Purpose: The article investigates whether performance of government-owned banks
is influenced by electoral considerations.

Methodology: To verify the political interference hypothesis, net interest margins
recorded by banks during different stages of the electoral cycle are studied. Univariate
tests are applied and random effects regression models are estimated.

Findings: It is established that government-owned banks exhibit statistically and
economically significantly lower net interest margins and interest incomes during
pre-electoral periods in Central European countries. The results support the view
that government-owned banks do realize political goals.

Research limitations: The role of only one political factor, i.e. electoral cycle is analyzed.
A comprehensive research project should encompass the effect of such factors
as political competition, non-electoral political events, electoral expectations,
government political complexion, and institutional development on governmentowned
banks’ behaviors. It should also assess the political determinants of lending
volume.

Originality: The article uses a new dataset including financial information since
1992, i.e. since the early transformation years.

Purpose: The objective of the article is to present the changes that have taken place
in relationships between business partners in the FMCG distribution channels in
Poland after 1989 and to identify the consequences for competitiveness in particular
groups of commercial enterprises. The scope of analysis covers relationships between
chains of large trade facilities and FMCG manufacturers and wholesale enterprises,
inclusive of cash and carry, as well as between goods suppliers and receivers.

Methodology: The article is prepared on the basis of relevant literature on cooperation
of enterprises in the distribution channels, as well as on the results of surveys
carried out by the Institute for Market, Consumption and Business Cycles Research
(IBRKK) in the 1990s and in the first years of the 21st century. It also includes
mid-2011 survey results among independent commercial enterprises and companies
operating in the chain as well as among FMCG producers. In individual periods, the
same research method is applied - face-to-face interviews, carried out among representatives of the surveyed firms. They were based on a questionnaire, which was
expanded in subsequent research periods with new aspects of cooperation between
enterprises, i.e. creation of private labels, training and consulting for business partners,
and integration processes.

Originality/value: The description and analysis of the phenomena and processes
occurring in relationships between subjects in various channels of FMCG distribution
covered multiple criteria. These include selection of a business partner, enterprise
position in its contacts with business partners, expected and achieved benefits
of cooperation, impediments and abnormalities occurring in contacts between the
goods supplier and the commercial company, and new areas of cooperation.

Purpose: The aim of this article is to analyze the potential of a simulation game
addressing the issue of implementing risk management within public sector organizations.

Design/methodology/approach: Recent legislation obliges public sector organizations
to have a risk management system in place as part of their managerial control
system. The author conducted interviews with key personnel responsible for risk
management within their public organization.

Findings: This preliminary findings of the study, among public sector organizations,
shows that these organizations have a problem implementing the risk management
process. The author after deep analysis of the different educational methodologies
decided to propose an experiential learning method in a form of simulation game.

Originality/value: Usage of simulation game to teach risk management is unique. It
can be helpful for public sector organizations not only to understand the process but
also to implement it and became an effective tool.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to show how the concentrations of primary income
can be related to the labour market structure in two samples of selected European
and transition countries. Then it focuses on the differences in the transitional path of
Poland and Russia that justify the current divergences in the distribution of income
in these two countries.

Methodology: This research, in its empirical part, is based on cluster analysis and
principal component analysis (PCA). By these techniques, the study defines which
main factors of the labour market are more involved in the distribution process in
the selected countries.

Findings: On the basis of the data used, it seems possible to establish a relationship
between different labour market models and the degree of primary income inequality,
focusing on which variables are more relevant with respect to the different
labour market systems.

Originality: This research deals with the aspect of the concentration of primary
income in different economies with cluster and principal component analyses, considering
the shortage of related economic data in this field of research.

Purpose: The aim of the article is to build a theoretical framework for analysis of
dynamic relationships between expenditures and accessibility in various health care
systems.

Methodology: The institutional model of patient-payer relations in different contractual
settings was presented. The proposed model allows quantification of economically
relevant parameters for this kind of contract, which makes comparative
analysis of health care systems with regard to expenditures and access to health care
more tractable and explicit.

Findings/originality: Four main characteristics of patient-payer contracts were
identified: elasticity of demand with regard to “accessibility” and “expenditures”
variables, and restrictions imposed on variability for access and expenditures.
It is shown how these characteristics determine the dynamics of trade-offs between
accessibility and expenditures in health care systems, especially in the context of
cost pressures resulting from technological progress in medicine.