New technologies are driving transformational changes in the global financial system. Virtual currencies (VCs) and the underlying distributed ledger systems are among these. VCs offer many potential benefits, but also considerable risks. VCs could raise efficiency and in the long run strengthen financial inclusion. At the same time, VCs could be potential vehicles for money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and fraud. While risks to the conduct of monetary policy seem less likely to arise at this stage given the very small scale of VCs, risks to financial stability may eventually emerge as the new technologies become more widely used. National authorities have begun to address these challenges and will need to calibrate regulation in a manner that appropriately addresses the risks without stifling innovation. As experience is gained, international standards and best practices could be considered to provide guidance on the most appropriate regulatory responses in different fields, thereby promoting harmonization and cooperation across jurisdictions.

Virtual Currencies and Beyond; Initial Considerations

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionQuality of human capital (QHC), both at microeconomic and macroeconomic level, is currently considered as the main growth factor in developed economies. The process of creation of high value added in the reality of global competitive knowledge-based economy is not possible without constant effort to improve the QHC. Thus, from the long term perspective effective policies supporting multifactor development of the QHC in the context of knowledge-based economy make the condition for keeping global competitiveness of every developed economy. In the European economy it has been stated as one of the most important aims of the Europe 2020 strategy (Balcerzak, 2015, pp. 190-2010; European Commission, 2010; Hobza & Mourre, 2010). However, the economic role of the QHC is not only crucial form the perspective of long term macroeconomic development. For example in the short term it influences the situation on the labour markets (Muller-Fraczek & Pietrzak, 2011, pp. 205-209; Pietrzak & Balcerzak, 2016a; Balcerzak (ed.), 2009; Balcerzak & Zurek, 2011, pp. 3-14), the economic and social cohesion of regions and cities (Wilk et al., 2013, pp. 124-132; Pietrzak et al., 2014, pp. 135-144) or countries fiscal sustainability (Balcerzak et al., 2016, pp. 483-496; Balcerzak and Rogalska, 2016, pp. 271-282). Thus, the research on the QHC is important both form long and short term perspective.In the EU all governments implement national strategies that should support improvement of the QHS. In this context, it is necessary to compare countries' results, which can be useful for pointing the best practices and effective policy guidelines in the field. Thus, the main objective of the article is to provide a multiple-criteria analysis of the QHC in the EU countries at macroeconomic level. In the research the special attention is given to the results obtained by new member states of the EU. The research was based on the Eurostat data for the years 2001-2012. Furthermore, the analysis was done for two sub-periods 2001-2007 and 2007-2012. This approach enables to provide some insight on the probable influence of the global financial crisis on the changes of the QHC in the European economy.Additional operational aim of the paper is to provide input data on the QHC that can be used in econometric modeling of macroeconomic determinants of development and growth of European economies (see Pietrzak & Balcerzak, 2016b; Balcerzak & Pietrzak, 2016a, 2016b; Balcerzak & Pietrzak, 2015, pp. 93-106; Balcerzak, 2009, pp. 711-739). The article is a continuation of previous research of the author in the field (Balcerzak & Pietrzak, 2016c; Balcerzak, 2011, pp. 456-467).1. Data and Selection of Diagnostic VariablesThe QHC analyzed form macroeconomic perspective must be treated as complex multivariate phenomenon. It should be quantified with application of taxonomy tools and multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methodological approach (see: Balcerzak & Pietrzak, 2016d; Kunasz, 2009, pp. 35-48; Pawlas, 2009, pp. 21-31; Pietrzak & Balcerzak, 2016c; Wronowska, 2009, pp. 32-45; David, & Goddard Lopez, 2001).In the case of every multiple-criteria analysis the most significant problem is the choice of diagnostic variables that are used in the quantification of a given phenomenon. It must be stressed that the final results are always strongly influenced by the choice of the diagnostic variables (Gostkowski, 1972, pp. 15-17). This is especially important in the case of difficult to measure and quite often qualitative factor such as the QHC. As a results, in the first stage based on the review of literature related to previous research on the QHC a set of preliminary variables was selected, which in the second stage were verified with the application of formal taxonomic criteria of information value (Zelias (ed.), 2000, pp. 127-133). …

