...cohesion. Project Nr. 290657 Hermine Vidovic vidovic@wiiw.ac.at Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies www.wiiw.ac.at Please cite as: Vidovic H., (2013), ’Labour Market Developments and Social Welfare’, GRINCOH Working Paper Series, Paper No. 4.01 Labour Market Developments and Social Welfare Abstract Employment and activity rates in the new EU Member States (NMS) declined significantly up to the early 2000s and started to increase along with strong GDP growth thereafter. Job losses following the outbreak of the economic and financial crisis varied substantially across countries and have not been offset yet. Overall, the low educated and the young people are very disadvantaged on the NMS labour markets. With the exception of Poland and Slovenia, non-standard types of employment are uncommon in the NMS, following the pattern of Southern EU countries. Employment protection legislation has been adjusted to ‘European standards’ in the entire region. Union density and consequently the impact of trade unions on wage setting and employment in the NMS fell dramatically. In all NMS unemployment insurance schemes as well as minimum wage regulations were introduced at the beginning of the 1990s, but are less generous than in the EU-15. Content...
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...feel they can build on the success and decide to go broad and target the European market. The two countries that are proposed are Poland and Hungary, which will be analysed on the criteria in section 4.0. 2.0 Product: “Q-chat” This product is a telecommunication device that runs purely on the basis of messenger through MSN and Yahoo. The product is NOT a mobile phone. Both these countries’s telecommunication markets are over saturated with mobile phones, making it very competitive. The product is manufactured in Japan for their high resources in technology resources. Q-chat is an innovative, telecommunication alternative for people who use the SMS function heavily. The product consists of the following features: • GSM – Function connecting Q-chat to the internet • GPRS – Function allowing internet connection to be done on a wireless mode • TDMA – Function that allows the date to be transferred All these functions are combined and presented into a small, compact accessory item. The item can be carried everywhere and is aimed at both females and males. Q-chat will run on the pre-paid sim card function, giving customers different rates depending on the amount of credit they wish to purchase. (GSM World, 2006, ¶2). 3.0 Country Summary: Hungary The republic of Hungary is democratic state with a population of 10,106,000 people. The country was one of many countries to be granted acceptance into the European Union on the 1st of May 2004. Being a member of the European...
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...Theory 5 1.1 Sovereign bonds and credit rating agencies 5 1.2 Measures for investors behavior 6 1.3 Expected behavior of investors 11 1.4 Related literature 15 1.5 Models 16 Section II: Data & Stylized facts 17 2.1 Data 17 2.2 Stylized facts 20 Section III: Empirical analyses 26 3.1 Effect of rating events on investors’ behavior 27 3.2 Effect of business cycles on investors’ behavior surrounding rating events 33 Conclusion 46 Reference list 48 Appendix 52 Section I: Rating symbols & definitions 52 Section II: Tables 54 Section III: Figures 56 Section IV: Extended theory 57 Section V: Graphs 59 Section VI: Data 67 Section VII: Testing classical assumptions 71 Abstract Firstly, this paper investigates if investors react to changes in sovereign credit ratings. Hereby rating changes for European, Non-European and European Union countries are considered for the period: 1990-2011. Using both bond spreads and credit default swap (CDS) spreads as measures for investors’ behavior, analysis shows that changes in sovereign credit ratings significantly affect these spreads. Furthermore evidence is found that a rating downgrade of a sovereign country has a bigger impact on the spreads than a rating upgrade. Secondly, it is theoretically...
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...Explaining Student Performance Evidence from the international PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS surveys Final Report November 2005 Explaining Student Performance Evidence from the international PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS surveys Jens Henrik Haahr with Thomas Kibak Nielsen, Martin Eggert Hansen and Søren Teglgaard Jakobsen www.danishtechnology.dk jens.henrik.haahr@teknologisk.dk This study was carried out on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture. Views expressed represent exclusively the positions of the authors and do not necessarily correspond to those of the European Commission. Contents Index 1. .......................................................................................................................... 2 2. 3. 4. Executive Summary................................................................................................. 4 1.1. Education Systems and Basic Skills................................................................. 4 1.2. Student Background Characteristics and Basic Skills.................................... 10 1.3. School Characteristics and Basic Skills ......................................................... 13 1.4. Individual Student Characteristics and Basic Skills....................................... 17 1.5. New Analysis and Data Collection Activities................................................ 19 Introduction........................................................................................
