The local aspect of aging is often ignored. However, municipalities, in particular cities will be affected by the consequences of population aging, in particular a decrease in tax revenues and an increase of expenditures on public goods demanded by the elderly. In this paper we use a static general equilibrium model to analyse the impact of aging on city’s finances. We show that an increase in the number of pensioners will raise the cost of public goods. However, an increase in the number of working elderly can alleviate the situation.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SME) play an important role in the economies of numerous emerging economies. Despite the fact that the SME sector plays a significant role in the national economy it still suffers from the underdeveloped financial sector services. It results in the lower levels of indebtedness of private sector in Poland in relation to such emerging economies like Malaysia, Estonia or Chile. The commercial financial sector is inefficient in delivering funds to SME, the important role in this area is played by regional policy, especially supported from European regional funds. The distribution of development funds is realized with serious problems because SME are reluctant to financial sector services and besides typical grants, debt-type instruments meet serious problems. Polish SME are also reluctant to use support instruments aimed at developing innovations, R&D, and intellectual property (IP) protection. Imitation model of growth still dominates among Polish SME. To address this issue, in 2014 the University of Gdansk (UG) launched a project, supported by National Science Centre (NCN, governmental), on using behavioural interventions to increase the propensity of Polish SME to apply more ambitious development measures through support instruments. The research revealed, that the majority of tested behavioural interventions aimed at building friendly support environment proved to be efficient and increased the interest of SME in developmental activities.

One of the most critical aspects of mine design is to determine the optimum cut-off grade. Despite Lane’s theory, which aims to optimize the cut-off grade by maximizing the net present value (NPV), which is now an accepted principle used in open pit planning studies, it is less developed and applied in optimizing the cut-off grade for underground polymetallic mines than open pit mines, as optimization in underground polymetallic mines is more difficult. Since there is a similar potential for optimization between open pit mines and underground mines, this paper extends the utilization of Lane’s theory and proposes an optimization model of the cut-off grade applied to combined mining-mineral processing in underground mines with multi-metals. With the help of 3D visualization model of deposits and using the equivalent factors, the objective function is expressed as one variable function of the cut-off grade. Then, the curves of increment in present value versus the cut-off grade concerning different constraints of production capacities are constructed respectively, and the reasonable cut-off grade corresponding to each constraint is calculated by using the golden section search method. The defined criterion for the global optimization of the cut-off grade is determined by maximizing the overall marginal economics. An underground polymetallic copper deposit in Tibet is taken as an example to validate the proposed model in the case study. The results show that the overall optimum equivalent cut-off grade, 0.28%, improves NPV by RMB 170.2 million in comparison with the cut-off grade policy currently used. Thus, the application of the optimization model is conducive to achieving more satisfactory economic benefits under the premise of the rational utilization of mineral resources.

The paper attempted to define the basis of city transformations that conform to the smart concept. The objective of the paper is to relate the concept of a smart city, which is quite frequently discussed in literature related to the subject, with functioning and development of the city’s economy, in a way that would allow monitoring economic processes taking place in the city, and also to find a response to the question as to the extent to which the smart city creates a new city economy. Does it expand the city economy by new elements, generate new economic mechanisms, allow the implementation of growth paths different than those to date? This objective is particularised by a description of selected issues of urban economics. With this in mind the paper discusses an approach to managing supply and demand on the basis of theoretical assumptions defined by Mudie and Cottam (1993) transposed on realities connected with provision of municipal public services in conditions of a smart city. Furthermore, sample solutions were presented related to the smart city, which reflect theoretical conclusions contained in the paper. The paper ends with a presentation of logics related to growing economy in a smart city. The economy of a smart city, ultimately an intelligent economy of the city, is created in a laminar way. Under the pressure of technological, social and political surroundings the city is permeated by social and culture intelligence, forming gradually a new economic quality. In the paper we emphasised that the concept of a smart city still remains a question of the future to a much bigger extent than one of the present time. A smart city slowly emerges from the combination of diverse megatrends and development trends characteristic for communities and economies of the second decade of the 21st century.

We discuss econometric modeling with Prof. Aleksander Welfe from the University of Łódź and Warsaw School of Economics (SGH), Vice-President of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The problem of regional diversity is the subject of a broad scientific discourse. The dynamics of territory development is connected with many factors. Among them, the so-called spaces for development opportunities of individual units and resiliance issues for external factors of regions. The author discusses the diversity of individuals from the point of view of these two factors. It indicates future directions of regional research, which will show why regions at the start with potentially the same structure are developing completely differently and why in most cases resistance is associated with innovation and in the case of Polish regions it is not.