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Multiple-criteria Evaluation of Quality of Human Capital in the European Union Countries

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionLast decades have brought many significant changes in the structure of the world economy which influence the main determinants of economic processes. First of all, among the new phenomena forming contemporary economy one can point the fundamental technological change leading to forming global knowledge-based economy (see: Pohulak-Zolcdowska, 2016; Kondratiuk-Nierodzinska, 2016; Kowalska, 2016). The different economic results obtained by highly developed countries in utilizing the potential of globalization and technological changes for the last two decades (see: Scarpeta and Tressel, 2004; Balcerzak and Pietrzak, 2016a) have proved that intuitional factors can become obstacle for growth not only in the case of underdeveloped economies (Rodrik, 2007), but quality of institutions significantly influences welfare also in the case of highly developed economies (Balcerzak and Pietrzak, 2016b; Lizinska et al., 2016). This factor creates a scientific demand for international comparative research in the field. In this context, in spite of many methodological dilemmas (see: Buchanan et al., 2014) the institutional economists have taken serious effort to develop the methodology for empirical formalization and quantification of multidimensional qualitative institutional factors, which is necessary for making international comparisons of countries (see: Gwartney et al., 2015; Schwab and Sala-i-Martin, 2015; Janton-Drozdowska and Majewska, 2016; Kordalska and Olczyk, 2016; Doing Business, 2016, Miller et al., 2016). The research presented in this paper should be considered as an input to this empirical effort. The empirical research concerns quality of institutions for knowledge-based economy in the case of the EU countries. It is done for the period 20002013 and is based on the data from Fraser Institute data base for Economic Freedom of the World Report. It is continuation of previous quantitative research of the authors concentrating on international comparative research on quality of institutions in developed countries (Balcerzak, 2009, 2015a; Balcerzak and Pietrzak, 2016c, 2016d; Pietrzak and Balcerzak, 2016a).The main aim of the article is to evaluate the progress obtained by so called new member states of the European Union in the process of regulation reforms and improving quality of their institutions for global knowledge-based economy. For this purpose the research is based on the following thesis: The integration process of Central European countries with the European Union has influenced the acceleration of changes leading to improvement in the quality of their institutional systems in the context of global knowledgebased economy. The research is conducted for the years 2000-2013. As a result, it covers the time of significant formal institutional changes that had to be implemented by Central European countries before the accretion to the EU and the first years after completing formal integration.Additionally, the empirical analysis can be useful in pointing the group of countries that can be considered as leaders and be the source of good practices in the effort to form effective institutional order. This aim is significant from the perspective of creating recommendations for future regulation modifications or policy-making and, for example, forming national strategies that can lead to getting closer to obtaining some aims formed in Europe 2020 strategy (Balcerzak, 2015b).The article completes and improves existing studies by:1. Proposing methodology of measuring quality of institutions for knowledge-based economy that is based on the new institutional economy approach, in that case mostly using transaction cost theory framework. Most of the existing commonly used ratings such as Index of Economic Freedom prepared by Fraser Institute, Doing Business Rapport of the World Bank or Global Competitiveness Rapport include not only institutional factors, but also elements attributed to current economic policy as it is in the case of the first two mentioned ratings, or are concentrated on a specific factor as the last one. …

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Quality of Institutions for Knowledge-Based Economy within New Institutional Economics Framework. Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis for European Countries in the Years 2000-2013

The main aim of the article is to analyze differences in agriculture performance across the European Union countries in the years 2010-2013. Special attention was devoted to the results achieved by New Member States. The research was conducted with application of multiple criteria analysis tools: the method proposed by Hellwig and Ward’s clustering method. The research was based on the analysis of the World Bank development indicators. It confirms the existence of significant disparity in the performance of agricultural sectors between the old and new member states of the EU .

Multiple Criteria Analysis of European Union Agriculture

The subject of the research is a technological potential of European Economies at macroeconomic level. The main aim of the article is to assess relative position and eventual progress in that sphere obtained by Central European economies that joined the European Union after the year 2004.

