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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the profit efficiency of bioenergy industry and its determinants in EU28 region roadmaps for the transition towards energy efficiency which is increasingly perceived by stakeholders, researchers and the public as a pathway to bring dependency on fossil resources to a significant reduction. Many studies overlooked the importance of profit efficiency as a factor for bioenergy industry business improvement. More so, external environmental variables can play a key role in achieving profit efficiency in the industry.

This paper seeks to answer the questions on the following: (1) the profit efficiency level using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach in the EU28 region during the period between 1990 and 2018; and (2) to explore the impacts of external environmental variables on the profit efficiency level using panel regression model in the EU28 region during the period between 1990 and 2018.

Results revealed that gross domestic product, size of biomass and investment are essential for the development of the bioenergy industry and positively influence on profit efficiency level. The increase in temperature change decreased the profit efficiency level during 1990–2018.

For those profit-inefficient bioenergy industries in countries such as Cyprus and Ireland, participation in innovative programs, expanding a knowledge-based economic system and implementation of support policy for bioenergy technologies, by investing in biomass sources that are suitable for their respective renewable energy development will enhance specialization, resource efficiency and improved profitability can be expected in future.

Unlike other previous studies, this study investigated the profit efficiency by applying the DEA statistical method. Moreover, the authors have applied a second regression analysis to estimate the impacts of macroeconomic and microeconomic variables on the profit efficiency level. This study has focused on the EU28 region, including both developed and developing countries, to compare the level of profit efficiency levels in the selected sample. The authors have applied data panel analysis for the period from 1990 to 2018. No previous study has applied the methods, samples and periods as those used in this study. Therefore, this study contributes significantly to the bioenergy industry specifically and the renewable energy industry in general and to the associated extant research.

This research explores the effect of bioenergy use on carbon dioxide releases in 28 European Union (EU-28) affiliated members starting from 1990 to 2018.

Applying panels' fixed effect (FE) estimator and random effect (RE) estimator, the regressed findings are highly validated as they were robust by panel least square dummy variable corrected (LSDVC) and pooled ordinary least square (Pooled OLS) estimators.

The findings claimed that carbon dioxide releases decrease with an incline in bioenergy use and trade openness. On the other hand, fossil-fuel and economic growth indicators mounting carbon dioxide releases. The result implies that carbon dioxide releases in EU-28 region members can be mitigated significantly by mounting the quantity bioenergy use in generation channel. This will mostly participate in combating environmental pollution.

The study suggests for EU28 region members to enhance the portion of bioenergy in their fuel access to decrease emitted carbon dioxide. Governors in EU28 members should mainly encourage bioenergy expansion to raise its security and availability. The politicians of the EU28 members must assert on efficacy and productivity of bioenergy production to achieve energy accessibility and decrease dependency on conventional energy.

This research applies the recently improved model, the panel data analysis approach, which considered for the first-class impacts of estimators on the dependent variable and deals with the several problems of the common Pooled OLS estimator's manner and performance. Finally, this research contributes to the previous studies on ecological sustainability by examining the presence correlation among carbon dioxide emissions, bioenergy sustainability, trade openness, fossil fuel and gross domestic product in the EU28 region. Hence, it proves our research novelty, originality and contribution to the body of knowledge.

The purpose of the paper is to provide estimation results for feasibility of renewable energy source (RES) deployment in Turkey, the Western Balkans and North Africa. From these results, the potential for cooperation in renewables production between the countries and the European Union (EU) is assessed and evaluated, in a mid- (2030) and long-term (up to 2040) perspective.

The authors focus on the quantitative assessments undertaken on the extent to which RES cooperation can create mutual benefits, identifying costs and benefits for both sides, but in particular with respect to RES target achievement (2020 and 2030) at EU level. The potentials for RES generation in Turkey, North Africa and the Western Balkans are calculated under different policy pathways, taking into account different levels of economic and non-economic barriers that could occur.

Overall, the authors found that increasing RES deployment in the three analysed regions and initiating or intensifying cooperation with EU28 Member States leads to mutual benefits. Concretely, these benefits become apparent in terms of the EU Member States importing renewable energy sources for electricity with a good resource quality and adding on to their targets for RES deployment. At the same time, substantial savings occur for the EU, in turn leading to income and investments in the cooperating regions.