The issue of assessing socio-economic impacts represent a key element of the decisionmaking process on the implementation of major public investment projects. The correctness of the decision depends both on the chosen principle of the socio-economic analysis and the input data. The presented article focuses on updating selected input values for the socio-economic assessment of railway infrastructure projects. Specifically, the simplified values of the estimated rail accidents costs. Accident costs are used for considering the change in the safety. At present, these values, which are also stated in the national methodological resources, are based on statistical data of the entire European Union and thus do not reflect the possible national specifics of projects implemented in the territory of individual Member States. The principle of updating values is from a methodological point of view based on the original calculation principles, however, involves a set of information items on the occurrences that emerged in the past in a specific area. The output of the article is a set of methodological steps considering national conditions when determining the average accident costs, subsequently verified on a case study of the railway network in the Czech Republic. The outputs of the presented article directly build on the results of the research project in which the team of article authors has been involved. The research results refer to different values of accident costs uniformly determined for the entire European Union territory and those determined individually for the conditions of the railway infrastructure in the Czech Republic.

This article presents an investigation of solar power plants’ economic efficiency in the case of energy prosumers. The economic effect of the development of solar energy, the environmental effect of the transition to green energy and the social effect due to lower electricity costs and investment growth from the use of photovoltaic installations (PVI) have been proven. The level of annual savings in PVI due to changes in production and own consumption of electricity are determined. Through use of factor analysis, the grouping method, the method of generalizing indicators, quantitative data collection for solar PV systems and the matrix method, the two main hypotheses were proven: (i) solar energy production should be stimulated by a sound state tariff policy; (ii) prosumers as players of the electricity market should be considered in the tariff policy. It is revealed that at current interest rates, PVI operational activity is subject to more complex factors, and the main one becomes economic, namely considering the economy of consumers, the level of taxation or grants of PVI activities, as well as productivity and the real state of technical condition of devices. The provided research develops the theoretical and empirical basis for the state policy of solar electricity usage with consideration to the peculiarities of its production and consumption. The process of production and consumption of electricity in PVI is not characterized by uniformity, which is derived from a number of factors, primarily from natural and climatic conditions. It also depends on the technical characteristics of the devices.

The approach of a unilateral impact of the financial sector on economic growth was invalidated by the last financial crisis which very quickly changed into a global economic crisis.

The aim of the study is the analysis of the impact of the financial sector on economic growth in the context of the growing phenomenon of financialization, which was one of the significant reasons of the financial crisis. The study was focused on presenting the growing scale of this phenomenon and analysing the impact of money supply in USD and EUR on world GDP and the GDP of the USA and the Eurozone. The following hypothesis was postulated: the growing process of financialization causes the growth of the USD and EUR supply, influencing changes in the world GDP, the GDP of the USA and the Eurozone. The study confirmed the hypothesis of the relation of the money supply with changes in economic growth. However, influencing economic growth with the money supply causes the purchasing power of business entities to decrease and causes growing debt. Furthermore, it does not contribute to the strength of the real economy. A repair of the current “system“ should not be sought for in constantly increasing macroprudential regulations, but in a return to a country’s interventionism, leading to a change in the priorities of the actions of financial institutions; mainly banks, and the supply of money based on fixed parities (gold, energy).

This study examines the impact of monetary policy on economic growth in Ukraine between 2006 and 2019. After the stationarity and co-integration tests, a vector- autoregressive model (VAM) was used to estimate the impact of monetary factors on economic growth in Ukraine. The research results show that GDP changes are largely explained by its own earlier dynamics, but in the long-run real GDP quite strongly depends on the money supply, exchange rate against euro, and basic interest rate. At the same time GDP is weakly dependent on the exchange rate against US dollar, CPI and PPI, the volume of loans to business and external debt. The authors explain their findings and compare them with several other empirical studies on the subject concerning some other countries.

The study was conducted to assess and substantiate the key systemic problems of the national engineering of different countries in the context of economic globalization. To achieve this goal, the study used the author’s method to assess the dependence of mechanical engineering in Ukraine, Poland and Germany on imports of intermediate goods. According to the results, it was determined that in the periods of increasing economic globalization of mechanical engineering in Ukraine, Poland and Germany has undergone systemic destructive changes and is in a threatening state, from the standpoint of economic security. In particular, in Ukrainian and Polish mechanical engineering, the dependence on imports of high-tech intermediate goods is excessively high. In contrast, German engineering, unlike Ukraine’s and Poland’s, is less dependent on imports of high-tech products, but requires much more resource-intensive intermediate goods. It is analytically substantiated that the identified problems with the import dependence of mechanical engineering in Ukraine, Poland and Germany are the result of irrational, one-sided perception of economic globalization by the main economic entities of these countries.

