The paper focuses on impact of macroeconomic indicators on the development of public debt in Slovakia. The aim of the paper was to identify those macroeconomic indicators which influence the most significantly public debt in Slovakia and to elaborate and verify simple model for public debt prediction. Research was based on the analysis of chosen macroeconomic indicators. Selection of macroeconomic indicators resulted from theoretical knowledge and study of various research papers. Authors used several scientific methods, such as content-causal analysis, comparison, mathematical and statistical methods, including simple linear regression. Macroeconomic indicators, which authors proved to be statistically significant, are GDP growth rate, openness of economy, size of public sector, government bond yields, and unemployment rate. Authors elaborated model of the public debt development in Slovakia by using a simple linear regression model. Regression model was calculated using the data for 1995-2016. Authors confirmed correctness of the model by using data for 2017. Research was limited by the fact, that there are limited data available for analysis (time series of 22 years) because of short existence of independent Slovakia. It will be necessary to continue with the research and to verify correctness of chosen indicators in longer period.

Critical situations in the operations of companies, both evitable and inevitable, usually have a certain pattern and development trend but are different as to the duration, sector or region. Many of them ask for some legal procedure, the most critical ones lead to a bankruptcy process. The purpose of the research is the rapid increase in number of bankruptcies in Slovakia in recent years. The main aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution of the bankruptcy as a type of critical situation in Slovak companies and specify it according to the regional and sectoral perspective, including economic conditions prior to a bankruptcy. The paper utilizes secondary data obtained from available databases. The initial analysis is focused on the group of all companies entering the bankruptcy process in the period from 2009 until 2019. Firstly, the full sample is considered, regardless of the legal form and data and the outcome of the analysis is used for mapping of industrial and regional intensity of bankruptcies. The second stage of the research is focused on research sample after the irrelevant subjects were ousted from it. As irrelevant subjects we consider sole traders without business data and companies with doubtful data or unclear bankruptcy start. Through the available indicators are identified the early warning signals from the financial perspective. Indicators are split into two categories – absolute and relative ones and they are investigated three, two and one years before the start of bankruptcy. Four hypotheses were formulated before the research, the length of bankruptcy process was quantified and specified for SK NACE sectors and regions. The paper presents the results of empirical analysis, which showed that the dynamic change in number of bankruptcies was brought with significant amending of bankruptcy legislation. The longest bankruptcy process is found in accommodation and food services (4 years), while IT companies generally went bankrupt within a year. The economic situation in bankrupting companies significantly worsen in case of sales and equity (the number of companies with negative equity doubled), development of profit/loss fluctuate a bit due to the sale of assets which helped in later stages. There is no statistically significant difference in the length of bankruptcy among the industries and regions. In case of legislative rules the lower cash ratio seems to be the dominant reason while companies enter the bankruptcy. The research results can be useful for further and more detailed analysis, mostly in connection with bankruptcy development (what happen when bankruptcy started) and liabilities compensation and through non-financial bankruptcy factors in individual industries.

Households represent one of the basic units in economy. In the last years, the increasing number of single-member households has become a signifi cant issue in Slovakia. In 2011, ratio of singlemember households was more than 25% in Slovakia (The 2011 Population and Housing Census in Slovakia). It is an interesting phenomenon infl uencing not only labor market (paid work), but also unpaid work activities (work performed in households) and spending of the leisure time. The aim of this study was to examine the time use of single-member households in Slovakia. We analyzed 301 single-member households and allocation of their daily time into 13 activities. To get information about the daily time use of persons, we used household member diary. Study offers unique data, based on the original fi eld research on time use of Slovak households and individuals, which was conducted in 2017 by team of researchers from Faculty of Economics, Matej Bel University in Slovakia. Besides collecting data on time use, we also collected information about the attitudes and preferences of individuals concerning the paid work and unpaid work. Within the single-member households, we analyzed and compared specifi c groups of persons-men and women, and persons younger than 30 years of age and persons over 65 years of age. We found out, that young persons living alone spend signifi cant part of their daily activities by paid work (almost 2 and half hours more than an average for person in multi-persons households). Men living alone spend signifi cant part of their daily time in paid work and by sport and usage of modern technologies. Time use of persons over 65 years living alone pointed to problem of their social isolation and absence of education in this age group.

Improving energy efficiency includes a number of measures implemented as part of the greening of the energy industry, which in turn is a prerequisite for the creation of a sustainable energy industry to ensure energy and environmental security for the world. Despite the adoption of the EU directives on energy efficiency, there is still insufficient public awareness in this area in Poland and Slovakia. This is particularly surprising because improving energy efficiency not only brings national and global benefits, but also has a significant impact on the well-being of individuals and households. The main purpose of the paper is to analyze the national policies of Poland and Slovakia, which are based on the European Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency, and which introduce new measures aimed not only at increasing energy efficiency, but also at increasing the well-being of households and individuals. Methods of desk research and content analysis were used. The current situation in both countries is illustrated by case studies that document the administrative process (Slovakia) and the calculation of energy savings (Poland) when using renewable energy sources in the case of family houses.

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