This article aims to identify the impact of a country’s climate risk resilience on its sovereign credit rating, and to answer whether a country’s vulnerability can be mitigated by its readiness. The analysis also examines the robustness of the identified relationships, assessing their relevance to both investment-grade and speculative-grade countries. The study is based on a cross-country sample of 67 countries. It examines the relationship between sovereign credit ratings issued by Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s and the ND-GAIN climate risk index, including the effects of its vulnerability and readiness components. To examine the link between sovereign credit ratings and climate resilience, we employ a cluster analysis based on climate vulnerability, adaptive capacity, and sovereign credit ratings, complemented by a linear regression model. The results indicate a positive relationship between climate resilience and sovereign credit rating. Vulnerability to climate risk negatively affects the rating, whereas the positive impact of climate readiness is more pronounced in countries with higher credit ratings than in those with lower ratings. The conclusions offer new insights into the determinants of sovereign credit ratings and the impact of climate risk on a country’s credibility, providing important implications for climate policy and for the methodologies used by credit rating agencies to assess sovereign ratings.
This study examines the determinants of Poland’s bilateral official developmental assistance (ODA) per capita allocation between 2013 and 2023 across 127 recipient countries. Employing panel data and multiple regression models, the analysis evaluates whether Poland, as a European Union post-accession donor with a post-communist transition background, allocates aid primarily based on recipient need or donor interest. The results indicate that Poland allocates significantly higher per capita aid to Eastern Partnership countries, reflecting strong regional solidarity rooted in historical ties. Within this regional context, aid allocation exhibits a non-linear income pattern, with middle-income recipients receiving the most support. Contrastingly, among non-Eastern Partnership recipients, income plays a minimal to negligible role in Poland’s aid allocation decisions. Trade relationships are relevant within the regional context, whereas democracy promotion shows no significant influence on aid allocation. The analysis further reveals that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had a significant impact on Poland’s aid allocation to Eastern Partnership countries. Overall, these findings provide partial support for the dual-track hypothesis identified in the literature on emerging Asian donors. The results suggest that Poland’s ODA follows a regionally focused strategy that combines geopolitical concerns with transition solidarity, rather than being driven by humanitarian or commercial motives.
This study examines whether and how green finance enhances economic resilience in emerging economies and evaluates the moderating role of market integration in this relationship. Using the System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) estimation to address issues of endogeneity and lagged dependent variables, the empirical results indicate that green finance exerts a positive and statistically significant influence on economic resilience. Furthermore, a high level of market integration enhances the effectiveness of green finance in strengthening a country’s ability to withstand and recover from economic, social, and environmental shocks. Based on these findings, the study recommends that emerging economies promote the development of green finance by establishing clear policy frameworks, advancing sustainable financial instruments, and encouraging the flow of green capital into the real economy. Simultaneously, efforts should be made to deepen market integration through trade liberalization, regional financial cooperation, and improvements in the investment climate, to fully leverage the spillover benefits of globalization and reinforce the foundation for economic recovery amid increasing global uncertainties.
This paper presents and tests an original state-owned banks advantage hypothesis, according to which the nationalisation of a part of the banking sector may positively influence the financial results and reduce risks associated with banking activity. The hypothesis was tested using a model comparing three groups of banks: state-owned banks, foreign owned banks, and domestic privately owned banks. The estimation of model parameters was carried out using a fixed-effects panel data analysis for banks based in Central and Eastern European countries over the period 2014–2020. Based on the models for ROA and, separately, ROE, a statistically significant negative relation was observed in the returns generated by state-owned banks compared to private domestic and foreign banks. The results also indicate a higher business risk for state-owned banks, measured by the level of non-performing loans, which is likely to be related to involvement in projects that are not always profitable but often involve higher credit risk. Therefore, we argue that elements of a country’s economic or social policies matter when conducting business but negatively affect the performance of state-owned banks. The results of the model also demonstrate that a bank’s market size negatively affects its performance.
The article examines the similarities and differences in how employees across four Central European countries evaluate the consequences of remote work. The primary objective is to cluster these consequences into closely interrelated advantages and disadvantages that form directly unobservable factors. The research was carried out using a diagnostic survey method that comprised 1,022 respondents from four countries: Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The respondents evaluated the positive and negative outcomes of remote work. To achieve the research objective, principal component analysis was used. Six factors common to all the studied countries were identified. Two of these factors are positive, and four are negative, with respondents placing greater weight on the advantages than the disadvantages. Factors such as cost savings and the positive impact on work life, non-work life, and health were indicated as primary advantages. However, perceptions of some advantages varied across the four countries. The issue of exclusion was the most frequently cited disadvantage. The research provides reliable information concerning the comparative assessments of the consequences of remote work. Its significance lies in demonstrating that a broad spectrum of individual outcomes can be distilled into six underlying factors. They contribute to the existing literature on remote work and offer practical insights for both management and remote workers.