The energy strategy of Ukraine until 2035 forecasts that 12% of energy production will be from biomass. Currently, the share of biomass energy in the total structure of energy supplies in Ukraine is only 2%. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the diversification of the energy sector became extremely important. Rising fuels prices, problems with the fuel supply and the availability of agricultural biomass make biofuels an attractive alternative to fossil fuels. Ukraine has the potential to develop the production and use of all types of biofuels: solid, liquid and gaseous. Currently, the existing capacity and feedstock potential of biofuel production in Ukraine have not been fully realized. The experience of leading countries in the field of biofuel production shows that at the basis of the governments’ growing commitment to developing the biofuel sector is a desire to diversify the energy supply, create new jobs, improve energy security and reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other gases that contribute to global warming. The aim of the study is to construct the theoretical and practical principles of the implementation of the strategy for biofuel production from agrobiomass in Ukraine. We came to the conclusion that the trigger for the development of the bioenergy industry is the adoption at the state level of the strategy for the production of biofuels from agrobiomass. The implementation of the strategy for biofuel production will help to increase the production and use of biofuels that will strengthen Ukraine’s energy sector, help to stabilize fuel prices and will have a positive impact on the economic development of the country.

The paper presents the results of the energy analysis of the conversion of solar radiation energy into electrical energy in Polish weather conditions. The effect of sunlight and working temperature on the photovoltaic module on its power curve P = f(U) is shown. STC and NOCT conditions are described for which the manufacturers specify the parameters of the photovoltaic modules. The manufacturers of photovoltaic panels should give the PPV = f(E) characteristic for the different values of the operating temperature of the modules. An analysis of the economic efficiency of a photovoltaic power plant investment of 1 MWp taking the current legal regulations for the three variants into account was presented. Variant I – the investor benefits from the support of public aid of operational only, Variant II – the investor benefits from the support of public aid for investment in the amount of PLN 1 million, Variant III – the investor benefits from the support of public aid for investment in the amount of PLN 2 million. For all variants, indicators for assessing the economic effectiveness of the investment and the value of the auction price from the maximum price to the price at which the project loses its profitability are determined.

The aim of the article is to present the problem of revitalization of marketplaces in the context of the challenges they face in contemporary socio-economic conditions. This issue was developed based on desk research and inquiry conducted on a representative marketplace in Gdańsk Oliwa. They served to formulate guidelines for the implementation project aimed at improving the image and economic condition of traditional marketplaces in Poland. Despite significant importance for the local economy, traditional marketplaces are not able to compete with shopping malls and shopping centers, as a result of which they become unsustainable. The ongoing degradation of marketplace areas reduce their attractiveness and role they play in public spaces network. The authors of the project recognize that the solution to the issue of marginalization of traditional marketplaces is to strengthen their image in both physical and media realms. One of the proposed solutions is institutional support for marketplaces by non-governmental organizations involved in the revitalization and aestheticisation of urban areas.

The activity of territorial self-government shaped institutionally during the development process is characterized by a significant scope of care for the financial situation, which determines the efficiency of its functioning. The general availability of public services is a condition for the assessment of the activities of municipalities (powiats, voivodeships). Institutional economy as a real one, takes into account an integrated point of view. The aim of the study is to present the territorial differentiation of the eff ectiveness of communes’ activities in the context of institutional economics and to present the possibility of using a synthetic measure in this process. The synthetic measure of development fluctuated within the limits of 0.30 – Wąchock (Starachowice poviat, urban-rural commune) to 0.41 – Ostrowiec Św. (Ostrowiecki poviat, urban commune) in 2009, 0.32 – Łączna (Skarżysko poviat, rural commune) to 0.40 – Starachowice (Starachowice poviat, municipal commune) in 2015. The results of the analysis confirm the existence of small differences in the assessment of development communes of the Kamienna Basin. This approach allows the assessment of municipalities using one size and allows you to organize the analyzed objects in terms of the considered phenomenon.

The aim of the article is to present international economic integration as one of the mega trends that infl uence on the redefi nition of the factors of socio-economic development. The research procedure includes three stages. In the fi rst stage, the most important modern mega trends of socio-economic changes are organized in a synthetic way. In the second step, the genesis and changes of the process of international economic integration are elaborated. In the third stage, the infl uence of international economic integration on the changes of factors of socio-economic development is systematized. This study is being carried out as part of the FORSED research project (http://www.forsed.amu.edu.pl) fi nanced by the National Science Center as part of OPUS competition 10 – 2015/19/B/HS5/00012: New challenges of regional policy in shaping the socio-economic development factors of less developed regions.

