Purpose: This study aims to assess the direction of changes in the extent of extreme, relative, and statutory poverty in 2008–2017 in Poland, along with the spatial differentiation of poverty in individual voivodships.

Methodology: The study of poverty differentiation based on data from Household Budgets Survey. Obtained results were subjected to statistical analysis, using elements of multidimensional analysis.

Results: The research revealed that there are significant differences in the level of poverty in individual voivodships, with lower values observed in Western Poland. A significant drop in the level of poverty, especially extreme poverty, was recorded in 2008–2017. Furthermore, fluctuations in the extent of poverty are strongly impacted by state policy.

Implications: Research results may be useful to policy-makers at the local government level not only in Poland but also in other countries, mainly from the perspective of the European Union’s Europe 2020 strategy.

Originality/Value: The article undertakes the topic of poverty, which constitutes an important and current socioeconomic concern. Despite progressive economic development, there still exist disadvantaged groups of entities and households.

Purpose: Capital flows, tax competition, multinational companies and tax havens weakens governments’ ability to lead independent tax policy. This race to the bottom, especially in the case of CIT rate, seems to work. Aim of the text is to show that the governments are not as powerless as it is often claimed. Despite common opinion, nation-states retain a relatively significant autonomy in creating their own fiscal policies, including tax instruments. Size of funds kept in tax havens have not been growing for few years and international cooperation of tax authorities is more and more efficient in dealing with the tax fraud.

Methodology: The study uses desk research method for theoretical reasoning to verify the research
hypothesis. Moreover, the study seeks answering if the application of EU tax policies determines national tax policy. To that end, the authors utilize time series and cause-effect analysis, as well as quantitative research for the systematization of statistical information and regression analysis for the examination of statistical dependencies. Tax competition or the functioning of tax havens naturally limits the realization of the fundamental functions of fiscal policies, although the taxation remains one
of the most crucial instruments of macroeconomic and income policy of national authorities.

Findings: The most important data on public revenues structure in different OECD countries indicate
that taxation remains one of the most crucial instruments of macroeconomic and income policy of
national authorities. We also show that impact of FDI on hosting economy is not as positive as it is
said to be. There is no relation between FDI and R&D spending and level of wages in hosting country
is even affected in the negative way by the FDI inflow. Irrespective of the regulatory details introduced at the EU level – the basic factor affecting jets coordination in the field of cooperation between tax services brings effects both in terms of the current collection of tax liabilities
and the creation of regulations that hinder tax avoidance and under statement assessment.

Originality/value: The study focuses on an analysis of tax policy. The view that taxation of international corporations is fraught with difficulties finds support in the undeniable reality of tax competition.Moreover, a large and growing share of profits is transferred to low-tax places. The prospects for taxing international companies with positive rates seem unoptimistic. Therefore, it is essential to check how the national economy is affected by the FDI inflow in OECD countries.

Purpose: Assuming a duopoly industry with pollution producing processes, the aim of this work
is to study the firms’ choice to engage in Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility (ECSR)
by means of “green” managerial delegation, i.e. hiring managers with preferences for environ mental
concerns to whom owners delegate both sales and decisions to adopt green technology.

Methodology: Depending on the firms’ strategic choices, a two/three-stage game takes place solved
by the backward induction method to obtain sub-game perfect Nash equilibria.

Results: When the market structure is a Cournot duopoly, and the environmental sensitivity of
“green” managers is extremely low, then the engagement in ECSR is the firms’ dominant strategy,
regardless of the efficiency level of the available abatement technology. Nonetheless, firms are cast
into a prisoner’s dilemma. On the other hand, if “green” managers have low-intermediate to intermediate
environmental sensitivity, then either no ECSR, multiple symmetric equilibria, or ECSR
engagement can emerge as a result in equilibrium. Finally, if managers’ environmental sensitivity
is adequately high, then firms do not engage in ECSR. When a market entry game is considered
with the Stackelberg competition in which the incumbent adopts ECSR while the entrant does not,
socially responsible behaviors cause the market to be more contestable. However, the incumbent’s
owners can use ECSR to secure a dominant position in the market, provided that they hire “green”
managers with adequate environmental concerns.
Implications: In the case of entry, non-trivial policy implications arise. Due to increased competition,
the welfare of consumers improves (lower prices for the goods). However, the entry of a polluting
firm increases emissions. Higher emissions damage consumers and lower the overall social welfare
of an environmentally concerned government. Thus, a complete welfare analysis is required prior
to the design of a government’s regulatory intervention.