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...Explaining Student Performance Evidence from the international PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS surveys Final Report November 2005 Explaining Student Performance Evidence from the international PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS surveys Jens Henrik Haahr with Thomas Kibak Nielsen, Martin Eggert Hansen and Søren Teglgaard Jakobsen www.danishtechnology.dk jens.henrik.haahr@teknologisk.dk This study was carried out on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture. Views expressed represent exclusively the positions of the authors and do not necessarily correspond to those of the European Commission. Contents Index 1. .......................................................................................................................... 2 2. 3. 4. Executive Summary................................................................................................. 4 1.1. Education Systems and Basic Skills................................................................. 4 1.2. Student Background Characteristics and Basic Skills.................................... 10 1.3. School Characteristics and Basic Skills ......................................................... 13 1.4. Individual Student Characteristics and Basic Skills....................................... 17 1.5. New Analysis and Data Collection Activities................................................ 19 Introduction....................................................................
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...success of hyper market Carrefour started targeting the customers with discounted stores. Carrefour is now world Europe largest and world second largest. Carrefour Major Merger and Acquisitions • 1998 acquisition of Comptoirs Modernes • 2000 merger with Promodes • 2000 partnership with Maus group to enter to Switzerland • 2001 acquisition of Notre largest retailer in Belgium • 2003 acquisition of Italian retailer Hyparlo which increased its stake in Colombia from 55 to 100 • 2003 joint venture with Norwegian company Norges Gruppen • 2003 acquisition of Ahold in Poland • 2004 sold 1.2 billion $ assets for growth • 2005 acquisition in Taiwan, Turkey, Cyprus and France • 2005 sold $264.1 million assets to Tesco in Czech Republic and Slovakia • 2006 acquisition of 5th largest retailer in Spain • 2006 selling of South Korea operations to E-Land • 2007 acquisition in Romania • 2010 100% acquisition of Turkish company • 2010 alliance with India’s future Group • 2010 acquisition of 51% of Hebei Baolongcang Chinese operator Source: Data Monitor 26 July 2010 The company started its business in France and adopted the organic growth strategy as the market was not saturated at that time and company was also not so much financially strong. The company used its assets and sales to develop its position in market...
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...useful models for the externalenvironment analysis of specific countries. These methods can be applied bycompanies that aim to internationalise and so to define the right location(s) abroad interms of institutional as well as cultural fit and success opportunities. Correspondingly, concepts like this also provide insightful information for explaining the location choices which organisations have already made. One such framework isthe so called Diamond Model introduced by Michael Porter in 1990. This essay triesto determine its advantages and disadvantages as a tool for the examination of firm‟s home and host location decisions by focusing on two major MNEs: ikea and audi..Porter ‟s Diamond Model(1990: 73) argues that “nation‟s competitiveness dependson the capacity of its industry to innovate and upgrade and therefore is determined by a nation‟s level of productivity. From an organisational perspective this means that national competitive advantage depends on the nation’s ability to provide a home base for companies to sustainably improve their products and services in terms of quality, features, technology and so to successfully compete in highly productive industries internationally. Audi, a German automobile company, is a part of the Volkswagen group which is one the leading automobile manufacturers and the largest car maker in Europe. Ikea, Swedish furnishing companies known worldwide operating in 42 countries, started during the 1940, offer a wide range of well designed...
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...1. Introduction Assessing the attractiveness of entering into a country is a scientific system full of logicality. The argument says to assessing the attractiveness refers to reviewing its market, resource and competitive opportunities. This is a kind of one-sided statement because there are numerous of other perspective which are ignored. To be specifically, to assessing the attractiveness of entering into a country comprehensively, it is necessary to consider three main perspectives: country and market opportunities, country risks and competitive analysis. This essay will be discussing those three main aspects and its details with related examples and theories to explaining how to evaluating country’s attractiveness in investment perspective. 2. Country Opportunity The argument mentions market and resource can be considered as a part of country and industry opportunities which influence the attractiveness of a country. For example, economic growth is so much important to be considered before making decision to interning a country. Groh and Wich (2009) states their research illustrate that market size is one of key factor for the Central European transaction economics like Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Furthermore, by the development of developing countries, emerging markets shows more and more attractiveness because of market and demand growth (Mello, 1997). Also, with the high level technology innovation environment and raw materials, it shows higher attractiveness...
