Literature review suggests that rural hospitals are in the worst financial conditions due to several factors: They are smaller, located in remote areas, and they provide less specialized services due to their problems with employing well-qualified staff. We decided to check whether it is true in the case of Polish hospitals. Based on the literature review, we have assumed that rural hospitals have less favorable financial conditions. In order to verify this assumption, we use seven indicators of financial health as well as a synthetic measure of financial condition. We have found that, in fact, there is no difference in financial condition between rural and urban hospitals, or even that the financial health of rural hospitals is better if we employ the synthetic measure. Additionally, we have found that the form of activity can be a crucial driver of better financial performance. The concept of rural sustainability is supported by good financial conditions of rural hospitals, which helps to provide better access to medical services for inhabitants of rural areas.

Background: The economic slowdown affects the population's health. Based on a social gradient concept, we usually assume that this detrimental impact results from a lower social status, joblessness, or other related factors. Although many researchers dealt with the relationship between economy and health, the findings are still inconsistent, primarily related to unemployment. This study reinvestigates a relationship between the economy's condition and health by decomposing it into macroeconomic indicators. Methods: We use data for 21 European countries to estimate the panel models, covering the years 1995–2019. Dependent variables describe population health (objective measures – life expectancy for a newborn and 65 years old, healthy life expectancy, separately for male and female). The explanatory variables primarily represent GDP and other variables describing the public finance and health sectors. Results: (1) the level of economic activity affects the population’s health – GDP stimulates the life expectancies positively; this finding is strongly statistically significant; (2) the unemployment rate also positively affects health; hence, increasing the unemployment rate is linked to better health – this effect is relatively short-term. Conclusions: Social benefits or budgetary imbalance may play a protective role during an economic downturn.

In the article, we analyse the problem of the efficiency market hypothesis using entropy in moments of transition from a normal economic situation to crises or slowdowns in European, Asian and US stock markets and the economy in the years 2007–2023 (2008–2009, U.S. financial sector crises; 2020–2021, Pandemic period; and the 2022–2023 period of Russia’s attack on Ukraine). The following hypothesis is put forward in the article: In periods of economic slowdown and economic crises, the entropy of prices and return rates decreases. According to the principles of physics, in an isolated system, entropy increases and decreases at the moment of external intervention, similar to finance, where during crises and economic slowdowns, there is interference from governments introducing new regulations and intervening in financial markets. The article uses the Shannon entropy method. This measure, as a statistical measure, does not require the assumption of stationarity of time series or a known probability distribution, unlike classical statistical methods. Our results confirm decreased entropy in stock markets during crisis.

Equal access to health services is one of the priorities of health policy. We assumed, that equitable health service was a consequence of even resource allocation. The aim of the study was to analyse the relationships between non-financial allocation of health resources and the state of health of the Polish population (women and men, at the age of 60), at the level of regions. In order to prove research assumptions, Perkal's method was applied.We confirmed, that non-financial resources are allocated unequally. We also proved the existence of the relationship between access to health care and the state of health of a population

Literature studies suggest, that hospitals in rural areas are usually smaller and more sensitive to changes in health policies. The aim of this research is to assess and compare the financial condition of rural and urban hospitals. Basing on literature studies, we have assumed, that rural hospitals are characterized by lower profitability, higher debt and lower overall financial condition. We have proved, that rural hospital, although smaller, have lower debt ratios and better financial condition (especially in terms of profitability and liquidity). We have applied statistical tool and authorial methodology (“The M Method”), which basis on synthetic indicators of financial condition

We define contagion in financial markets as a significant increase in cross-market linkages after a shock to one or group of countries. Contagion occurs if cross-market co-movement increases significantly after the shock. In this article, the authors attempt to answer the question whether the selected world stock exchanges and economies are infecting each other within the meaning of the definition provided. Conditional copula functions and conditional Spearman's correlation coefficient will be used as a tool. Construction of a synthetic index of world financial markets is introduced. This index is based on the taxonomic distances of chosen stock market from the “best” object, where the best means object which has highest financial parameters.Main goal of this paper is to analyze changes in dependence between US stock market (S&P500) and chosen groups of world stock markets and constructed real economy index