Originality/Value: This paper is the first that introduces the figure of the “green” manager who
shows, in its utility function, an environmental concern.

Purpose: The article analyzes the possible methods of public debt management, which not only aim to meet regulatory requirements but also obtain a market premium in the form of an optimal level of the yield on government bond yields that will be profitable for the issuer. The study analyzes the situation in the public finance sector in the countries that form the Visegrád Group (V4). The authors evaluate the main regulatory requirements of EU law in the area of numerical fiscal rules and their impact on the yield on basic securities such as ten-year government bonds, which directly influences the cost of servicing long-term public debt.

Methodology: The study uses desk research method for theoretical reasoning to verify the research hypothesis. The study seeks to answer the question of whether the application of national and EU fiscal rules in V4 budgetary frameworks contributes to lower yields on ten-year bonds and thereby reduces the cost of public debt. The authors utilize time series and cause-effect analysis as well as quantitative research for the systematization of statistical information and regression analysis for the examination of statistical dependencies.

Findings: The basic parameters subject to financial assessment within the fiscal rules index are (1) the deficit of public finance sector and (2) public debt with its servicing costs. In 2005–2016, the ratio of the public finance sector deficit to GDP was shaped in such a way that most V4 countries required the institution of excessive deficit procedures and further disciplinary regulations. The assessment of the situation in the public finance sector in the area of budget deficit and public debt does not translate into the yield on government bonds of non-Eurozone countries. Model-based testing indicates that the financial markets – when deciding to evaluate or purchase government bonds of non-Eurozone countries – failed to acknowledge the implementation of fiscal rules in these countries and its possible effects.

Originality: The study focuses on a unique comprehensive analysis of national fiscal rules employed in individual V4 countries and their impact on the yield on government bonds throughout the entire EU membership of the V4. What holds the greatest cognitive value in this article is the answer to the question of whether Eurozone membership impacts the valuation of a country’s public debt.

There is no alternative to the development of external interdependencies in the era of globalization. An alternative was even less conceivable when Poland switched from Communism to Western-style capitalism in the course of political transformation that began in 1989. Globalization projects may differ in terms of their institutional and ideological context, but they share common foundations, namely the objectively increasing interdependencies caused by the scientific and technical revolution; particularly apparent in the field of information and communication technologies, the growing openness of economic markets, soaring social expectations of mobility – especially the mobility of human resources – as well as the readiness to coexist with fellow humans that represent diverse cultures. Even in conditions of partial de-globalization – resulting from the protectionist economic policy of governments like the Trump administration – nobody really regards the idea of reversing the globalization trend as realistic or rational. Only those who hoped that globalization – albeit exclusively neoliberal! – would imminently diminish the importance of the nation-state are bitterly disappointed, given that the process merely redefined our understanding of the latter notion.

Purpose: This study is aimed at analyzing the influence of the size of the board of directors, audit committee, institutional ownership and managerial ownership on the fnancial performance of manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange.

Methodology: The study analyses 156 Indonesia frms listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange using linear regression analysis.

Findings: The results indicated that the size of the board of directors has a positive effect on fnancial performance, while the size of the audit committee, institutional ownership and managerial ownership has no effect on the fnancial performance. While on the simultaneously testing, it showed that the size of the board of directors, audit committee size, institutional ownership and managerial ownership influence the fnancial performance.

Research limitations/implications: The research has been limited to the manufacturing sector of Indonesian companies and the internal mechanism of corporate governance. The study suggests considering an external mechanism of corporate governance as predictor variables.

Originality: The study adds to the literature of corporate government and frm performance in emerging countries. The study implies that corporate governance mechanism for audit committee, managerial ownership and institutional ownership do not enhance company performance. The average size of an audit committee just to fulfll the regulation. Corporate governance mechanism that improve fnancial performance is size board director. Improvement in board performance as board size increase has positive impact that enhance fnancial performance of company.

