The assessment of the impact of gender on financial decision-making was based on a representative survey ‘Social Diagnosis 2015’ conducted on a sample of over 34 thousand Polish citizens. When realising the research objective, a logistic regression model was applied – both with and without interaction effects. The study has shown that the financial behaviours of men and women differ significantly. Men more frequently use the products and services available on the financial market such as, for instance, a debit card, or invest funds in shares or bonds. They are also more willing to take risks. However, as has been shown in the study, gender is not the only important variable influencing financial decisions. Equally important are age, social and professional status, education, or place of residence. This indicates that analysing behaviours on the financial market based solely on one variable may not be appropriate.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.29.1.16400

Insufficient environment protection may have serious ecological consequences, resulting in a number of problems in the modern world, many of which are a direct result of human behavior. Therefore, one needs to limit negative ecological effects by consciously shaping environment-related behaviors. The present paper analyzes the declared attitudes of individuals when it comes to taking into consideration pro-environmental factors, including energy, consumption, and waste. We have also studied the social awareness of the socially responsible investment idea, as well as pro-ecological individual behaviors related to private finance. Our survey study, conducted on a representative sample of 1030 Polish respondents, shows that participants’ individual features have little impact on pro-ecological decisions, and that declared pro-ecological attitudes are not reflected in actual behaviors. Polish consumers are still not active enough in making decisions concerning pro-ecological actions, first of all, in terms of energy and waste. As a result of the conducted research, we suggest increasing all activities in the field of environmental policy that could increase the participation of society in facilitating sustainable development.

The aim of this paper is to present life expectancy of both genders depending on their income and to determine the impact of a possible regularity on the state pension policy. The study was based on the income of pensioners in Poland (over 5 million people receiving old-age pension). The results obtained made it possible to formulate several important conclusions: the rich live longer; the impact of income on life expectancy is much stronger among men than women; and with age, income has less and less impact on life expectancy. Consequently, in the capital model that is in force in Poland, the state should take this fact into account in its pension policy when calculating the amount of the benefit.

One of the most significant legal acts concerning the sale and management of insurance risk was issued on January 20, 2016, based on Directive (EU) 2016/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 January 2016 on insurance distribution (IDD Directive). The adoption of European IDD principles aims to enhance transparency in the operations of insurance distributors and improve the standards of their business practices. Its protective scope encompasses all individuals and entities involved in the sale of insurance products. The aim of the article is to ascertain the regulatory authorities’ impact on the insurance market, consideration of consumer protection, in light of the changes introduced by the IDD directive. The primary entities under examination, in the mentioned context of consumer protection, are distributors and supervisory authorities. The discussion includes an overview of the scale of the insurance market and its fundamental applications, as well as compliance within the framework of behavioural economics theory. Additionally, the paper addresses the aspect of threats posed to consumers by the analyzed changes in the European insurance distribution market. In this segment, the authors concentrate on the economic and social ramifications of IDD implementation for entities operating within the insurance market. The concluding section outlines the potential for development and the future prospects of financial intermediation concerning IDD utilization.

In developed countries small and medium-sized enterprises constitute a dominating group of entities, if considered by number, and are seen as the driving force of the economy. In 2011 in Poland 1,748,000 enterprises conducted business activity and out of that number 99.8% were businesses representing the SMEs sector (1,781,000). These enterprises employed over 6.3 million people out of the total labour force amounting to 9 million and annually they generate approximately 50% of GDP. Due to the role played by the SMEs sector, it is important to protect that sector in the time of the economic slowdown. For that reason in 2012 Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK), which is controlled by the Treasury, launched programmes aimed at supporting major social investments as well as some other programmes concerning collateral loan and credit programmes for SMEs. The programmes are intended to sustain employment in the sector. The objective of the paper is to present the areas of financial support for entities from the SMEs sector provided by means of the BGK budget funds. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n9p759

The objective of the article is to delineate the role of insurance in alleviating the financial ramifications of natural disasters. To achieve this objective, two research questions were formulated: 1) What are the magnitude and economic implications of natural disasters? 2) How does disaster insurance contribute to the process of asset reconstruction? In preparing the article, the authors conducted a review of literature pertaining to the subject matter and analysed secondary data sourced from reports and publications of international institutions and organisations involved in addressing the financial impact of natural disasters. Limitations of the conducted research include variations in the scale and impact of disasters across different countries, leading to a lack of uniform legal frameworks regarding the utilisation of insurance in mitigating the financial fallout of natural disasters.