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This study examines how the effects of three predictors, namely left–right political orientation, generalized trust and political trust, on fossil fuel taxation attitudes vary between post-communist and other European countries.

By using European Social Survey (ESS) Round 8 data and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, this paper studied the effects of the hypothesized predictors on fossil fuel taxation attitudes across post-communist and other European countries. The countries were analyzed both in group and individually.

The results showed that stronger left-wing orientation, higher generalized trust and higher political trust predict more support for fossil fuel taxation at the country group level in both post-communist and other Europe. However, the effects were generally speaking less consistent and significant in the countries of the post-communist Europe. By and large, the effect of political trust was the most significant and universal.

The findings contribute to the understanding how left–right political orientation and generalized trust have somewhat distinct effects on fossil fuel taxation attitudes in different European country contexts, while the effect of political trust is more universal across the continent.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that informal practices and institutions of post-Soviet countries differ from informality in other post-socialist regions and, therefore, proposes categorizing it as “post-Soviet informality” – a composite definition that extends beyond the concept of “informal economy” and encompasses, along with economic activities, social and political spheres.

The arguments of the paper are based on a comprehensive analysis of secondary sources.

This paper shows that, owing to the effects of antecedent regime’s legacies and the problems of post-communist transition, for the proper analysis of informality in post-Soviet countries it needs to be based on an own concept.

This study, in contrast to the existing literature on informality in post-communist spaces, specifically focuses on the informal sphere of post-Soviet countries, suggesting that the informal institutions and practices thriving across the vast post-Soviet space not only differ from the informal spheres elsewhere in the world, but also from informality in other post-communist regions.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test two opposing theoretical hypotheses from research literature: low quality of public education boosts support for public education; and low quality of public education weakens support for public education.

The authors use microdata from 27 post-communist countries over a period of five years. This study uses two outcome variables in order to capture the level of support for public education: the willingness to elevate investments in public education to an important policy priority; and the willingness to pay more taxes to improve public healthcare. A series of logistic regressions is used to find how the outcome variable is influenced by six dimensions of the quality of the public education system.

The main finding is that a lower quality of public education strengthens the willingness of citizens to make investments into public education by: making it a political priority for the government; and through a professed increased willingness to pay more taxes towards improving public education. These findings remain valid for both years of investigation and for both EU and non-EU samples. In contrast, the authors could not find support for the hypothesis that postulates that a lower quality of public education will reduce support for public education.

The main implication of these findings is that despite the increases in availability of private schooling opportunities, the citizens of post-communist countries have not abandoned their support for public education. Even if citizens of post-communist countries believe that public education is no longer of an appropriately high quality, they continue to support the provision of resources to it in order to improve on the current situation.

The current low quality of public education can be seen as providing an impetus for encouraging support for public education.

In terms of policy-making, the findings demonstrate the opportunity to shore up public support for further reforms in public- education in post-communist countries.

The current education policy research literature is silent about the direction of the effect of low quality public education on the willingness to provide support for public education. Against this background, this is the first study which empirically tested whether quality of public education affect willingness to support it. Covering a period of five years, the authors test the above-postulated hypotheses using a diverse sample of 27 post-communist countries.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of a variety of levels of education, namely, high school, vocational and university education, on the probability of being employed in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

The data are from two waves of the Life-in-Transition Survey that covers 29 post-communist transitional countries. The number of binary logistic models is estimated to quantify the effects of different types of education on the likelihood of being employed, while controlling for different sets of covariates.

The findings reveal that the effect of employment associated with university education is higher than that of vocational education, which in turn is higher than that of high school education. However, the differences between the effects of the various levels of education are not considerable. Any specific level of education is always associated with a higher effect in Eastern Europe as compared to the former Soviet Union. The effect of education is also found to be higher for females than for males. In the former Soviet Union, the positive effect of university and vocational education on employment is found to go down with age.

This is the first study which compares effect of different types of education on probability of being employed on a diverse sample of 29 post-communist countries over the period of five years.

The purpose of this paper is to distinguish the economic foundations of post‐Communist capitalism and to examine the key economic problems of this type of society in the context of the modern financial crisis.

This question is approached by studying the “necroeconomy” as a phenomenon of post‐Communist capitalism and the international experience of the dead firms, so‐called “zombie‐firms”, which do exist and “successfully” function in the most developed of economies as well with Japan being the most obvious example. Unlike developed economies, which are exposed to the threat of the zombie‐ing of the economy under the conditions of a financial crisis, this threat is even greater for the countries of post‐Communist capitalism owing also to their exposure to necroeconomy.

It is found that the financial crisis creates the favourable conditions for the zombie‐ing of a necroeconomy. If in Japan, for example, the zombie‐economy never touched the processing industries, then one of the qualities of the necroeconomy is to concentrate exactly upon this sector of the economy. The zombie‐ing of a necroeconomy inevitably amounts to the zombie‐ing of this already‐dead sector as well.