The aim of the article is to analyse the spread and diffusion of socio-economic development in Poland in 2004-2016, while considering spatial aspects. Using the linear ordering method in the non-pattern version, a synthetic development measure for all municipalities in Poland was built based on a set of 77 features illustrating various socio-economic aspects, reduced to 25 features. For the measure constructed in this way, the convergence of the beta and sigma type has been examined, divided into 3 groups of municipalities (rural, urban and urban-rural), as well as in regional division. Using the methods of spatial econometrics, the occurrence of spatial effects was examined, in particular the attention was paid to the relationship between the processes of spreading development and spatial forms of diffusion of development. The analysis also allowed to determine the strength of local impacts of spatial connections between individual municipalities.

The aim of the paper is to present the metropolis of Wroclaw with special emphasis laid upon its socio-economic development. Starting with a concise presentation of the history of the city after the political and economic transition, we subsequently carry out a descriptive analysis of the economic development of Wroclaw and its specifics. It provides us with a grounding to highlight what a development narrative of the metropolis has been up to now and how it should be shaped in the future. Further on, we present the main challenges for the development path of Wroclaw. With obtained outcomes we clearly show that the Wroclaw metropolitan area distinguishes itself against the background of Krakow, Poznan and Szczecin in terms of its development. However, the current development narrative seems to be coming to an end which implies a comprehensive policy feedback.

The article presents scientific achievements of Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize Laureates in economic sciences in 2019: Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee, and Michael Kremer. The paper describes their contribution to the research on the sources of poverty in the world and the ways of alleviating it, and their contribution to the development of experimental research in social sciences using randomized control trials (RCT). In this context, the authors explain the reasons for growing popularity of this approach in development economics and discuss its strengths and weaknesses.

Various theories have been put forward on the demographic and health effects and consequences of socioeconomic development. In this study, we used the theoretical findings of the epidemiologic transition as a starting point to examine the 2020 values of the three main cancer indicators (incidence, mortality, prevalence). These values were compared with socioeconomic development variables for 170 countries. The countries were grouped using hierarchical clustering, and linear discriminant analysis was used to evaluate how appropriate the clustering was. Principal component analysis was used to examine, by group, which parameters are significant in each principal component and what background factors underlie the data. The results seem to confirm the association between cancer and socioeconomic background.

Based on China’s provincial panel data from 2009 to 2019, this paper empirically tests and analyzes the effects of industrial agglomeration and other important economic variables on industrial green technology innovation efficiency from the perspective of spatial statistical analysis. The results show that the efficiency of China’s industrial green innovation has not changed much during the study period, exhibiting an obvious polarization phenomenon. Moreover, the improvement of the degree of industrial agglomeration is conducive to the regional green innovation efficiency level. This means that industrial agglomeration produces effective environmental and innovation benefits. In addition, the influence coefficient of enterprise-scale is negative, indicating that for Chinese industrial enterprises, the enlargement of the production scale weakens the promotion effect of R&D activities. The influence coefficient of human capital is negative, mainly because the direct effect has a small and positive value, while the indirect effect (spillover effect) has a negative and large value, indicating that the spillover effect of human capital between regions in China is deficient.

For a considerable period of time, we lived under conditions in which we paid little heed to the state of our security in its various aspects: military, economic, social, or health-related.

On ecological economics and its diagnosis of environmental and social challenges and threats.

The study presents the critical evaluation of existing drainage systems from legal, eco-nomical, environmental and technical viewpoints. Nearly 80% of agricultural land in Lithuania drained by underground drainage systems covers around 3 million hectares. The prevailing large scale drainage systems with a complex of engineering structures such as conducting ditches, drains and collectors, local roads, bridges or farm road-crossings, dikes, dams, water reservoirs, pumping stations for irrigation and for drainage need today an efficient management solution in a new economic situation. The detailed analysis of legal and economic instruments adopted in transferring the management responsibilities of drainage systems to users has been carried out. The study resulted in a number of practical contributions towards the amendments in the Law on Land Reclamation in Lithuania and the establishment of a system of indicators that would allow rationalisation of subsidy allocations for the maintenance and improvement of the drainage systems. These subsidies from the state budget make at the moment the largest share among the investment sources. The financial and in kind contribution of drainage users is permanently increasing as are the allocations of the structural funds for public projects. The EU pre-accession programme SAPARD started in 2000 has supported some investments in rural areas. Unfortunately, it did not support the drainage infrastructure properly. A critical review of previous measures allowed suggesting new actions within the framework of the actual support from EU structural funds.