The assessment underlying this paper is the first of its kind to the authors’ knowledge that opens up the geographical spread in comparison to merely assessing cooperation between Europe and the Middle East and North Africa. Furthermore, the multitude of policy parameters analysed provides detailed and robust insights concerning a broad variety of different possible scenarios.

The chapter provides a radiography of the 2014–2020 Cohesion Policy, focusing on both main continuity and innovation elements (in terms of objectives, implementation rules and financial allocations) and on some of the likely effects of the current rules on the new European Union (EU) non-euro member countries. The closer link between EU funds and EU economic governance, which has been introduced in the current financial period, has the potential to influence negatively the evolution of the EU regional development disparities, especially in the EU eastern periphery. These new conditionalities (ex-ante and macroeconomic), whose main effects, in the case of non-compliance, would be the suspension of EU funds, might deteriorate even more the economic situation, particularly in those regions with the greatest needs in terms of infrastructure or administrative capacity. The Romanian case is particularly relevant for this debate.

The theoretical contribution provided by the transitional theories has fundamentally helped develop a better understanding of the migration process, by showing how migration is interacting with other processes of development. They show that along with development, emigration is following an upside down ‘U’ shaped pattern, being overreached by immigration, while the region changes its migration profile from emigration to immigration. This was the case for the southern European states, which followed a rapid migration transition during the second half of the twentieth century. After large emigration to Western and Northern Europe, these managed to attract large immigration flows from the less developed countries in Africa and Latin America, but also from Eastern Europe after the fall of communist regimes. This chapter aims to test whether Eastern Europe is heading to the same migration transition pattern as the South and change their current status of net migration provider. Thus, the impact of the migration transition drivers in explaining net migration balance is analysed using a panel data for the 2000–2013 period. As a country can encompass both emigration and immigration regions, the current analysis is carried out at European Union (EU) regional level data (NUTS II), while controlling for the regional specifics and unobserved time effects. Overall, most of the factors which led to the migration shift, from emigration to immigration, in Southern Europe were proven to be fundamental at EU regional level as well. Migration flows were shown to be more sensitive to unemployment, urbanisation, segmentation of the labour market and active population share in the eastern as compared to the southern European regions. Nevertheless, accessing the transition drivers evolution during 2011–2013 period, eastern regions are still highly unattractive and their chances for becoming destination regions are currently at low levels.

Luxury consumption in the Czech Republic and other post-socialist countries has a shorter history than in the developed Western countries. The historical development of these countries still reflects the differences in buying behaviour. The chapter focusses on luxury travellers' behaviour and consumption patterns in the Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic, where the concept of old luxury has prevailed, it is already possible to observe a gradual shift towards a new luxury travel model. This new luxury model is associated with a high level of comfort and privacy, exclusive location and first-class services and new elements such as travelling, authenticity and sustainability.

The chapter provides different perspectives on consumption patterns. It points to consumer behaviour in luxury travel in dependence on the selected sociodemographic variables and spatial determinants. It also reveals the luxury-driven travel motivation and preferences on a luxury holiday. The results show that Czech luxury travellers are different in comparison with the traditional European markets. The Czechs fall behind the European luxury travellers, especially regarding the financial possibilities. As far as the Czech luxury traveller profile is concerned, the category of baby boomers with tertiary education and regular income is the most dominant among Czech affluent clients. The satisfaction of the needs for relaxation and the exploration of new destinations are the primary motives for taking luxury holidays. Concerning the regional income inequality, disparities between the capital city of Prague and the rest of the country are observed.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the profit efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs) based on predicted future information to solve the lag problem of improvement benchmarks given by the traditional profit efficiency model.

This paper proposes a two-step profit efficiency evaluation method. The first step predicts the future input and output information of DMUs through the past time-series data, obtaining a likely production possibility set (PPS) and profit frontier for the next period. The second step calculates DMUs' profit efficiency based on the predictions obtained in the first step and provides predictive benchmarking for DMUs.

The empirical results show that the proposed method yields good solutions for the lag problem of benchmarks given in ex-post evaluation, enabling bank managers to use predicted future information to achieve better improvement. Besides, compared with the technical efficiency measure, profit efficiency can better reflect the financial situation of DMUs and give the specific gap between the evaluated and optimal DMU.