Purposes: The main goal of the paper is to determine the signifcance of selected sources of strategic information, used by Polish farmers in decision making. In addition, an attempt was made to determine the factors impacting the evaluation of those sources among the traits of the farmer and his farm.

Methodology: Data was gathered using the questionnaire method and analysed with standard tools of descriptive statistics.

Findings: The farmers deemed personalised sources of strategic information the most important, especially agricultural advisers, input suppliers and buyers of agricultural products. From among institutional (non-personalised) sources, local government and the chamber of agriculture were signifcant. Business information agencies and survey companies are the least important sources for farmers. The characteristics of the surroundings of the farm – specifcally, its geographic location and the size of settlement where it is located proved to have the widest impact on the evaluation of the sources included in the study. From among the organisational factors, only farm size has a signifcant impact.

Research limitations/implications: The study was confned to a representative group of farmers in Poland. A closed list of sources of strategic information was used.

Originality/value: The study results contribute to the knowledge on the functioning of Polish agriculture and may also be used in comparative studies, characterising this sector’s diversity within Europe. They can in turn contribute to properly focusing on supporting the policy of balanced agriculture development in the EU.

Purpose: The paper analyses etatist and liberal economic attitudes in Poland, their changes after the last economic crisis, and the differences in this respect between socio-occupational groups with a particular focus on managers, professionals, and business owners, on the one hand, and other working and non-working groups, on the other hand.

Methodology: Individual-level data from three representative surveys conducted in 2012,2 2016, and 2017 on stratifed random samples of the whole adult Polish population are analyzed. Findings: Despite public legitimization of economy based on private ownership and the free market, Polish public opinion still shows strong preference for public ownership and state interventionism. This preference slowly diminishes. It differs between various socio-occupational groups: managers, professionals, and business owners are more liberal than others, especially non-working people and farmers.

Research implications: Since strengthening the regulatory and controlling functions of the government in economic life is the recent tendency in Poland and other countries, the slowly growing liberal attitudes may counteract this direction. So far, however, the Polish public opinion strongly supports governmental intervention in the economy.

Originality: So far, no one wrote a similar analysis of changes in etatist and liberal economic attitudes in the post-crisis Poland.

Purpose: The organization of this article was subordinated to the connections between the government program documentation related to the state social objectives and their implementation at the budgetary level. The article shows the necessity of perceiving fiscal policy as an instrument to implement government programming objectives. The aim of the article is to assess the degree of implementation of social objectives on the basis of information resulting from the experience gained in the area of performance budgeting in Poland.

Methodology: To assess the scale of financing of social objectives in Poland in comparison with other European countries, the author used Eurostat data from COFOG (Classification of the Functions of Government). To assess the effectiveness of state operations related to the achievement of social objectives, the author used information from the implementation of the performance-oriented state budget. It was assumed that the performance-oriented system linking the clear structure of public expenditure with the objectives and measures assigned to them to assess the effectiveness of fiscal policy in particular areas of government intervention.

Findings: The relations between individual strategic documents related to social objectives and performance-oriented budgetary structure are presented. The results indicate that the scale of financing of social tasks in Poland is at a lower level than the average for European countries. The author points out the functions related to the achievement of social objectives whose effectiveness could be improved.

Originality: Using information from the implementation of the performance-oriented budget to compare the individual budget functions of social character on the basis of the evaluation of the degree to which the measures for these functions’ operations have been implemented.

Purpose: To analyse the issue of public debt in Poland and examine its effect on other areas of socio-economic life as well as government policy.
Approach: The question of public debt is placed in its historical context by looking at how it grew during the Communist system and influenced the transition period. The article draws on a range of secondary economic statistics and considers in detail a number of public policy issues, such as the reform of the pension system.

Findings: One result of the large debt incurred by the end of the 1970s was that Poland became indebted to creditors in the West. This dependency helped to shape its economic policy at the end of the 1980s. The transition to a market economy placed new burdens on the country’s public services, primarily due to the resulting large deactivation of labour. Furthermore, the creation of a compulsory private pension system at the end of the 1990s diverted significant funds out of the government’s budget and swelled the country’s public debt. Since the outbreak of the economic crisis, Poland has avoided a recession by increasing public investment by utilising available European Union funds. However, due to internal and external limits on the size of its public debt, the government is being pressured to reduce this spending. In order to create more fiscal room, the government has partly dismantled the compulsory private pension system as a short-term solution to the growing debt crisis.

