Maciej Pietrzykowski
The Effectiveness of the European Union’s Cohesion Policy in the Years 2000-2015 (2020)

The impact of the cohesion policy in the 2014-2020 framework is estimated to be approximately 450 billion euros. Such large intervention requires the effectiveness of high absorption and ongoing successes in achieving set goals. The aim of this paper is to examine the convergence of European Union economies at the national and regional levels (NUTS2), using the measure of unconditional convergence (β-convergence) and Pearson Correlation. Analysis was conducted for the periods covering the two most recent EU financial perspectives. A distinction has been made between convergence in “old” (core EU-15) and “new” (EU-13) Member States. Conclusions focus on discussing the results of the analysis and recommendations to enhance EU cohesion policy directions.
De Gruyter  |  2020  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9788395720451


Maciej Pietrzykowski
Edutainment as an Innovative Form of Teaching Entrepreneurship (2020)

As stipulated in the Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 on key competencies for lifelong learning, entrepreneurship has been recognized as one of the key competences. As mentioned in the document, the development of key competences, their validation and the provision of competence-oriented education, training and learning should be supported by establishing good practices for better support of educational staff in their tasks and improving their education, for updating assessment and validation methods and tools, and for introducing new and innovative forms of teaching and learning (European Union, 2018). The fourth industrial revolution that we face every day has a transformative impact on industry, the economy and society as a whole, thus also having a huge impact on education. Considering the dynamic changes in society and the rapid evolution of technology, education has to change and a revolution in teaching and learning methodologies is required to adopt a type of learning outcome based on competencies, blending academic and vocational education to answer market needs (Fomunyam, 2019).
The goal of the paper is to characterise edutainment as the modern approach towards teaching entrepreneurship. The specific goal is to present the teaching approach used in the Erasmus+ INKAMS project, run in the years 2017–2019, which can be qualified as edutainment. Descriptive methodology has been used to present both the structure of the presented approach and its mechanisms, as well as the requirements and expected benefits.
The structure of the paper is as follows: first, entrepreneurship has been characterized as one of the key competences in life-long learning. Then, various methods of teaching entrepreneurship are presented. The next section refers to experiential and active teaching methods, putting special emphasis on edutainment and movie education. The paper ends with conclusions and recommendations for teaching entrepreneurship to future generations.

See the whole article: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0802-6371

Maciej Pietrzykowski
Convergence in GDP per capita across the EU regions—spatial effects (2019)

Abstract : The aim of this paper is to offer an empirical insight into the spatial effects of growth of regional income and disparities across EU regions (NUTS 2). Since regions are spatial units and there are interrelated standard linear regression is not sufficient to evidence the convergence process. Two models (Spatial Lag Model – SLM and Spatial Error model – SEM), derived from spatial econometrics, have been used to identify and explain spatial effects in convergence clubs—all EU countries (EU-28), countries that entered the EU in 2004 (EU-13) and countries that were in EU prior to 2004 (EU-15). Unconditional and conditional β-convergence has been examined in the period 2000-2015 thus covering two financial perspectives (including n + 2 rule3). Dummy variables have been also applied to catch the country-specific effects, such as national policies, legislation, technology progress, etc.
See the whole article: Economics and Business Review, Vol. 5 (19), No. 2, 2019: 64-85 DOI: 10.18559/ebr.2019.2.4