according to the regional and sectoral perspective, including economic conditions prior to a bankruptcy. The paper utilizes secondary data obtained from available databases. The initial analysis is focused on the group of all companies entering the bankruptcy process in the period from 2009 until 2019. Firstly, the full sample is considered, regardless of the legal form and data and the outcome of the analysis is used for mapping of industrial and regional intensity of bankruptcies. The second stage of the research is focused on research sample after the irrelevant subjects were ousted from it. As irrelevant subjects we consider sole traders without business data and companies with doubtful data or unclear bankruptcy start. Through the available indicators are identified the early warning signals from the financial perspective. Indicators are split into two categories – absolute and relative ones and they are investigated three, two and one years before the start of bankruptcy. Four hypotheses were formulated before the research, the length of bankruptcy process was quantified and specified for SK NACE sectors and regions. The paper presents the results of empirical analysis, which showed that the dynamic change in number of bankruptcies was brought with significant amending of bankruptcy legislation. The longest bankruptcy process is found in accommodation and food services (4 years), while IT companies generally went bankrupt within a year. The economic situation in bankrupting companies significantly worsen in case of sales and equity (the number of companies with negative equity doubled), development of profit/loss fluctuate a bit due to the sale of assets which helped in later stages. There is no statistically significant difference in the length of bankruptcy among the industries and regions. In case of legislative rules the lower cash ratio seems to be the dominant reason while companies enter the bankruptcy. The research results can be useful for further and more detailed analysis, mostly in connection with bankruptcy development (what happen when bankruptcy started) and liabilities compensation and through non-financial bankruptcy factors in individual industries.

Domestic appliances play a vital role in modern households. Appliances help simplify domestic work, but individuals become dependent on them. The present paper aims to contribute to the long-standing dilemma among scholars whether domestic appliances help to shorten the time devoted to household chores or not. The paper focuses on the utilization of various domestic appliances in Slovak households and on the influence of their utilization on the time of men and women in partner households and in the single-person households devoted to routine unpaid work activities. The results of the paper are based on the data from original field research conducted in Slovakia in 2015. A total of 1179 partner households, 182 single-man households and 226 single-woman households were included in the analysis. The jamovi version 1.2 statistical program was used to verify the hypothesis by chi-squared goodness of fit test and nonparametric Mann–Whitney U-test. In partner households and in single-man households, usage of automatic washing machines significantly influences time devoted to preparation and maintenance of the clothes. In single-woman households, usage of dishwasher significantly influences time devoted to food preparation. In partner households, men devote less time to routine unpaid work activities than women, regardless of usage or non-usage of domestic appliances.