Value: In the wake of the global financial crisis and economic turmoil in the European Union, the matter of public debt has taken on increased importance. This paper considers this question from a long-term perspective in a country that has been relatively successful during the international economic downturn. By examining public debt from this broad perspective, we can better understand the economic situation in Poland and the European Union, whilst also shedding light on some of the surrounding academic perspectives and public policy debates.

behavior of investors and government in the process of decision-making related to financing designed
to reduce risks in investment activity.

Methodology: Considering the interdependent type (nature) of interactions between related parties,
game theory tools were used to model such interactions. Much attention was directed to search for
parameters of interaction leading to certain Nash equilibriums in pure strategies. The formal results
obtained with the model were verified by statistical analysis.
Findings: Analysis showed that the rational behavior of related parties can lead to unexpected
results. Powerful investors will aim to work in socially-oriented economies, whereas primarily
small investors will operate in most liberal economies with a minimum tax burden but with a higher
level of risk. As for governments’ behaviors, the images are the same: small economies tend to
liberalize their tax systems and to secure investment faster than powerful ones. Empirical verification
based on statistical data of groups of countries generally confirmed the conclusions. These
formal and logical conclusions were from statistical analysis of 124 countries divided into 5 groups:
OECD countries, post-socialist countries, Latin American countries, APAC countries and ACP
countries. Provided that the more powerful ones are covered economies, there was stronger interdependence
between the size of economies and tax burden and also between total investment and
tax burden, where this dependence is positive.

Originality: The results obtained used Nash equilibriums in pure strategies as models of behavioral
norms to define behaviors of related parties and also to explain assumptions concerning the
behaviors of investors and government.

Purpose: The paper describes the functioning of the RIA system in New Zealand using the analogy
of RIA and the evaluation of public interventions. Presented solutions can provide inspiration for
the Polish government in the process of improving the quality and extent of the use of RIA.

Methodology: The analysis is based on a review of government documents and literature, as well
as individual interviews and correspondence with representatives of the government of NZ.

Conclusions: The RIA system in NZ is not error-free and its shortcomings include inter alia the
lack of solutions with respect to ex-post analysis and insufficiently rigorous methodological
approach. At the same time, a number of solutions can be regarded as good practice, e.g.: regular
external quality reviews of RIS, obligation to supplement each RIS with ‘quality assessment’ and
a ‘disclosure statement’ outlining their credibility and utility.

Practical implications: The presented strengths of the RIA system in NZ may serve as an inspiration
for modifying the RIA system in Poland.

Originality: The RIA system is presented through the prism of the model of evaluation use, which
is a related tool of collecting information about non-regulatory interventions.

Purpose: This paper critically evaluates the development of the impact assessment instrument in
Lithuania’s public administration and suggests improvements to its impact assessment system.

Research question: What interesting conceptual imperatives have appeared in Lithuania’s investigation
of the impact of regulatory policy?

Methodology: This research study uses positivist methodology to analyse the problems that researchers
have identified in Lithuania’s impact assessment. This investigation explains why certain
problems have appeared, what has changed and what system changes can be identified traced. The
study proceeds as follows. First, the research on impact assessment carried out in Lithuania is
analysed. Second, regulations on impact assessment in Lithuania are investigated. A substitute for
non-existent integrated theory is emphased by the logical structure of the EU administrative system
imperatives, principles, and norms, whose modifications have become the basis of impact assessment
system design in Lithuania. The present research combines, integrates and consolidates the
theoretical and practical information on impact assessment into an explanatory scheme, which
could be developed into a model in the future. Information from two qualitative interviews conducted
in 2009 and 2010 was also used.

Conclusions: The present research reveals that Lithuania’s regulatory impact assessment model is
still being constructed and reconstructed towards evidence-based management. A model which
revises the old impact stereotype has been designed, based on contemporary methodologies (cost-
-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses), consultations with the interested parties, a small but
exhaustive legal initiatives impact assessment, and a centralised and institutional coordination of
impact assessment.