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Technological Potential of European Economy. Proposition of Measurement with Application of Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis

The aim of this work was to present the similarities between the components of competitiveness and investment attractiveness as two complementary categories, and to show the role of new locational advantages in determining the level of investment attractiveness of a country. Another objective of this paper was to provide a comparative analysis of Central and Eastern European countries in terms of their investment attractiveness. Thus this paper was organized as follows: the first part of the paper focused on a country’s competitiveness, and the traditional and new location advantages that determine its investment attractiveness in view of direct investment inflows in the light of M. Porter’s model of a diamond, an eclectic paradigm of J. H. Dunning and new growth theories. The second part presented the results of investment attractiveness analysis including selected countries of CEE in the years 1995-2013. Comparing the investment attractiveness of Central and Eastern European countries shows that a rather narrow group of countries attracts a greater amount of FDI, and many more countries have experienced a decline in FDI. Therefore, the research results allow for the conclusion that Central and Eastern Europe reduced its investment attractiveness over the past years. This means that the majority of Central and Eastern European countries are becoming less successful in attracting FDI, and therefore in shaping the environment in which foreign companies wish to conduct their business.

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Investment attractiveness of Central and Eastern European countries in the light of new locational advantages development

The aim of this work was to show the possible impact of social capital on productivity of the economy. That impact can be measured by such indicators of productivity of the economy as used in our study: the GDP, the total value added of the economy (TVE), and the GNI per total labour force. Thus, this paper was organized as follows: its first part presents the relationship between the development of social capital and productivity growth of the country in the light of the economic development theory. In this context, it is pointed out that the significance of social capital as a component of the productivity potential of a given country increases when such country moves to the next stages of economic development. Therefore, social capital becomes a very important driver of the upgrading of national incomes in those countries, in which competitive advantages are based primarily on intellectual capital assets. The another part of the paper describes the methodology and the results of a research conducted on a group of 100 countries in the years 2012-2013 with an aim to illustrate the link between social capital and productivity of the economy as a whole referred to, or indicated, in the first part of the study. The results of the research allowed us to formulate a conclusion that without an appropriate ethical behaviour, not only in business, the productivity growth is hampered because it translates into a lower level of trust and unwillingness to cooperate. In other words, as, among others, W. Bartoszewski stressed, "it is worth to be decent".

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Social capital as a key driver of productivity growth of the economy: across-countries comparison

Research background: The year 2016 ended the period of the migration from national payment services to the SEPA instruments. At the same time, however, it has become apparent that some problems remained unresolved. Overcoming them requires finding suitable technological solutions. The potential of the distributed ledger technology (DLT) is currently being explored by the financial sector and its implementation may affect the SEPA schemes in a variety of dimensions.
Purpose of the article: The aim of the article was to determine the potential impact that the DLT transfer to the banking sector may have on the functioning of the SEPA in the future. The paper presents SEPA?s assumptions and the current status of the project as well as the DTL?s concept.  It describes the technology transfer implications for the banking industry and compares the SEPA schemes currently operating with those based on the DLT. It also indicates the opportunities and threats that are the consequence of the new technology implementation and examines their significance for the SEPA.
Methods: In the article, a qualitative analysis is supplemented with a quantitative one. Elements of descriptive statistics have been used to characterize the functioning of the main pillars of the SEPA schemes.  The final conclusions are based on the comparative analysis of the SEPA schemes and developed DLT applications.
Findings & value added: The existing problems might be solved by supplementing the SEPA payment schemes currently operating with the applications based on the DLT. The systems that will be subsequently developed will provide the required real-time processing and a global reach. They will also extend the functionalities of the SEPA schemes with the ability to transfer other currencies. The implementation of this technology will result not only in new financial products but, first of all, in creating new business models. Consequently, we may expect a modification of the currently operating SEPA schemes, based on their supplementation rather than total replacement in a short time frame.

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Elżbieta Jantoń-Drozdowska

Papers

Investment attractiveness of Central and Eastern European countries in the light of new locational advantages development

Social capital as a key driver of productivity growth of the economy: across-countries comparison

The Impact of the Distributed Ledger Technology on the Single Euro Payments Area Development

Kapitał intelektualny w gospodarce opartej na wiedzy

Wiedza techniczna jako źródło przewagi konkurencyjnej kraju