Purpose: The main objective of the research was to find an answer to the research question: What impact on the financial risk of hospital operations in Poland was the COVID-19 pandemic? Design/methodology/approach: The following research methods were used to achieve the research objective: critical analysis of the subject literature, financial data analysis, ratio analysis, statistical inference using selected statistical tests with the use of the IBM SPSS Statistics. Findings: At the stage of analysis of the literature, it was shown that the pandemic theoretically had an impact on the financial situation of hospitals, as confirmed by other studies, therefore, the impact of the pandemic should also be visible in the area of financial risk of hospital operations. However, the literature review carried out did not confirm the existence of research in this area. In connection with the existing cognitive gap, we conducted empirical studies that did not confirm the adopted detailed hypotheses. It should be considered that the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a statistically significant impact on the financial risk of hospitals in Poland. Research limitations/implications: It should be emphasized that three financial risk measures were adopted, the number of financial risk measures should be expanded in future studies. Authors also propose to extend the research to include the use of measures that take into account the sources of risk. Authors encountered limitations of the conducted research, although the research sample was statistically adequate, but it could be more numerous, however, for many hospital units full financial data was missing and had to be rejected from the analyzed sample. Originality/value: The paper fills a research gap by empirically assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital financial risk in Poland. It offers novel insights based on volatility measures and is addressed to healthcare managers, policymakers, and researchers in health economics. Keywords: hospitals in Poland, financial situation of hospitals, financial risk of hospital operations, impact of the pandemic on hospital operations in Poland. Category of the paper: Research paper.

During the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, energy prices are rising. Such a situation would suggest high customer turnover, especially since the environment has a strong influence on population behaviour at the individual level. The purpose of this paper is to model the barriers and preferences of individual customers in switching energy suppliers according to the level of satisfaction in a dynamically changing environment. We statistically designed the study using Eta index calculations, test: KruskalWallis, post hoc Dunn’s test with Bonferroni correction. Two models were obtained: barriers and preferences for changing energy retailers among residential customers, depending on the level of satisfaction in a dynamically changing environment. We demonstrated the relationship between barriers to switching energy vendors and customer satisfaction levels. We investigated whether the level of satisfaction influences energy seller switching preferences among customers. We demonstrated the relationship between barriers to switching energy vendors and individual customer preferences and satisfaction levels

This article examines household energy demand, prices, and changes in energy-carrier mixes in Central and Eastern Europe during 2013–2023. Structural comparisons use a balanced 15-country panel; demand models use a balanced 12-country panel and energy consumption per private household calculated using annual Eurostat counts of private households. The proportional HDD adjustment is a sensitivity measure, not a validated end-use weather normalization. Country and year fixed-effects models are assessed with alternative specifications, household-series break controls, standardized magnitudes, and wild-cluster-bootstrap inference. Between 2013 and 2023, raw energy use per household decreases by 13.4% in Group A (seven countries) and 3.9% in the Group B demand subsample (five countries), whereas the HDD proxies do not decline. The joint climate-interaction test does not establish group differences in unadjusted energy use per household. The models do not establish the expected positive CDD associations with either electricity use per household or its energy-carrier share in Group B; nonsignificance does not establish the absence of a relationship. Associations with prices and annual generation-share levels are sample-, classification-, and specification-sensitive. Fixed-country structural checks, including an exchange of Hungary and Slovenia between groups, qualify convergence claims. Under the baseline grouping, Slovenia and Albania have Florence indices above their respective group means in all eleven years; this is descriptive evidence. Paired country-level comparisons do not establish higher mean annual carrier turnover in 2021–2023 than in 2014–2020. Price levels and annual changes document a heterogeneous shock; a rise in volatility is not formally tested. Affordability, comfort, and changes in resilience are not directly measured; the generation-share regressions do not determine whether renewables improve resilience. The framework informs policy appraisal without identifying household mechanisms or intervention effects.

Problems of conflicts of interest in the functioning of the capital marketThe study refers to the occurrence of conflicts of interest on the capital market, which negatively affects the functioning of the capital market, limits its development potential, and may even affect the outflow of investors, particularly those providing liquidity in the market. Today, the social responsibility of business entities becomes something important. It is a specific determinant of the company’s image and the basis of its operation. Word = Institution “brokerage house” should be associated with competence, honesty, or righteousness resulting from observance of the law and ethics principles of conducted business. The existence of a set of regulations the Code of Good Practice for Brokerage Houses, the Act on Counteracting Unfair Market Practices relating to the functioning of brokerage houses, there are situations in business practice that are not used to develop a capital market, based on a conflict of interest. Brokerage firms are obliged, on the one hand, to: sell shares and, on the other hand, recommend buying them. “Manipulation on the market” would mean entering into transactions that give false, misleading signals about supply, demand, and prices of equity instruments. To avoid conflicts of interest, there are special procedures in brokerage offices that prevent co-operation between competing departments: chinese walls.Each office additionally has rules governing the flow and control of confidential information. Such information may not be available, for example, between primary and secondary market forces, between sales departments and analysis departments.The indicated issues were brought together, focusing on the possible consequences of conflicts of interest. It emphasizes the difficulty of bringing justice through the necessity of showing the causal link between the conflict of interest and the possible loss of the investor. Then solutions were identified to protect against the negative aspects of the conflict of interest, and the proposals were presented in their conclusions.

Objectives: The article focuses on the analysis and evaluation of changes in tenant behavior and expecta-tions, in the rental market during constraints on the operation of, among others, institutions, businesses, and schools, during the pandemic. The behavior of young people, who, by defini-tion, base their housing needs more heavily on rent, was analyzed. The purpose of the article is to analyze the factors that affect the use of rent by young people in the Lower Silesian province during the pandemic. This research paper attempted to answer in what direction these changes have gone. In the process of designing the study, research hypotheses were formulated. Based on statistical analysis, it was assumed that the key factor that affects long-term rent use is lack of creditworthinessMaterial and methods: The survey conducted focused on young people. An author's survey questionnaire was used. The questionnaire titled Rental Market Preferences addressed to tenants using rental housing in the Lower Silesian province during the study contained nine closed questions. This article focuses on the evaluation of the behavior of young people on the housing market during the pandemic period.Results: The methodology used allowed us to verify the relationship between the number of rooms rented and the rental risk factors, thus confirming the validity of the research hypothesis.Conclusions: Factors influencing long-term rental use include changes in personal circumstances and lack of creditworthiness. During the pandemic period, the number of divorces in Poland increased from 13.4 per 10,000 people in 2020 to 15.9 in 2022. The research was carried out in the cities of the Lower Silesian province, which is mainly populated by young people living away from the family home, unable to nest with their parents after the breakup of a relationship.