Issue 2, 2015

The article presents a concise situational analysis of the nation's health and the health system in the period of reform, and the factors affecting them and the market for health services - demographic, health and socio-economic. A short version of the theoretical model DEA analysis is presented, providing the main results of its application and solutions to optimization problems on the impact of investment on the market for health services. The impact of health technologies on this market is analyzed, measuring the effectiveness of the investments associated with the introduction of new technology in the health system. The estimation of the influence has taken into consideration the real capital investments for innovations, associated with the introduction of new knowledge and skills in the field of medicine. The study focuses on technical efficiency, and the resulting assessment could contribute to the optimal allocation of investments on the market for health services.
JEL: I11; I12

The article points out the need and benefits from environmental protection when indemnifying damages, caused by the environmental risk upon its realization. The aims and goals of environmental insurance are presented. The role and function of the environmental insurance category are defined from the point of view of insurance theory. The correlation between the liability insurance against environmental protection and other insurance types is highlighted; analyzing the current condition and the opportunities for its development on the national insurance market; justifying the need of environmental pollution liability insurance for the economy of the country.
JEL: G22; Q59

The relationships between the inward foreign direct investment and the export dynamics, on the one hand, and the economic growth, on the other, are studied. Panel econometric estimates confirm the hypotheses for an export-oriented and/or (domestic and foreign) investment-based economic growth for the EU New Member States in the past fifteen years. A factor contribution analysis reveals the leading role of exports as well as the positive contributions of a similar magnitude of domestic and foreign direct investment for the economic activity dynamics. The implementation of economic policies by the EU New Member States aimed at promoting the export orientation of domestic production and maintaining an attractive business environment for foreign direct investors could be recommended based on these empirical results.
JEL: C23; Е10; F43; О47

We use survey data on inflation expectations in the EU-27 spanning the period 01.1998-05.2013 to test major expectations formation hypotheses against empirically observed behavior. Econometric modeling reveals that adaptive and rational expectations approaches fail to describe this process completely, whereas the evolutionary heterogeneous expectations approach seems better able to capture observed dynamics. Those results underline the importance of incorporating more behaviorally realistic models of expectations formation for the purposes of economic modeling.
JEL: D84; E31