Income inequality has become an increasingly pressing economic and social problem in Europe, especially in emerging countries with more significant inequalities than the EU average. The high-level inequality persistence can decrease well-being by accentuating the shortcomings at the household level, increasing poverty and social exclusion, generating political instability, leading to a decline in social cohesion, and, finally, a weakening of the Union as a whole. In this context, the paper aims to identify the main determinants of income inequality across the CEE countries and their significant implications in supporting the quality of life and well-being, highlighting the mediation and moderation effects. The analysis focuses on emerging European countries, using panel-based data analysis for ten EU countries covering 2008–2019. The empirical findings highlighted the importance of the minimum wage, high-tech exports, the degree of economic openness, the quality of institutions, and education spending in reducing income inequality. On the other hand, the proportion of the population with a higher education level and the interaction between official and unofficial economies led to income inequality. Therefore, to increase the quality of life, it is mandatory to decrease inequalities. Thus, fewer people will be at risk of living a less qualitative life. The empirical results also proved that the informal economy and the share of people employed in industry exhibited mediating roles. In contrast, the economic growth, the urbanization degree, and the share of people employed in services exhibited moderating roles. Additionally, we also tested the impact of the income inequality determinants of the quality of life, the empirical results supporting the influence of minimum wage, employment with tertiary education, government effectiveness, the degree of economic openness, and education expenditures.
The European Union is facing an increasing concern related to numerous social and environmental issues (climate change, precarious conditions of society supported by a regressive living condition, as well as the uneven effects expected in the context of the green and digital transition) that reinforce calls for solutions that could address all these shortcomings as comprehensively as possible. Social enterprises are seen as the tool that could face the challenges of our times on a three-dimensional level, addressing economic, social, and environmental problems at the same time. These are even more important for the European model as they prioritize social value and development as a driving force for the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. Social entrepreneurs are a part of civil society that have chosen to be actively involved in solving the issues that surround us by promoting innovative business models that support a sustainable and harmonious development. Policy makers must create a unified framework at European level regarding social enterprises and strengthen their role in the European economy by including in the main EU policies that would support their financing and development. Therefore, the objective of this article is to examine how social enterprises could act to ensure the premises of an inclusive ecological transition, as well as to stimulate discussion and research on the topic of social enterprises.
The COVID-19 pandemic exerted a strong impact on the economy, including on the industrial sector. In this context, we focused our analysis on estimating the impact of the COVID-19 shock on the EU industry developments.
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