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...say a few words about Ukraine as a country. Ukraine is located in the southeast part of central Europe. From East to West it covers 1,316 km, and from North to South 893 km. With the area of 607.3 km2 Ukraine is a second largest country in Europe and the forty forth – in the world. The population of Ukraine is 46,143.7 thousand inhabitants. By land Ukraine borders Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, whilst bordering with three more by sea: Bulgaria, Turkey and Georgia . Ukraine is bounded by the Black and the Azov Seas, with 2,782 km of coastline. Map of Ukraine. Source: Graphic Maps (www.worldatlas.com). Ukraine has experienced the significant population decline of 10.5% since announcing its independence – from 51.838 million in 1990 to 46.1 million in 2008. The birth rate has been increasing since 2001 and reached 10.2/1000 in 2007. However, death rate has also increased to 16.4/1000, which accounts for the negative National growth of -6.2/1000. The average life-expectancy at birth is measured to be 68.25 years in 2006 – 2007. The average population density in 2008 is 77 people per sq. km. While preparing the scorecard of Ukraine, our team have chosen the most important indicators, economic ones as well as non economic indicators, which are able to reflect the economic health of the country and to gauge a country’s standart of living in order to show an investment opportunities. First of all we will analyse economic indicators, one of them...
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...Can nuclear energy be a main alternative energy socio-economically rather than other alternative energy to decrease global warming? Introduction Nowadays it seems that most people recognize about the severity of global warming. Houghton (1997) believes that increasing alternative energy rather than using fossil fuels is very important to decrease global warming. Therefore, I chose this topic: Can nuclear energy be a main alternative energy socio-economically rather than other alternative energy to decrease global warming? This assignment will identify why serious global warming started and discuss about nuclear energy as an alternative energy. Finally, it will be examined how people think about nuclear energy used to decrease global warming. Global warming by human activity According to Houghton (1997), since Industrial Revolution fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas are being burnt worldwide rapidly and a lot of carbon dioxide from burning the fossil fuels is promoting global warming. Giddens (1998) stated that many scientists believe the main cause of global warming is carbon dioxide increased. Carbon dioxide which is one of green house gas such as methane, water vapour and nitrous oxide absorbs heat and then re-emit on the earth. So, with carbon dioxide increase, temperature rises on the earth (Carter, 2010) Wyatt (2008) stated that “Industrial revolution stimulated a major increase in production and mass consumption. The ancient sources of power-human...
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...Introduction “Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won’t be profitable for long.” (As cited in Customer Service – 8 Rules For Good Customer Service 2009.) Excellent customer service is one of the key necessities that a business must have to run a successful enterprise. Businesses in today’s world are changing, especially in the marketing department. Weather the business is a large one, for example Wall Mart or just small local businesses that are family owned and operated, such as Wayne’s Drive Inn. The main point of any business is to focus on what the customers need is and to make sure they are satisfied with the quality of service that the business is providing. Businesses need to provide their employees on the front line with proper training, which means those employees that have contact and interact with customers on daily basis’s, weather face to face or verbally must be able to offer the amount of service required. Training is also important for business’s employees because those are the people your customers deal with, and also those employees are the face of the business. Therefore a businesses selection of employees can either make or break ones business. “Well, the Harvard Business Review reports that if you can prevent 5% of your customers from leaving you, you can increase yourbottom...
