The paper analyses the impact of income uncertainty on household saving. Using a panel of Polish households for 1997-2000 we decompose uncertainty of household income into a variance of shocks to permanent income and a variance of shocks to transitory income. Then we regress households' savings on the estimated measures of income uncertainty controlling for demographic and social variables. Our empirical results indicate that the average variances of permanent and transitory income of Polish households do not differ much. Both measures of income uncertainty are statistically significant in predicting saving. The permanent income uncertainty affects savings more than the uncertainty of transitory income. A significant part of households' savings in Poland may be of precautionary, buffer-stock character.

This paper is the CHER (Consortium of the Household Panels for European Socio-economic Research) Working Paper, 2003, No. 15, presented at the 28th General Conference of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth in Cork, Ireland in 2004 and at the CHER workshop in Spain, 2002. It is a companion paper to Uncertainty of Households' Income in the European Union Countries and Poland., co-authored by B. Liberda, B. Górecki, and M. Pęczkowski, that was published in EMERGO, 4(38)/2003 and appeared also as CHER Working Paper, 2003, No. 13, within the programImproving the Human Research Potential and the Socio-Economic Knowledge Base, supported by the European Commission.

In preparing both papers we benefited from the grant by the Polish NationalCommittee for Scientific Research (KBN) for years 2001.2003, No. 5.1.102C 051

In the paper, the place and the importance of the fiscal criteria and the excessive deficit procedures (EDP) within the set of theMaastricht convergence criteria, as well as their basic importance for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP)were presented. Also, the evolution of the attitude of the EU zone countries towards these criteria before the birth of the euro zone and after its birth in 1999was presented. The extent was examined to which the Maastricht Treaty criteria and the SGP provisions were applied in the period of 1999-2003 by the EU organs when assessing the fiscal policy of individual countries under the excessive deficit procedure. Despite the fact that the admissible ceiling of the deficit-to-GDP ratio had repeatedly been considerably overstepped by themajority of the euro zone countries, no sanctions or penalties were ever applied. The EU organs confined themselves only to the so-called early warning to the countries that chronically stayed in the zone of excessive deficit. The primary reason for the EU organs' abstention from applying the Treaty criteriaand the SGP provisions was the fact that the Maastricht Treaty had adopted thenominal deficit as the basis for the assessment whether and to what extent thegiven country had infringed the fiscal discipline. Whereas, in a situationwhere the GDP is growing more slowly than the potential rate of growth, it is necessary, in order to avoid adverse consequences of a restrictive fiscal policy, to be guided by the structural rather than nominal deficit. Despite the infringement of the principle of avoiding an excessive deficit by the biggest eurozone countries and the lack, even in cases of drastic infringement of the fiscaldiscipline, of applying the sanctions and penalties foreseen by the ExcessiveDeficit Procedure, both the EDP and the Stability and Growth Pact have fulfilled their function of non-discretionary (i.e. based on fixed rules) tools ofpublic finance improvement both in the euro zone and throughout the EU, as the ED procedure applies to all the EU member countries. It was against thisbackground that the Polish programme of fiscal convergence for 1995-1997, being a part of the general convergence programme filed in connection with thecountry's EU accession, was analyzed. The analysis has shown that, among thetasks under the above convergence programme, there are some that can proveto be the very difficult to implement: firstly, the adjustment of the Polish regulations (inclusive of the constitutional provisions) governing the position of thecentral bank to the requirements of the Maastricht Treaty, the ECB constitution and the statutes of the European System of Central Banks; secondly, theneed to accept after 2007, i.e. at the time when Poland's membership of theeuro zone can become practical, that the Open Pension Funds (OPFs) do notmake a part of the public sector and, consequently, the resources gathered bythem are not public funds and, thereby, the liabilities of the Social InsuranceFund to the OPFs are public liabilities that augment the ratio of the public sector deficit and the public debt to the GDP.

The process of unification of the twenty-five EU countries presents many internal difficulties that stem, in the first place, from large spans between thelevels of economic advancement of the individual member countries, but alsofrom certain cultural and civilization differences, as well as from some relicsof historical antagonisms.

However, the internal integration is not tantamount to a policy of isolation ofthe integrated group from closer contacts with its external surroundings. TheEuropean Union is more and more decisively tending towards constructiverapprochement with its eastern and southern (Mediterranean) neighbours, inthe belief that an extensive economic and cultural cooperation will promotepolitical stabilization and general development and help the Union's neighbours with attaining higher stages of advancement. At the same time, the Union itself will gain greater security and additional economic advantage.Apart from its relations with neighbours, the Union continues to attach importance to tightening the relations with a number of other countries that, thoughspatially more remote, are in many respects closely connected with the Union.This in particular regards the 70 associated African, Caribbean, Pacific andMercosur Group countries.

This article examines the influence of health services on household currentincome distribution.Household Budget Survey in 1995 and The Use ofMedicalServices in 1995/1996 conducted by Central Statistical Office are the mainsource of data. In the research sample consisting of 27,836 units health services lead to lower income inequality. Nevertheless their redistributive effectis very weak. It is mainly a consequence of their low average rate with respectto original income and low regressivity as well. What is more, the effect is reduced by the reranking effect. Additionally, calculation of Relative BenefitShare Progressivity and Relative Income Share Progressivity confirms directly that health services are de facto regressive with respect to original income, i.e. they decrease income inequality.

In the paper, the results of the research into the competitiveness of Hungary'seconomy in 1995-2002 were presented. The competitiveness of the economywas determined on the level of the manufacturing sector with special regard tothe impact of foreign direct investment on the automotive industry and theelectrical and optical appliance industry. The above industries that in the 1990s had enjoyed priority governmental support in the form of investment incentives, showed the strongest penetration by the foreign capital. The foreigndirect investment (FDI) companies established in these industries made thequickest adaptive structural transformations in the sphere of production andmarketing, increased the export volume and decidedly improved the quality oftheir product offer, thus integrating Hungary into the European productionand sales chain. This has been not without influence on the profitability of theFDI companies in the above industries. Thus, the adaptability of the Hungarian economy and its sales and profit making capability in the industries underreview have proved, thanks to the foreign direct investment companies, high.However, at the same time the economy's capability of attracting foreign investment has been considerably weakening, as the volume of foreign investment in the manufacturing sector has been approaching the limit of this sector's absorption capability.