F43 - Economic Growth of Open EconomiesReturn

There are studies investigating a country's digital competitiveness; however, there is a lack of research examining digital competitiveness at the enterprise level. Hence, the current study aims at composing an enterprise digital competitiveness index (EDCI), which provides a possibility to assess the level of enterprise digital competitiveness and could be used by policymakers in the development of a strategy for transitioning to the digital economy. The CRITIC and COPRAS approaches are employed for the index construction. The criteria and subcriteria provided by Eurostat (2022) are used as antecedents of the EDCI. The results indicate that Nordic countries have reached the highest level of enterprise digital competitiveness. The mentioned countries' GDP per capita is in the top 5 among the EU countries, while the countries with the lowest GDP per capita show the lowest EDCI.

The paper aims at measuring the efficiency of the digital economy in EU countries. For that purpose, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used. Sub-dimensions of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) are used as inputs and the Sustainable Development Goals Index (SDGI) as an output. The results revealed that Bulgaria, Italy and Romania are the most efficient digital economies in terms of human capital; Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, Poland and Portugal in terms of connectivity; Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania in terms of integration of digital technology; and Romania in terms of digital public services. The result of tobit regression analysis showed that not all the indicators of the DESI dimensions positively influence the efficiency of the digital economy.

Observing the expanding and high share of export of travel services in both GDP and total export of services in Mediterranean countries, we focus our research on travel service export in twelve countries from 1998 to 2018. We investigated both short-term and long-term significance of export of travel services for GDP growth in Mediterranean countries using the VAR and VECM model and the fixed-effects panel OLS model. In our analysis of significance of export of travel services on current account balance, we applied an accounting approach. Our application of the fixed-effects OLS model on the panel data with GDP growth rate as the dependent variable has shown that, in the short run, export of travel services has a positive impact on GDP growth. In the long run, Granger causality based on block exogeneity Wald tests evidenced that export of travel services has a positive impact on GDP growth, but only at the 10% significance level. Following the accounting approach in our analysis of impact of export of travel services on overall current account balance, we evidenced a strong relevance of export of travel services in achieving current account balance equilibrium.

We tested the hypothesis of procyclicality against the economic activity and stock exchange of Croatia - as a country preparing for EU accession - in order to investigate the spillover effect, i.e., the degree and pace of integration into larger financial markets such as the EU. The empirical findings obtained in application of OLS methodology for the 2000-2010 period provided evidence that EU accession is a trigger for a closer financial integration of a candidate country as Croatia; and a trigger for a rise in stock prices and economic revival, was reflected in by an increase in GDP and large FDI.

In this paper we discuss the issue of the choice of foreign exchange rate regimes in transitive economies, their effect on the relative changes and the volatility of the foreign exchange rate and the development of the national foreign exchange market. The results of our analysis indicate that the choice of the foreign exchange rate regime is not a passive factor regarding both average relative changes in exchange rates and volatility as measured by the standard deviation. They also show that increased volatility of spot rates and a growing interest rate differential lead to the growth of the share of outright forwards and swaps (e.g. transactions that might be used for hedging) in relation to spot transactions.

The less developed Slovak economy was converging quickly to the Czech economic level after the World War II, thanks to the massive reallocation of resources. The inflow amounted to 11% of the Slovak GDP, the outflow from the Czech Lands represented 4% of their GDP. The Slovak GDP per capita reached around three quarters of the Czech one in 1992. After the split of Czechoslovakia, the economic policy adjusted to the changed conditions by sinking real wages and depreciation of Slovak koruna, so that the Slovak ULC are the lowest among the Central European countries now. The cost competitiveness, accompanied by an abundant inflow of FDI and economic reforms after the EU accession helped to speed the real convergence. As a result, the Slovak GDP per capita reached 84% of the Czech one in 2007. The balance of costs and benefits of the euro adoption varies due to different conditions in the succession states and to a certain extent justifies the more rapid advancement to the single currency in Slovakia. The common challenge for both economies is to overcome the one-sided orientation on cost/price competitiveness based on low wages.

This paper presents the analysis of unconditional b and s convergence among the ten European countries that accessed the European Union in 2004. Unconditional b convergence means that the less developed countries (with lower GDP per capita) grow faster than the more developed countries (with higher GDP per capita). s convergence exists when income differentiation among economies decreases over time. Our results confirm the existence of both types of convergence in the second half of the 1990s and the 2000s. The poorer New EU Member States grew generally faster than the richer New EU Member States. As a result, the income gap among these countries has decreased (although it still remains quite large). The convergence occurred at the rate of 2.87% in the years 1995-2006 and 3.23% in 1996-2006. This result is very similar to the results of other analyses on the subject.

Real convergence is the key economic challenge for the new EU Member Countries. The main growth area today is the "new" entrepreneurial economy of creativity and innovation. But such an economy needs a financial structure capable of coping with the higher risk inherent in the "new" economy. To provide such a financial structure, the financial markets must be broad, deep and liquid, i.e. financial markets must be large enough to provide this financial structure. Hence, the financial integration became an imperative for the new Member Countries. But this integration process possesses both economic and political challenges and dilemmas. Answers to those challenges and dilemmas will then determine the degree of real convergence - and hence the degree of economic success - for each new Member State.

This paper employs error-correction representation approach and conditional causality technique to assess the patterns of export-economic growth link in Slovenia. In general, the results support the existence of bi-directional causality between export variables and indicators of domestic economic activity. The evidenced bi-directional causality of exportoutput relation for Slovenia suggests that any characterization of a small country's growth as export-driven may be at least perfunctory. As the results imply, there are no trade-offs between whether to pursue a growth strategy of structural reforms for internal competitiveness with the goal of higher domestic growth and afterwards an increasing exports, or to apply trade policy for improving the international competitiveness and enabling the economy a quick response to foreign demand.

In this paper we discuss the issue of the choice of exchange rate regimes in transitive economies and the effect of exchange rate policy on the development of macroeconomic indicators (e. g. the average growth rate of real GDP in domestic currency, the development of domestic inflation and the real exchange rate). Our analysis indicates that monetary and exchange rate policy is not a passive factor, at least in the medium term. Monetary policy should, in the first phases of transformation development, warn against two extremes: absolute stability even appreciation of the nominal exchange rate, or, on the contrary, chronic and severe depreciation.