Practical consequences: The present research presents the issues which could be useful for the
states that are starting to implement a regulatory impact assessment model. This study described
the pitfalls to avoid in order to implement a successful evidence-based management initiative.

Originality: In the present research, regulatory impact assessment is emphased as an assessment
model and normative of the EU administration effectiveness and optimality, which can be used as
a good-practice example for the modernisation of administrative activities in Central and Eastern
Europe to the level their European counterpart

Purpose: The article aims at analyzing the functional form of the relation between the level of public debt and the government bond yields in both developed and developing countries. A surge in public indebtedness following the financial crisis in 2008-2010 undermined the credibility of sovereigns in the credit markets. As a result, the government bond yields have risen, thus amplifying the problem of rapidly expanding public debts.
The purpose of the article is to estimate the threshold value of government debt above which its service costs rapidly increase.

Methodology: The relation between the 10-year government bond real interest rate and the level of debt is investigated with the use of spline regression with cubic splines. The regression model is estimated using annual data for 66 countries that spans between the years 1980-2010. An additional analysis is conducted for the last decade and after splitting the sample into high-income and catching-up countries.

Findings: In the sample that covers all countries and the whole 1980-2010 period no relation between the level of debt and interest rate has been detected. In the years 2001-2010 the threshold value of debt above which the real interest rate starts to grow rapidly is estimated to be around 150% of GDP in catching-up countries and about 110% of GDP in high-income countries.

Research implications: An analysis of the impact of fiscal policy on the level of interest should take into account the likely non-linearity of the relationship.

Originality: Spline regression has not yet been used in the analysis of the relation between debt and interest rate.

Purpose: The main target of this paper is to present the implementation of the innovation policy in Poland during the last financial and economic crisis. The main hypothesis is an assumption that if innovative activity is one of the ways of overcoming the current economic crisis, the government’s innovation policy should strongly support such activity.

Methodology: The verification of the hypothesis is based on an analysis of theoretical and empirical research conducted by governmental and non-governmental institutions.

Results: The analysis of literature as well as research conducted by governmental and non-governmental institutions showed that the innovation policy in Poland is undergoing a deep transition. The effects of the policy are currently insufficient.

Originality: Despite substantial domestic and foreign literature about the role, targets and effects of innovation policy, there is a lack of analysis of this issue during the time of the current economic crisis.

Purpose: The article presents the results of the analysis of the employment and salary policy in Polish public administration in the period of 2002-2011 in terms of public administration management in times of the financial crisis and the competitiveness of employment in government administration. The authors of the article examine the effectiveness of the subsequent government efforts to institute “a cheap state”. They have assumed that in the
examined period the effectiveness of government administration did not change considerably.

Originality: The presented analysis covers such issues as: identifying the determinants of changes in salary and employment rates in government administration; an analysis of the relevant major legal institutions; a study of the main changes in the salary and employment policy in government administration; an analysis of the employment nd remuneration budget in public administration; an assessment of the changes in the effectiveness of the
functioning of government administration.

Methodology: In their studies the authors conduct inductive and deductive reasoning by means of the following research techniques: an analysis of legal acts, strategic government documents and reports of the Supreme Audit Office (NIK); a statistical dynamics and structure analysis; a comparative analysis and a one-dimensional analysis of public expenditure efficiency.

Purpose: This text is a review of the results of a research project on Polish entrepreneurs and Polish enterprises in Silicon Valley, conducted by the author in Silicon Valley in The United States in the years 2007–2012.

Methodology: 81 participants took part in the research (members of 13 different companies and several government and third sector organizations). Among the organizations represented in the project there were companies established in the Valley by Poles, Polish companies present in the Valley, as well as institutions that are active in promotion and support of Polish business presence in the United States, especially in Silicon Valley.

Findings: The research indicates that there are three main areas for improvement in Poland, if it is to be home to companies characterized by a potential for rapid growth (as the ones that Silicon Valley is famous for). The first one concerns cultural aspects associated with low tolerance of risk and social censure of those who fail in business. The second includes financing, in particular limited access to venture capital and business angels networks. The third one refers to business education of entrepreneurs, for whom gaining practical experiences in world-class centers of entrepreneurship, such as Silicon Valley, is of utmost importance.