The value of the paper is to determine the carriers of the necroeconomic and zombie‐economic routines – Homo Transformaticus and Zombie Economicus, respectively. The contemporary financial crisis creates the danger of the transformation of Homo Transformaticus into a Zombie Economicus.

This paper focuses on differences in resource mobilization opportunities among environmental social movement organizations (ESMOs), with empirical focus on ESMOs from five European Union countries – two Northwest European countries (Sweden, Germany) and three post-communist countries (Poland, Croatia, and Slovenia). Whereas mass-membership mobilization is a reality in the Northwest European context, ESMOs from post-communist countries fundamentally rely on international support and project-based funding. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate and discuss what implications this difference has for domestic capacity building among ESMOs.

The paper draws theoretically and empirically on literature on social movements, including environmental movements. It uses a qualitative methodology with figures, field observations, and interview data from ESMO representatives. The empirical material is based on field studies of ESMOs from the five focused countries.

The findings demonstrate strong pessimism regarding the possibilities for mass-membership mobilization in the post-communist context, and indicate a set of challenges related to the strong reliance on project funding and international sources. Issues such as short-termism, lack of independence, critical distance, and learning potential are discussed. The findings also indicate avenues for creativity and how various buffers can help to cope with challenges, and that ESMOs from the Northwest European context also face pressures relating to resource mobilization that can negatively affect their critical edge.

By the chosen focus and comparative approach, the paper contributes to our understanding if and how ESMOs can work as powerful and critical political actors in various contexts. The paper thus contributes theoretically and empirically to literature on social movements, and specifically environmental movements.

European Union (EU) member states are dedicated to a set of sustainable development goals, among them to: (1) promote well-being for all at all the ages and (2) achieve gender equality. This chapter uses the National Transfer Accounts (NTA) methodology that enables comprehensive measurement of intergenerational transfers, both public and private, and differences in the gender equality promotion among the countries. Our analysis is based on the fully comparable NTA results for 25 EU countries from 2010. The authors perform cluster analysis based on five indicators, measuring the importance of different types of age reallocations and the differences in gender equality promotion among the EU countries. Since the economic life cycle (showing the level of dependency) and its financing strongly depend on country-specific institutional and cultural settings, the authors link their results with the typical welfare regimes’ typology. The authors end up with three different groups of countries showing a clear north–south division of countries.

This article considers the arguments used in support of private‐sector educational establishments in post‐Communist Europe and compares them with the observations and experiences of an academic librarian working in the field. The article uses as its case study a private‐sector university in Slovakia and addresses the issues of quality and standards in evidence today. Reasons for the rapid growth of private‐sector establishments across the region are initially studied before the frequent arguments used in support of private‐sector enterprises are considered. The article goes on to examine the wider implications of the growth of the private sector for the societies of post‐Communist Europe.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether political elements affect entry mode decisions of foreign small- to medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMMEs) into post-communist Russia.

The paper employs a qualitative research technique. The data were collected using confidential, semi-structured face-to-face interviews.

Smaller manufacturers are more sensitive to the political environment. More specifically, during face-to-face interview, corruption and ineffective law enforcement were found to be the factors of significant concern to SMMEs in Russia.

The research on sensitive topics has limitations largely due to possible political implications for firms operating in Russia.

This study on Russia is significant particularly for foreign small and medium enterprises, it will also raise concerns for firms entry modes into emerging markets of former USSR members.

The paper presents findings that are based on primary sources – interviews with foreign firms currently conducting business in Russia. The research findings will be a valuable source of information to contemporary firms conducting feasibility studies with a view to doing business in Russia. In addition, this study contributes to the limited body of research knowledge on the business environment in Russia and the emerging markets of former USSR members.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an “extended conceptualization of the business case” including both organizational characteristics and institutional conditions to analyse employer involvement in extra statutory childcare and leave arrangements. Special attention is given to Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

The (multi‐level) multinomial regression analyses included company‐level data on human‐resource practices of 2,865 firms nested in 19 countries, representing all European welfare state regimes.

The extended business case appeared fruitful in order to explain variations in employer involvement. Particularly, state support was found to be negatively related to employer involvement. In the liberal regime, employer involvement was high, but variations across organizations were significant. In CEE‐countries, employer involvement was lowest, and did not vary by organizational business‐case factors.

The paper used data from a cross‐sectional survey. To capture the long‐term trends, dynamics and nuances in employer involvement within and across various institutional contexts, a longitudinal in depth study is needed.

While state support in many CEE countries is declining, the analyses showed that employers will not automatically step in by providing additional work‐family arrangements. Social partners could use institutional pressure to stimulate a balance between state support and employer involvement.

The extended business‐case perspective contributes to the theory on the institutional embeddedness of decision making of employers. Moreover, it adds to the knowledge on employer involvement in institutional contexts which have hardly been studied before.