Edyta Łaszkiewicz

Structural Changes in the Interdependence Among Polish and Key Capital Markets in the World in the Years 2004–2014

Globalization process and main determinants of development increase the level of interrelationships among highly developed economies. The role of these factors especially in relation to capital markets has become an important subject of economic research. As a result, the main aim of the article was to analyze the changes in the interdependence among the most important capital markets in the world and Polish capital market with special consideration of potential influence of the last global financial crisis. Thus, the interdependence among capital markets of United States, Great Britain, Germany and Poland were analyzed. In the research DCC-GARCH model was used. In the first stage the interdependence among the selected markets was analyzed. A research hypothesis pointing to a similar course and changes of the interdependence among the markets was verified. Then the analysis of breakpoints for the received conditional correlations processes was performed. The procedure enabled to verify the influence of the global financial crisis on the interdependence among the markets and divide the analyzed period in three sub-periods: a time of prosperity, a time of financial distress and a period of return to relative stability.

The real alternative? A comparison of German real estate returns with bonds and stocks

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how real estate returns behaved over the last two decades in relation to the other two asset types. This allows a direct evaluation of how investors make allocation choices and perceive risks and rewards offered by properties in the context of changing market conditions. Design/methodology/approach A de-smoothed MSCI index is used to reflect direct property returns and control for both income and capital returns within it. Indirect property returns are approximated by the RX Real Estate index. By supplementing this data with an analysis of trends in both space and capital markets it is possible to relate investor behavior to events affecting other assets. Findings It is possible to identify three distinctive periods characterized by different correlation of returns and behavior of investors: before the crisis of 2008, the crisis period between 2008 and 2012 and recovery afterwards. These appear to have corresponded to different stages of the economic cycle. Interestingly, performance of asset classes has also differed over that period suggesting that at different points in the cycle asset allocation decisions may have been made differently. Practical implications It appears that as investments over the last 15 years real assets in Germany behaved similarly to bonds. It is possible that this phenomenon was driven by an aversion to the stock market and its associated risk which became a concern after the financial crisis of 2008. Over the downturn that followed the market shock investors appear to have turned to assets with simpler risk profiles like direct real estate and government debt. On the other hand, the correlation between direct property investment index and stock returns has been found to be small but negative. This shows not only that the two asset classes were often driven by different factors but also suggests that diversification was, at least theoretically, possible. Originality/value Direct real estate investment returns have repeatedly been found to exhibit characteristics similar to those found in bond as well as equity markets (Eichholtz and Hartzell, 1996; Clayton and MacKinnon, 2003) but little research examines the correlation between returns offered by those asset classes in a mature financial and property market. In addition, the recent financial crisis provided a dynamically changing investment which is ideal for investigating structural relationships between assets.

The Future of Polish Labour Market and the Issue of Work Motivation in Older People

According to the demographic forecasts, the population of people in their productive working age decreases, while the share of people aged 65 and over increases. The negative demographic tendencies will affect the conditions of labour market. If the workers’ activity rate doesn’t rise, the total number of workers will decrease dramatically. The demographical pressures on the labour market should result in a prolonging of people’s professional activity. The increase of the labour market activity seems to be one of the most important goals for Poland, for the coming years. One of the factors, which might help in maintaining the high rate of labour market activity (especially among those who are in the pre‑retirement age) is the adaptation of working conditions to the needs of people of various ages. The possibility of working remotely, the flexibility of weekly hours of work or the financial benefits might motivate younger and older workers in different ways. Hence, the use of mechanisms which support the economic activity of older people requires an identification of solutions which will benefit this group of workers the most. The aim of this research is the identification of age‑related differences in factors which motivate workers to continuing working activity. We used the database of individuals from Polish Social Diagnosis (for 2015) and applied the logit regression models to verify if there are age differences in the way people prefer to be motivated to work. We found that what motivates elderly workers doesn’t always motivate the others in the same way. Pre‑retirement age workers prefer, more than others, to be independent and to have a job which is related to their experience. The financial motivators as well as the stability of employment, although very important for all workers, seem to be less important for the elderly workers because they have achieved pension rights.

DETERMINANTS OF HOURLY WAGES INEQUALITY IN SELECTED EUROPEAN METROPOLISES. THE RESULTS FROM THE MULTILEVEL MODELLING

The aim of this paper is the identification of the hourly wages heterogeneity in the sample of individuals living in 35 European metropolitan areas. Additionally, we evaluated factors which determine spatial variability. For this purpose, we applied Mincer-type multilevel models for the micro data from the European Social Survey (2010). To delimit metropolitan areas we used Urban Audit’s Larger Urban Zones. Our results suggest the greatest impact of cross-country differences in explaining metropolitan variation of wages. We confirmed the gender pay gap equal to 10-11%, the wage premium from permanent contracts (7-10%) and being responsible for supervising other workers (16%). The importance of workers and firms characteristics was proved both for individual-level and metro-level differences. It might suggests the part of inequalities between metropolises is connected with different composition of workers’ skills in each metropolis and spatial sorting. Finally, we found that unexplained (by such attributes) proportion of variability across metropolises might be the result of agglomeration effects. The positive impact of Jacobs externalities was found, while we did not confirm the existence of Marshall externalities.

Międzyregionalne zróżnicowanie poziomu spożycia wybranych artykułów żywnościowych

The aim of this research is to analyze the interregional differences in the food consumption in households. In the first part of research an author concentrates on the identification of groups of voivodships which are similar in the consumption structure, while in the second one the attempt to explain the regional differences by contextual variables was presented. The individual data from Polish Households Survey for 2011 were taken in the research. The statistical significant differences in the food products consumption were found at the regional level. It was impossible to explain such inequalities only by individuals’ characteristics and contextual variables. This might suggests the role of other factors, like regional differences in consumption habits, which are connected with the region-specific traditions.