Financial frictions and indebtedness of Balkan firms: A comparison with Mediterranean and Central European countries

Using a large database of financial data for non-financial corporations, we study the process of debt accumulation and its influence on liquidity through the boom-bust-recovery regimes (2006–2010) in the Balkan countries and benchmark this against the Mediterranean and Central European countries. The domestic amplification effects (through the financial accelerator and collateral pricing) of both the capital surge from developed EU countries at the onset of the crisis and the capital reversal afterwards are the focus of the analysis. We show that domestic generators and amplificators of the crisis have much larger effects in the Balkan countries than in the Mediterranean countries, not to mention the countries of Central Europe. In the boom period, the financial accelerator was several times stronger in the Balkan countries than in the Mediterranean and Central European countries. In the bust and recovery periods, however, the direct effects of the financial accelerator declined, but the indirect effects increased considerably due to liquidity squeezes and contagion, especially strong were corresponding intercompany debt effects. In the Balkan countries, these effects in the bust and recovery periods were at least 50% larger than in the Mediterranean and Central European countries. Higher crisis costs in the Balkan countries, relative to the benchmark regions, could be attributed to the late integration of these economies into international financial and trade flows, weak institutions of financial intermediation, and inexperienced regulators; however, the importance of the contribution of misguided EU convergence doctrine cannot be ignored. Lessons for improving macromanagement in EU periphery countries are suggested.     

The Revenge of History – The Institutional Roots of Post‐Communist Family Policy in the Czech Republic,Hungary and Poland

The authors combine historical and sociological institutional analysis to show that despite the political and socio‐economic transformation in 1990s, the institutional development during and before the communist era provides the best explanation for current childcare policies in Central Europe. While most authors have concentrated on policy changes that have taken place in the region since 1989, this article concentrates on the historical roots of these policies and shows that today's policies are highly influenced by a certain dynamics that had already emerged under communist rule. It shows that a historical institutional approach, which analyses the ‘gendered logic of appropriateness’ and policy legacies at various critical junctures, can explain why family policies in Central Europe had already begun to differ during the communist era, why these main differences continue and why even the changes that have taken place follow logically from historical‐institutional developments.     

Climate Change Policies in the Transitional Economies of Europe and Eurasia: The Role of NGOs

This article examines ratification of the Kyoto Protocol across 26 transitional economies of Europe and Eurasia for the period of 1998–2009; the period between the Kyoto Protocol and the 2009 Copenhagen meeting. The dependent variable measures whether or not the country has ratified the Kyoto Protocol in a given year. The key variable of interest is the strength of domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs). To account for the nascent stage of the NGO sector, I measure NGO strength as a “stock” and as a “flow” variable. Using an event-history model, I examine the impact of the NGO strength while controlling for other domestic-based and international drivers of treaty ratification. All time-variant independent variables are lagged by a year. My analysis suggests that the stock of domestic NGO strength is a significant predictor of the timing of ratification. Further, EU accession pressures, ratification levels in contiguous countries, and domestic economic cycle impact the timing of ratification of the treaty.     

‘(What's so funny ‘bout) peace,love & understanding’: rock culture and the rebuilding of civic identity in the post-conflict Balkans

The article examines current rock culture in the Balkans as a potential vehicle for rebuilding the broken sociocultural bonds between the different post-Yugoslav societies and for creating a constructive cultural space for articulating new forms of civic and post-nationalist identities. The argument offered is that, after the sociocultural exile during the war years, rock culture in the post-conflict Balkans has considerable potential to establish itself as a popular-cultural force of ‘utopian transcendence’ of the current ethno-nationalist sociopolitical moment, and as a catalyst of the new post-Yugoslav spirit of openness, tolerance and peaceful coexistence.     

