Health in financial crises: economic recession and tuberculosis in Central and Eastern Europe

The ongoing global financial crisis, which began in 2007, has drawn attention to the effect of declining economic conditions on public health. A quantitative analysis of previous events can offer insights into the potential health effects of economic decline. In the early 1990s, widespread recession across Central and Eastern Europe accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the same time, despite previously falling tuberculosis (TB) incidence in most countries, there was an upsurge of TB cases and deaths throughout the region. Here, we study the quantitative relationship between the lost economic productivity and excess TB cases and mortality. We use the data of the World Health Organization for TB notifications and deaths from 1980 to 2006, and World Bank data for gross domestic product. Comparing 15 countries for which sufficient data exist, we find strong linear associations between the lost economic productivity over the period of recession for each country and excess numbers of TB cases (r² = 0.94, p < 0.001) and deaths (r² = 0.94, p < 0.001) over the same period. If TB epidemiology and control are linked to economies in 2009 as they were in 1991 then the Baltic states, particularly Latvia, are now vulnerable to another upturn in TB cases and deaths. These projections are in accordance with emerging data on drug consumption, which indicate that these countries have undergone the greatest reductions since the beginning of 2008. We recommend close surveillance and monitoring during the current recession, especially in the Baltic states.     

Early photography in Eastern Europe

Abstract

At the session of the French Academy of Sciences held on 7th January 1839, D. F. Arago (1786–1853), secretary of the Academy, announced that the fixation of the picture seen in the camera obscura had been achieved. Hasznos Mulatságok, a Hungarian-language paper published in Pest, made its readers acquainted with Daguerre's invention in its issue of 2nd February, an extremely short time, considering the communication and travel conditions then prevailing. Newspaper stories of the new invention stimulated a lively interest among Hungarian readers, and the papers continued to feature reports on photography whenever the occasion warranted: In its 7th March issue, a Pest weekly, Athenaeum, published an article on daguerreotypy written by Jules Janin, a French journalist and art critic. Hungarian society accepted Janin's opinion and was prepared to welcome photography as an artistic expression of reality and truth.     

Attitudes toward Corporate Responsibilities in Western Europe and in Central and East Europe

• This study investigated the attitudes toward social, economic, and environmental corporate responsibilities of 3064 current managers and business students in 8 European countries.
• Participants in Western European countries had significantly different perspectives on the importance of these corporate responsibilities (CR) than those in Central and East European countries. Within each country, environmental CR is perceived as most important in both CEE and Western European countries. Across countries, Western European respondents accord more importance to social CR and less importance to economic CR. CEE countries are not homogenous, e.g., CR attitudes in the Czech Republic are closer to that of Western Europeans, possibly triggered by the accession to EU.
• Work experience (managers vs. business students) influences social and environmental orientations more than the economic orientation for only some countries. Generational differences were found as well: Business students attribute more importance to environmental CR and less importance to social CR than managers.

     

Measuring S&T activities in the Former Socialist Economies of Central and Eastern Europe: Conceptual and methodological issues in linking past with present

The economic and social transformation of countries of central and eastern Europe has deeply affected their S&T systems. However, conceptual and methodological problems in monitoring transformation of their S&T systems are not trivial. In this paper we analyse conceptual and methodological issues involved in measuring S&T activities in the socialist and post-socialist period across the most important S&T indicators (R&D, US and national patents; innovation surveys; bibliometrics). Our conclusions are that: i) the process of methodological harmonisation of S&T indicators has progressed considerably and we have provided some evidence in that respect; ii) the use of similar or identical indicators (business R&D, innovation counts, patents, citations) when making inter-country or inter-temporal comparisons should be approached with caution because of the significant differences between the socialist and post-socialist periods as well as between post-socialist R&D systems and R&D in other market economies. This latter applies especially to the interpretation of business R&D data in the post-socialist period. A first version of this paper was presented at the Conference on the implementation of OECD methodologies for R&D/S&T statistics in central and eastern European countries' which was held in Budapest from 6.–8. November 1996. Research which formed the basis for this paper was funded in case of one of the authors by the EC TSER programme. Correspondence should be addressed to: SlavoRadosevic, SPRU, University of Sussex, BN1 9RF, Brighton. We are grateful to SylvanKatz for stimulative discussions and to two anonymous referees for comments in revisions of this paper. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the organisations for which they work.     

Activities in vacuum science and technology in the USSR and Eastern Europe

Based on translations from Russian into English     

Financing of Investment in Eastern Europe: A Theoretical Perspective

Eastern Europe suffers from a worsening capital shortage problem.This paper studies ways to find the needed funds. It is arguedthat firms need funds in order to transform illiquid ideas intoliquid claims, possibly through a chain of intermediaries. Itshows that collateral (proven assets) plays the central rolein increasing liquidity of liabilities and determining the firm'scapacity to fund investments. A model is offered to illustratehow firm growth is limited by the net worth of its marketableassets. The analysis is extended to specialized assets for whichthe liquidation value is less than the ongoing value. The importantsecond variation of intermediation is also examined. A key featureof the intermediation model is that intermediaries themselvesare constrained by their net worth. Some lessons are then drawnregarding the status and future of financing in Eastern Europe.The intermediation model suggests that granted the scarcityof capital, financing of investments will have to be more information-intensive:intermediaries will have to take a more active role in monitoringfirms. Capital formation is likely to be a slow process, sincethe capital base is so small. Private investments will be gearedtowards smaller, safer and shorter-term projects. The logicof liquidity-constrained growth argues for letting small firmscarry the brunt of the responsibility for future prosperityin Eastern Europe.