For bank managers, the authors' new technique is advantageous for grasping the initiative of development because this technique accounts for the future development of the whole industry and sets forward-looking targets. These advantages can help banks improve in a more favorable direction and improve the asset management ability of banks.

This paper combines the data envelopment analysis (DEA) profit efficiency model with performance prediction and proposes a new two-step profit efficiency model, filling a gap in previous studies.

Business Aviation (BA) is an important segment of nonscheduled air transport, providing personalized solutions for business trips by air. Unlike scheduled air transport or holiday charters, BA has hardly been dealt with in the academic literature. This chapter gives insight into the structure and key economic effects of the European (EU28 + EFTA) BA sector. Hereby, we differentiate between the sector’s macroeconomic footprint, in terms of jobs or gross value added (GVA), and the generation of business efficiencies and connectivity benefits for the users. Based on our own data collection and input-output analyses using data from the World Input-Output Database and Eurostat, we find that the effect of BA over the EU28 GVA is almost 0.2%. Also, some 374,000 European jobs are directly or indirectly dependent on the sector’s activities, which is more than the total number of jobs in, e.g., Cyprus. More than half of these jobs stem from the operation of business aircraft and from closely related operational services like maintenance (“MRO”) and handling (“FBO”), while the remaining employment occurs in the production of business aircraft and parts. Comparing actual European BA flights against their fastest commercial travel alternatives, key efficiencies came to light, such as average travel time savings of 127 minutes per flight, annual savings of about € 15 million in overnight hotel costs and an average 150% increase in productive work time for the travelers. Furthermore, we find that BA can significantly improve connectivity, as it serves about 25,000 city pairs not connected by nonstop scheduled air services.

This study aims to explore the efficacy of government policy directions in mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic by employing a panel of 22 countries throughout the 2020-second quarter of 2022.

The panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is employed to examine this phenomenon and to investigate the long-run effects of government policy decisions on infection and mortality rates from the pandemic.

The study reveals the following key findings: (1) Income support and debt relief facilities and stringent standards of governments are associated with reduced infection and death rates. (2) The response of governments has resulted in decreased mortality rates while simultaneously leading to an unexpected increase in infection rates. (3) Containment and healthcare practices have led to a decrease in infection rates but an increase in mortality rates, presenting another counterintuitive outcome. Despite the expectation that robust government responses would decrease infection rates and that healthcare containment practices would reduce mortality, these results highlight a lack of health equity and the challenge of achieving high vaccination rates across countries.

To effectively combat the spread of COVID-19, it is crucial to implement containment health practices in conjunction with tracing and individual-level quarantine. Simply implementing containment health measures without these interconnected strategies would be ineffective. Therefore, policy implications derived from containment health measures should be accompanied by targeted, aggressive, and rapid containment strategies aimed at significantly reducing the number of individuals infected with COVID-19.

This study concludes by suggesting the importance of implementing economic support in terms of income, and debt relief has played a crucial role in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 infections and reducing fatality rates.

To effectively combat the spread of COVID-19, it is crucial to implement containment health practices in conjunction with tracing and individual-level quarantine. Simply implementing containment health measures without these interconnected strategies would be ineffective. Therefore, policy implications derived from containment health measures should be accompanied by targeted, aggressive, and rapid containment strategies aimed at significantly reducing the number of individuals infected with COVID-19.

This research makes a unique contribution to the existing literature by investigating the impact of government responses on reducing COVID-19 infections and fatalities, specifically focusing on the period before COVID-19 vaccinations became available.

This study aims to investigate in a country-specific comparative and panel form, the impact of energy use on financial development in Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)-African countries of Algeria, Gabon, Libya and Nigeria.

With data sets covering the period 1980 to 2020, this study used a combination of country-specific autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) and panel-ARDL as well geo-maps to show the spatiotemporal nuances of the investigated countries.

It was discovered across the investigated countries and in the panel framework that energy consumption significantly impacts both bank development and institutional development, which are subsets of financial development. In addition, evidence in favor of adjustment of financial development to the shocks and dynamics of energy consumption was found.

Integrative developmental drive for the two sectors can enhance growth and value-chain interactions for the imperatives of the overall growth and development of the OPEC-African countries.

This study adds to the literature on finance and energy development by the introduction of the spatiotemporal analysis.