Energy consumption reduction and energy efficiency improvement are recognized as global priorities in the context of the green economy and sustainable development. In this paper, determinants of energy efficiency and energy consumption for the panel of 11 post-communist countries in the Eastern Europe during 1996–2013 are investigated. The stochastic frontier function approach and comparative analysis were used to examine long-run dynamic relations. The research results show that GDP growth is a key factor increasing both energy efficiency and energy consumption. The research results on energy efficiency relations show that CO₂ emissions per capita, a fixed capital and the share of industry in the economy are other important drives. In the context of per capita energy consumption growth, the factors of structural changes determined by industry share in the national economy and innovation concerned with development and implementation of high technologies are significant. The European Union accession and participation in the European energy policy promote to energy efficiency improvements in the post-communist countries while progress in governance and enterprise restructuring as measured by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is not important for energy efficiency and per capita energy consumption in the post-communist countries. According to the research results, energy efficiency policy in the sample countries should be aimed at providing further economic growth enhancing a positive impact of other factors and implementing energy efficiency projects.

The main objective of this research is to study the role and impact of fiscal decentralization on the macroeconomic stability of the country. The paper analyzes and systematizes approaches to the definition of ‘macroeconomic stability’ concept. The key factors that impact macroeconomic stability are identified. In the framework of this research, the authors identify fiscal decentralization as one of the factors affecting macroeconomic stability. To determine the strength and statistical significance of the above mentioned relationship, the authors suggest presenting macroeconomic stability as a functional dependency between macroeconomic stability and the level of fiscal decentralization, which is described by the following variables: the growth rate of money supply, investment and openness of the economy, fiscal decentralization. In this case, it is suggested to determine the level of fiscal decentralization in three directions: expenditure decentralization, revenue decentralization and expenditure decentralization simultaneously.

Rapid economic reforms and proper GDP growth in China has affected the regional development of Chinese provinces. This study aims to estimate the degree of economic and environmental disparities within Chinese provinces for developing policy recommendations of regional transformation. The reduced log-linear specification of endogenous growth model is used for the estimation of convergence rates within Chinese provinces. The empirical results prove that an increase of 1% in GDP per capita basic year reduces the economic growth rate by 0.1% in the reference year. Thus, the ratio of the average per capita income in the wealthiest group to poorest provinces accounted for the factor 9.6 in 1995 and factor 4.1 in the year 2015, which means a reduction of disproportionate development. Environmental convergence trends were also found and less polluted provinces eventually increase emissions at higher rates than the initially polluted ones. With the pass of time, all provinces do move to the same steady state in environmental parameters. The speed of the economic and environmental convergence in China provinces is rather slow, and the economic growth was achieved by great sacrifices of an environment, since all provinces are striving to the same steady state in terms of pollution increase. The industrialized regions due to the presence of significant financial resources should pay more attention to the protection of the environment using all the available economic potential. At the same time, both initially poor provinces and rich have to develop more profoundly agriculture, tourism, recreation, and other environmentally friendly industries to improve economic performance.

The link between government size, the tax burden and private investment was assessed in the paper. Following research methods were used: the systemic, logical and comparative analysis of scientific literature, the descriptive statistics analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis, correlation analysis. The empirical analysis focuses on the data of the European Union (EU) countries. The study covers 2003 – 2012 years. The cross–sectional data is used. The research results showed that government size and the tax burden cannot be treated as the only detrimental factors for private investment. In the further research, the aspects of quality of the government and the government spending effectiveness should be included into the analysis.

Type of the article: Research Article AbstractThe modern tax system must support the transition to a carbon-neutral economy. Increasing the environmental tax burden is the most effective measure to achieve this goal. In this context, it is essential to assess the determinants of energy tax rates in European Union countries and understand the crucial conditions for making informed policy decisions. This study contributes to the existing literature by examining the determinants of energy tax rates. It incorporates not only macroeconomic, energy efficiency, and environmental factors, but also indicators of companies’ financial performance. The study analyzes a sample of European Union countries from 2010 to 2020, using fixed effects panel regression analysis. The results indicate a negative relationship between energy tax rates and energy intensity (β = –0.347), the return on equity of non-financial companies (β = –0.058), and investments (β = –0.202). The results indicate that energy tax policies in European Union countries are primarily influenced by incentives related to economic growth, specifically energy consumption (β = 0.389), renewable energy (β = 0.076), trade openness (β = 0.544), and the level of public debt (β = 0.234). The results show that environmental motives are not yet a significant factor in the decision-making to increase energy tax rates. The findings indicate that when determining energy tax rates, national governments must carefully consider the balance between environmental motives and the potential consequences for the financial performance of non-financial corporations and their investments, especially in countries with energy-intensive industries.