Typology of Slovenian Drama in the Period Between the Two World Wars

From the 1970s, the term metafiction has been mostly confined to studies of American and Western European literatures; I propose using metafiction as a means of approaching Sergei Dovlatov’s Zona [The Zone], a novel which blurs the line between fiction and memoir. In one sense a prison text, in that it concerns the lives of guards and prisoners in a camp, it is, however, divorced from survivor narratives in that the camp does not contain political prisoners, so the “heroes” are the thieves and criminals so universally reviled in other memoirs of the Soviet gulag. It is also a record of its author’s developing need to write as it tracks the transformation of the guard Boris Alikhanov, Dovlatov’s alter-ego. Dovlatov’s authorial persona serves not to elucidate the text, but to construct a hybrid prison memoir which supports his views on the prison experience; views which are in opposition to the pre-existing tradition, and this leads me to describe The Zone as a metatextual camp narrative, containing many of the attributes of the metafictional novel, though originating from the memoiristic impulse and still straddling the line between fiction and nonfiction in a way that true metafictions do not.     

Electing a parliament

We present a model where a society elects candidates belonging to two parties to a national parliament. The electoral rule determines the seats distribution between the two parties. The policy outcome is a function of the number of seats the two parties win in the election. We analyze two electoral rules, multidistrict majority and single district proportional. We prove that under both systems there is a unique pure strategy perfect equilibrium outcome. We compare the outcomes under the two systems.     

Smuggled Versus Not Smuggled Across the Czech Border

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the spatial behavior of unauthorized migrants in their attempts to irregularly cross the Czech state's “green” border (including walking trails) into Austria and Germany, between 2005 and 2007. It demonstrates the importance of select demographic and human characteristics of the migrants, as well as the physical features of the environment, in their crossing. Our main premise concerning the importance of smuggling and the more sophisticated means and strategies employed among migrants using smugglers' services (vis‐à‐vis those without smugglers) was confirmed.     

From ‘whiteman in rags’ to revolutionary nationalist: Patrice Lumumba 1925–1960 1

Patrice Emery Lumumba (1925–1961) is perhaps the most famous leader of African independence. After his murder in 1961, he became an icon of anti‐imperialist struggle. His picture was brandished on demonstrations across the world, together with those other faces of the 1960s, Che Guevara and Mao Tse‐Tung. The subject of this article is the life of Patrice Lumumba before he came to power in 1960. Lumumba was born in Kasai province in the centre of the Belgian Congo. After a few years of intermittent schooling, he left for the regional capital Stanleyville, where he became a post office clerk. Soon Lumumba became a prominent member of the évolue, those Africans hand‐chosen by the Belgians to run the colonial state. As the pace of political change quickened in the 1950s, he became an unruly subject and underwent a fascinating transformation – from praising the Belgian’s civilising mission in the Congo to radical nationalism. Most academic work is based on the last dramatic year in Lumumba’s life. Based on original interviews and sources largely unknown to an English‐reading audience, this article argues for the importance of understanding Lumumba’s entire life to make sense of his rapid political evolution and the trajectory of political change in the Congo.     

Inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to population–environment research for sustainability aims: a review and appraisal

The causes and consequences of demographic changes for the environment, and the possible ways of influencing population dynamics to achieve ‘sustainability’, have been the subject of many debates in science and policy in recent decades. However, the body of knowledge concerning relationships between population dynamics and sustainability is quite fragmented, dispersed over many disciplines, and encompasses diverse theories, paradigms and methodologies. This paper reviews four selected frameworks: linear, multiplicative, mediated, and system-theoretical approaches and perspectives. We represent how population–environment relationships are conceptualized, provide examples of research questions and accepted approaches, and critically assess their utility for different sorts of research for sustainable development. We note the growing recognition of the value of embracing complexity in population–environment research, and how this is consistent with normative aims of development.     

The Changing Role of the Labour Market within the EMU: the Case of Slovenia

The paper conceptualizes changes in the labour market and suggests labour market policies/reforms after Slovenia has joined the European Monetary Union. The loss of monetary sovereignty implies that in case of an external shock the labour market is burdened by a large amount of the adjustment process. But to increase flexibility of the labour market requires politically unpopular reforms. At the moment, Slovenia is faced with high inflation and a rigid labour market, which is also a key element of its low competitiveness. The reforms were halted under the pressure of their unpopularity. The paper, although concentrating on Slovenia, has general implications since the experiences of the newcomer to EMU are significant for other transition economies which are expected to follow the same path.