The remarkable growth of older population has moved long-term care to the front ranks of the social policy agenda in the European Union. This paper addresses the issue of the longterm care in Lithuania, its philosophy, the legal and funding regularities, management issues and LTC policy. Its...

This paper uses obstacles to innovation to investigate the heterogeneity of Polish innovating firms. Based on the frequency with which they introduce innovations, and using data from both CIS4 (for 2002-2004) and CIS5 (2004-2006), the paper distinguishes between two groups of innovating firms:...

The importance of new firm creation in the post-Communist economies of East Central Europe (ECE) has been subject to extensive research. This paper focuses on an area of entrepreneurship which has received relatively little attention in the transition economy context but which is of particular...

The paper shows that the standing of theory in the field of mergers and acquisitions is weak for at least three reasons. Research is best described as a battlefield of ad hoc theory testing leaving behind a fragmented field. Research has focused traditionally on high intensity markets under the...

This paper addresses the issue of the gender pay gap in the formal and informal labour markets in Poland. The authors verify the hypothesis of the existence of a gender pay gap in informal work and compare this gap with the one observed in the formal (registered) labour market. Various analyses...

The paper examines the economic implications of Belarus' participation in the newly created EURASEC Customs Union. The results of the calculations show that after the introduction of a common external tariff (CET) the level of tariff protection in Belarus has not increased noticeably. The...

Past episodes of energy insecurity have been fleeting and the fears have been assuaged by market forces or technical change. This paper analyses the nature of the EU's current energy security problems, emphasising the increased importance of natural gas and high level of dependence on Russian...

The financial crisis of 2007-2009 led to a renewed increase in government deficits and debts in many EU countries, causing a full-fledged fiscal crisis in Greece and severe fiscal pressures in other euro-area countries. This has prompted a series of proposals for improving the fiscal framework...

Emerging market economies were major beneficiaries of the economic boom before 2007. More recently, they have become victims of the global financial crisis. Their future development depends, to a large extent, on global economic prospects. Today the global economy and the European economy are...

The impact of innovation on firm performance has been a matter of significant interest to economists and policy makers for decades. Although innovation is generally regarded as a means of improving the competitiveness of firms and their performance on domestic and foreign markets, this...