International Advances in Economic Research

This paper studies the convergence of inflation rates over the period of 1983–93 for some countries within the European Monetary System. Three different price indices are considered for consumer goods, services, and industrial products. This study focuses on the difference between core and peripheral countries for measuring convergence speed. By using β- and σ-convergence tools, as previously identified in studies on output growth convergence, it was found that the convergence process did not evolve equally whether considered through price indices, time, or countries.

This paper presents the results of analysis of innovative activities in the Polish manufacturing enterprises. Using data for the years 2006–2009, the effectiveness of innovative activities is estimated under two groups of models. The results indicate the significantly positively impact of soft expenditures on innovation activity and ineffectiveness of material outlays. Additionally, a significant, positive effect is demonstrated of the support from the European Union upon the efficiency of innovative activities in the Polish companies.

The healthcare sector is one of the largest industries in most countries. It is also an outstanding case for a multi-tier system of the participating parties’ incentives and their conflicting interests. This paper focuses on a few of the multifactorial interrelationships between the different actors in healthcare services. The novel approach of this paper is the assumption of double-information asymmetry between the transacting parties that describes the actors’ relationships more realistically than the traditional principal-agent models. It will be shown that any system of incentivization may only apply perverse incentives in this case. Notably, efficient, high-quality healthcare units will be punished while less efficient and lower quality ones will be rewarded for their accomplishment. The theoretical analysis is supported by facts regarding Central and Eastern-European countries. Some symptoms and causes of the current decline can also be found in advanced West European countries and even in the United States. They are closely related to the ill-designed regulatory systems of publicly funded healthcare in these countries.

This paper describes the changes in the employment choices of prime working-age women from 1967 to 2003. A neoclassical labor market participation model is presented and applied to data from the March Current Population Surveys (CPS). The paper provides a new insight: It highlights the different patterns of labor force participation by family-status categories. Also, the paper introduces the average annual unemployment rate at the state level as an explanatory variable to capture the demand-side constraint of the labor market. The results of the paper support the finding that since 1990, the increase in the participation of women in the labor force has slowed from previous decades.