Abstract. The concepts of economic growth and unemployment are at the beginning of the most important variables in the sense that all economies are choosing and implementing economic policies. The purpose of this study to investigate the relation between economic growth and unemployment in Eastern European Countries for the period of 1992-2014 within panel data framework. In this paper this relationship has been examined in the context of Okun's Law. Panel Unit Root, Pooled Panel OLS and Panel Johansen Co-integration tests are applied respectively. The results show that the economic growth and unemployment series are stationary at first level, unemployment affected positively by economic growth, in other words 1% rise in GDP will fall the unemployment rate by 0.08% because of Okun's coefficient for Eastern European Countries and there is a co-integration between these important macroeconomic variables.

It is widely accepted that CO2 emissions are the primary cause of climate change and environmental destruction. China, the world’s biggest carbon emitter, is the subject of this research. Utilizing the wavelet tools (wavelet correlation, wavelet coherence, multiple wavelet coherence, and partial wavelet coherence), the present study intends to capture the time-frequency dependence between CO2 emissions and renewable energy, economic growth, trade openness, and energy usage in China between 1965 and 2019. The advantage of the wavelet tools is that they can differentiate between short, medium, and long-run dynamics over the period of study. Furthermore, the study utilized the gradual shift causality test to capture the causal interconnection between CO2 emissions and the regressors. The findings from Bayer and Hanck showed a long-run relationship among the variables of interest. Furthermore, the findings from the wavelet coherence test revealed a positive relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth and energy usage at all frequencies. Although there is a weak negative relationship between renewable energy and CO2 emissions in the short run, there is no significant co-movement between CO2 emissions and trade openness. The outcomes of the partial and multiple wavelet coherence also give credence to the outcomes of the wavelet coherence test. Lastly, the gradual shift causality test revealed a one-way causality from energy usage and economic growth to CO2 emissions. Based on the findings, suitable policy suggestions were proposed.

PurposeSince competitiveness is crucial in international trade, this paper contributes to the literature by interrogating the information and communication technology (ICT)-trade nexus on competitiveness in Eastern and Western European countries. Does ICT usage promote or hinder the impact of trade openness on competitiveness? This study attempts to answer two questions: (1) is the interaction of trade and ICT significant in promoting competitiveness? (2) Is the effect significantly different by European classification?Design/methodology/approachWith data on 17 European countries from 2007 to 2020 and using mobile phones and fixed telephone usage as ICT indicators, the study engages the bootstrapped ordinary least squares (BOLS) and method of moments quantile regression (MM-QR) techniques to probe the discourse.FindingsThe empirical findings reveal that (1) the interaction of trade and ICT boost competitiveness; (2) the effect of mobile phone is consistent across the full, East, and West European samples; (3) the interaction effect is also significant across the conditional distribution of competitiveness and (4) mobile phones and fixed broadband usage reveal “leapfrog” effect across the quantiles. Overall, the study submits that ICT usage will enhance the impact of trade, and thus, ICT is a critical enabler of competitiveness in Europe; policy recommendations were discussed.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study examining the interaction effect of trade openness and ICT usage on competitiveness in Europe. In other words, the authors attempt to analyze how ICT usage influences trade-competitiveness dynamics. To fill the gap in the literature, the authors' use a sample of 17 European countries from 2007 to 2020. The variables of interest are the competitiveness index, trade openness, and four ICT indicators (mobile phone, fixed telephone subscriptions, fixed telephone subscriptions, and Internet users).

This study aims to investigate the impact of savings and foreign direct investment on economic growth in Poland. Savings play an important role in achieving sustainable growth. High saving rates are also an important tool to increase resilience to financial shocks. The economic climate that emerged following the financial crisis revealed problems with the economy of Poland to obtain foreign financing. The decrease in foreign direct investment has led to an unpredictable economic environment for developing countries such as Poland. The decrease in foreign direct investment has led to lower growth rates for an emerging market such as the economy of Poland. The relationship economic growth rate, saving and foreign direct investment are examined for Poland over the period 1992-2016 by using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach. According to this approach there is a cointegration relationship between the series and a 1% increase in savings which leads to a 0.81% increase on economic growth rate. Also a 1% increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) leads to a 1.52% increase in the economic growth rate.

The tourism has economic, social and political effects and contributes to the economic development of many countries. Interaction levels of national economies increase with tourism through globalization. This study aims to test the causality relationship between the components of the tourism and economic growth. The causality relationship between the components of the tourism and economic growth by using panel causality analysis method. The findings indicate a bi-directional causality relationship between growth and tourism expenditures and tourism revenues. Tourism expenditures, tourism receipts and number of international arrivals are parameters of the tourism. Real gross domestic product ratio is used as a growth indicator. The top eight tourist destinations are analyzed; Spain, Italy, Russia, Turkey, France, China, USA, UK. In this context; A panel dataset was created for the top eight tourism countries over the period 1995–2017. The arrivals of tourists, expenditure levels of tourists and tourism receipts are important indicators for the national economies. The positive effects of these indicators on the balance of payments, being a source of foreign exchange, employment creation, triggering investment in infrastructure and superstructure and creating a revitalizing effect in other sectors, have an important place in the region and country economy with their socio-cultural reflections.