This study discusses the identification of factors affecting consumers’ willingness to pay a price premium for ecological goods. The study was carried out in selected regions of Ukraine, in the cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv. The study applied various research methods, in particular public opinion analysis based on conducted surveys and the statistical inference method. The conducted research may constitute the scientific basis for the assessment of this market segment development. The comparison of consumer attitudes, presented by the residents of major Ukrainian cities regarding environmental goods, revealed their willingness to pay a price premium depending primarily on the purchasing power of the population, but also on gender, age, and social status. The analysis of differences in the cross-tabulation of quality characteristics was performed using Pearson’s chi-square test, which showed that, for example, men were more willing than women to choose environmental products due to their environmental safety and their selection was more often than in case of women based on environmental goods’ price. The collected research results can be used to assess the development prospects of environmental goods’ market, to construct the set of measures increasing the willingness level of domestic consumers to pay a price premium for ecological products, and to take up decisions about the production of ecological goods.

The study discusses the problem of land grabbing and state interventionism in agricultural land transactions in Poland, and presents the effects of active policy implemented by the state on limiting the flow of agricultural land. The research covers the period from the time of country’s accession to the European Union, starting from 2004. Poland introduced restrictions on the purchase of agricultural land for fear of mass land grabbing, and has currently tightened the restrictions on agricultural land purchase by foreigners and by non-owners of a family farm. The analyses concern the number of permits issued for foreigners to turn over agricultural land in Poland, the area of property eventually purchased by foreigners, the right of pre-emption exercised by the National Support Centre for Agriculture (NSCA), and the number of transactions concluded in an open market and in the form of a tender. Based on the collected data and their in-depth analyses, the following phenomena were interpreted: an extensive impact of interventionism exercised by the Polish state on restricting the sale of agricultural land to foreigners is observed, and interventionism of the Polish state affects the suspension of functional changes in rural areas and agricultural land transition to non-agricultural purposes. The research shows that the majority of property turnover by foreigners in Poland required permits issued by the Minister of the Interior Affairs and Administration. Moreover, priority is given to owners of family farms, which results in a reduction of the total number of transactions concerning agricultural land in Poland after introducing changes in legal transactions of agricultural land in 2016.

The study presents the application of multi-criteria analysis, i.e., the Analytic HierarchyProcess (AHP), for the evaluation of investments related to the realisation of a high-pressure gaspipeline. The authors evaluated the realisation of the gas pipeline with the use of alternativemethods: the trenchless Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) method and the open excavationmethod, based on the example of the construction of a high-pressure gas pipeline DN1000. Sectionslocated in naturally valuable areas on the route of the pipeline Wierzchowice-Kiełczów (Poland)were analysed, on the section from the valve station in Czeszów to the Kiełczów node. The researchconsidered the following criteria: technical costs, economic costs, social costs, and environmentalcosts. The sum of these partial estimations is the “total cost” of the investment. Research revealedthat the technical costs of the open excavation method are in all cases higher than the technologicalcosts of the trenchless method during the realisation of a gas pipeline (in the AHP analysis, theyreceive an average score of −4 or −3, compared to a score of −2 for the HDD method). On the otherhand, the economic costs are comparable, with a slight advantage for the HDD method. The overallscore for the open excavation method obtained with use of the AHP multi-criteria evaluation is, fordifferent variants, approximately −19, while the evaluation of the realisation of a gas pipeline withuse of the Horizontal Directional Drilling method gives a score from −15 to −10, depending on thesection.

The study discusses the problem of public green areas’ accessibility for the residents of large cities in Poland. The purpose of the research is to assess the possibility of applying the British Accessible Natural Greenspace Standard (ANGSt) method in determining the amount of natural green space available to residents in Polish conditions including, in particular, the assessment of accessibility using data collected by the Central Statistical Office and the verification of results based on detailed research. The identification of green areas for 18 voivodeship cities in Poland was prepared using the GIS programme, taking into account public green space, provided for general access and free of change. The verification of the ANGSt method consisted of mapping spatial barriers extending the route of access either on foot or by roads as well as closed private areas. The conducted research revealed that, after taking into account the access routes to selected areas, the distance to public green areas increased, on average, from 50 m in the smallest cities (Gorzów Wielkopolski and Olsztyn) to as much as 450 m in Warszawa. A detailed analysis showed that the discussed accessibility was reduced, on average, by almost 10% for the residents of the analysed cities. It was also found that the introduced barriers did not affect the accessibility of more distant, larger green space areas.

Agriculture is an important branch in Ukraine’s economy. The share of agriculture’s GDP in the national economy is more than 10%. The development of agriculture stimulates the development of other sectors in national economy. According to the results of the analysis of the employment dynamics in Ukraine’s agriculture, it was concluded that there was a negative tendency. That is why the aim of the article is to specify the factors of impact on employment in Ukraine’s agriculture and to assess the degree of their influence. To achieve this goal, the different methods were used: system analysis—for determination the factors influencing employment in agriculture; factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, principal components method—for evaluating the impact of various factors on the employment in agriculture of Ukraine. It was found that the most significant social-demographic factors of impact on employment in Ukraine’s agriculture include the total rural population at the age 16–64 and the demand for labor force in agriculture, and the most important economic factor is labor productivity. Determining the factors and measures of their impact on employment will substantiate public policy measures, methods and mechanisms for their implementation to solve employment problems in Ukraine’s agriculture.