Confronted with an economic decline or slower growth rates in crisis and post-crisis periods, CEE governments have searched for new means to re-launch growth. The aim of this work is to evaluate the extent to which government arrangements sustain economic growth in CEECs. The centralized economy legacy and crisis related pressures on public budgets make this objective to be challenging. Results indicate an idiosyncratic relationship between government arrangements and economic growth in CEE countries, compared to other countries. We found that government size is the key piece of government settings in CEE. It exerts a strong negative influence upon growth by reducing total factor productivity. On the other hand, government effectiveness, in spite of its positive evolution, does not represent a relevant CEE growth determinant when considered alone. Public sector quality induces growth only when it is accompanied by a small government size. The paper presents the implications of our research and provides some policy suggestions.

This study highlights the distributional impact of financial litera­cy by using annual cross-country panel data from a sample of Central, East­ern, and Southeastern European countries observed during the period 2012- 2017. Particular attention is dedicated to financial competencies regarding various aspects of interest rates, inflation, and risk diversification issues. Our empirical approach, based on the estimated generalized least square meth­od, allows us to identify those groups of individuals who benefit in terms of relative incomes based on different financial skills. The findings reveal a strong positive correlation between risk diversification knowledge and over­all and top-bottom income inequality. Important policy implications are drawn in the case of the emerging European countries.

Argumenta Oeconomica, 2019, Nr 1 (42), s. 155-184

The transformation of the aforetime planned economies in market economies created the need of capitals financed early on transition period by funds out coming from privatization programs. But soon, the internal funding was revealed insufficient and was substituted by the foreign direct investments (FDI) in the context of the liberalization of capital flows. Nevertheless, the Central and Eastern European Countries' (CEECs') part of FDI attracted in the whole world is insignificant given the part of the region in terms of territories and population. During the last few years, the progress of the privatization process and the favorable politics of attracting FDI produced an increase of FDI in the CEECs. The principal objective of our study is to explain the relative small and different FDI flows among the CEECs (especially in Hungary, Slovenia and Romania) through the FDI regulation, the advantages/disadvantages in the competition with other destinations and the degree of European integration. The study engages panel methods to identify the factors that stimulated or discouraged, between 1997 and 2000, the FDI flows from the European Union of 15 and United States to Hungary, Slovenia and Romania. Drawing upon the theoretical literature (Dunning's paradigm, the new theory of FDI, the Markusen's knowledge-capital model), we accept the gravitational approach.

This study approaches the theme of shadow economy with special attention on tax evasion within European Union. Our aim is to highlight the dynamics of tax evasion, its causes and effects. The possibilities and mostly the difficulties to quantify the tax evasion are emphasized. Tax burden is analyzed as potential determinant of tax evasion, within the theoretical framework of Laffer curve. Important contributions in methodological terms are provided, as our method allows to identify threshold levels of tax burden which foster tax evasion. Our results display some heterogeneity within the sample observed. This is an exploratory study that open new and significant research perspectives.