Economic inequality is associated with preferences for smaller, immediate gains over larger, delayed ones. Such temporal discounting may feed into rising global inequality, yet it is unclear whether it is a function of choice preferences or norms, or rather the absence of sufficient resources for immediate needs. It is also not clear whether these reflect true differences in choice patterns between income groups. We tested temporal discounting and five intertemporal choice anomalies using local currencies and value standards in 61 countries (N = 13,629). Across a diverse sample, we found consistent, robust rates of choice anomalies. Lower-income groups were not significantly different, but economic inequality and broader financial circumstances were clearly correlated with population choice patterns.

The paper presents the results of researching the impact of export on the production of wood pellets as well as the situation on the market for this wood fuel in Serbia. Objective of the research was to produce scientifically and professionally founded conclusions and the related adequate recommendations to the decision makers in order to improve the situation on wood pellets market in Serbia and eliminate the existing problems which significantly burden and slow down this development. Special objective of the research was to observe the contributions of wood pellets to the mitigation of climate changes using Serbia as the example. Results of the conducted research show that the expansion of the consumption (demand) increase in the European Union countries in the last fifteen years and the related increase of export from Serbia are the most significant factors which have influenced the development of wood pellets production in Serbia. Parameters of econometric model of the impact of export on the increase of production show that production increase of 1.17% can be expected with the increase of export of 1%. Thus, the number of wood pellet producers has rapidly increased in the last ten years, from 2 producers in 2006 to 52 active producers in 2016. Increase of the number of producers was also accompanied by the increase of the installed capacities. At the end of 2015, total installed capacities for wood pellet production in Serbia reached 550 thousand tons, and the realized production was 229 thousand tons, or 41.6% of the installed capacity. Consumption of wood pellets in Serbia in the last four years achieved significant increase and reached the level of 89 thousand tons in 2015. However, concerning the segment of wood pellets consumption in Serbia, the situation is still unsatisfactory despite the fact that the consumption has been increasing year after year. Average price of 1 kWh of energy from wood pellets exported from Serbia was in the range 20-44 ?$, which is 2.1 to 3.2 times less than the price of 1 kWh of energy from the natural gas which was imported in Serbia in the observed period. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 43007/16: Research of climate changes and their environmental impact - monitoring of impacts, adaptation and mitigation, subproject: Socioeconomic, mitigation and adaptation to climate changes]

This paper deals with the operational efficiency of companies engaged in the production of wooden chairs using selected statistical and DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) methods. Indicators that typically characterise the supply chain in the production of selected companies were taken as input and output variables for the DEA method. They included three input variables: inventories, material costs and production services costs and one output variable: company’s net profit. The obtained coefficients of correlation pointed to a high degree of correlation between the variables, which justified the performance of an efficiency analysis using the DEA method. The study included 12 companies engaged in the production of wooden chairs. The results of the conducted analyses show that only one company had a relatively satisfactory operational efficiency (efficiency coefficient of 0.83) for the nine-year period. All other companies, especially micro and small enterprises, had unsatisfactorily low operational efficiency. Micro enterprises had the lowest operational efficiency, with an efficiency coefficient of only 0.14. Small enterprises reached the value of 0.3, and large companies 0.67. Medium companies had the most favourable efficiency coefficient of up to 0.83.

Selected South-Eastern European countries (SEEC - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia) represent significant producers and exporters of wood flooring in Europe. In 2018, 9.4 % of Europe’s wood flooring production originated from this region. The region is a net exporter of wood flooring since it exports over 50 % of total production. The most important market for the export of wood flooring is the European Union with a share of over 60 % in total exports. Trends in this market are important for manufacturers and exporters from the region. Therefore, the analysis of the impact of the European Union imports on wood flooring production in the SEEC was conducted by application of econometric modelling. The parameters of the obtained model show that the increase of approximately 0.75 % could be expected in the production of wood flooring in selected South-Eastern European countries for each precentral increase in the European Union imports. In addition to these results, the paper presents the analysis of the competitiveness of wood flooring export from the region measured by the Competitiveness Growth Index (RCA1). The aim of this analysis was to quantify the level of their price and non-price competitiveness in the European Union market. Conducted analyses show that the Competitiveness Growth Index (RCA1) had positive values (higher than one) for most significant countries from the SEEC for most of the observed period.

This paper presents the results of the study of the influence of the selected factors on the productivity of the processing of beech logs on the example of the selected producer of sawn timber in Serbia by applying statistical modeling. The analysis covered three basic factors that have an impact on productivity: the length, middle diameter and number of cuts on the logs of beech that were processed during the observed period. The research was carried out on a sample of 105 logs, and it contained various sizes of middle diameters, lengths and number of cuts. The research aimed to review the functional dependence of selected factors and productivity in order to reach appropriate conclusions, provide expert recommendations and measures to increase productivity and make appropriate forecasts of possible productivity values. In order to examine the functional dependence of the selected variables, statistical modeling was performed in SPSS, v.20 and MS Excel software packages, where the selected dependent variable is the number of logs processed in one hour, and as an independent variable the volume was taken into consideration (which contains the middle diameter and the length of the logs) and the number of cuts. Statistically obtained parameters showed a significant influence of the volume and number of cuts on the change of the number of logs which are processed in one hour. In the obtained regression model the correlation coefficient R is 0.994, while the coefficient of determination R2 = 0.988. Since in sawmill processing productivity is most often expressed as the volume of processed logs in the unit of time, a transformed form of the equation shows the dependence of the volume on the number of logs and the number of cuts. By setting the hypothesis and by interpreting the statistical indicators, it has been found that the impact of the analyzed factors is very high, but that, in addition to them, productivity is influenced by technical and organizational factors.