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...DON DON The Case of a Slovenian Gazelle This case study was written by Maja Makovec Brenčič and Monika Lisjak, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, as a part of the Leonardo da Vinci project “Moving towards the case method”. It is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. 1 There was an atmosphere of tension before the management meeting at DON DON headquarters on 24 February 2005. The board members and regional sales managers were impatiently waiting to discover what was on the corporate agenda of Aleš Mozetič, the cofounder and chairman of the board of directors of the DON DON company. When Mozetič, a young, charismatic, and very ambitious manager, rushed into the room, the tension reached its peak. He briefly greeted the small group of highly committed managers and then energetically started his speech: Dear colleagues, we have been in the same boat for a long time. Most of you have known the DON DON company since its earliest stages of development, when my sister and I started the business. I still remember the excitement and the enthusiasm when we returned from visiting our relatives in Canada in 1993 and announced to our parents that we would enter the doughnut business . . . and the fervour while setting up machinery for baking doughnuts in the family garage. This was followed by a phase of intense work to open the first plant in Škofja Loka...
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...the International marketing Process Learning outcomes and assessment criteria 1.1 1.2 1.3 1(a) 1(b) 1(c) Critically compare international and domestic marketing principles Examine the nature of the growing global market Critically evaluate the practical marketing cross cultural implications of managing operations abroad 1(d) Systematically analyse current and potential markets trends by distinguishing between cultural differences Submit the above in the form of a structured business report in approximately 1000 words 1.4 Assignment 2. Understand the International Marketing Planning Process 2(a) Illustrate how project management techniques contribute to the development of operations management Systematically analyse different stages of the international marketing development including Domestic, ethnocentric, polycentric and geocentric Systematically analyse the nature of the market research process for international marketing 2(d) 2(e) Investigate country-market choice and market entry strategy Critically evaluate the impact of cost leadership, differentiation and focus on branding strength and recognition in country- specific markets 2.1 2(b) 2.2 2(c) 2.3 2.4 2.5 Submit the above in the form of a structured business report of approximately 1000 words Assignment 3. Understand the international requirements of the marketing mix 3(a) Examine the differences between international product strategies to include standardisation versus adaptation and extension...
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...industry’s direct contact with the market and customers, it makes sense to look at market orientation as a concept to assess the success of Tesco. Market orientation is of even greater interest when entry into emerging markets is undertaken by a Western retailing firm, suggesting that a close understanding and response to customer needs is vital. Tesco’s management places an emphasis on customer needs through the ‘Tesco Values’ philosophy, expressed as two values – “no one tries harder for customers; treat people how we like to be treated.” The values are disseminated through an internal marketing strategy, which includes distribution of company newspaper to employees. However, these values emanate from the UK and recognition of a need for country-specific practices and local can be secondary to corporate unity. Tesco has a reputation for innovative information solutions, and its ‘Clubcard’ loyalty scheme and web sites are central to this. Tesco is the UK’s largest retailer and therefore has a significant customer base on which analysis can be performed. Because many of those customers return at weekly or similar intervals, Clubcard data and relationships are both deep and wide. Accordingly, Clubcard has significant potential to influence consumer behaviour in the UK. Staff are briefed on the importance of Clubcard, and the initial launch was preceded by fervent internal marketing. Clubcard is not only closely integrated with business processes, but aligns with the brand and brand...
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...Political Studies (1998), XLVI, 572±588 Parties, Party Systems, and Satisfaction with Democratic Performance in The New Europe CHRISTOPHER J. ANDERSON1 Introduction Political parties and the party systems they form constitute the major channels of interest aggregation and citizen input in contemporary democracies. They are the vehicles through which political elites supply policy alternatives, and they constitute the major route for citizens to organize the demand for such alternatives.2 Parties also play a crucial role in the nature of democratic governance because they help legitimize the state. After all, free and fair elections in which parties compete for oce are a prime criterion for whether a system should be considered a democracy in the ®rst place. Outside of elections, political parties also have long been the most important mediating institutions between citizens and the state, in particular as parties have taken on the roles as simultaneous agents both of the state and its citizens.3 While virtually all democracies have political parties that compete for oce, political systems dier in a number of important ways with regard to how they go about channeling inputs or providing policy alternatives, and with regard to the roles they assign parties in this process. Moreover, and perhaps most importantly, the ways in which political institutions condition the formation, functioning, and development of political parties and party systems varies as ...
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