Abstract:In the aftermath of Angola's civil war, strong economic relations developed between the country and the People's Republic of China. Our study addresses China's investment risks in Angola, considering an infrastructure-for-petroleum partnership between these two countries. The main working hypothesis is that the recovery of Chinese investments made in Angola is has translated into thousands of barrels of petroleum being imported daily from Angola. We analyzed the main economic, social, and political indicators that describe the situation in Angola that could impact the recovery of Chinese loans in the form of oil exports. Data processing implied involved regression-based imputation, MinMax data normalization, the use of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), and econometric analysis, next to the construction of a composite risk indicator. The results of the econometric analysis highlighted that an increase in the composite risk indicator of 1% leads to a decrease in the quantity of petroleum exported by almost 6377 barrels per day. Because, at least in the short run, the economic diversification in Angola is weak, and the most important asset is its oil, the partnership with China will continue to exist. This cooperation model represents a source of economic growth and infrastructure development for Angola and a source of energy that fuels China-one of the most powerful economies in the world.

Abstract. Nowadays, over 10% of the population of the European

The efficiency of resources is a current issue that can be of great interest to anyone, especially since it is often associated with economic performance, at both - micro and macro level. Therefore, it can be useful to evaluate the resource availability of countries and to understand how a country’s economic development is connected with its resource abundance. Our study examines whether the availability of resources can be viewed as an indicator of the economic development of a particular country by analysing the correlation between the total resources rent, as calculated by the World Bank, and the gross domestic product and its development in 45 countries worldwide. We found that natural resources rents are linked to both GDP per capita and GDP growth, leading often to strong positive or negative correlations. The particular cases need to be further addressed, by looking into additional parameters on country and regional level.

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the impact of competition on firms’ efficiency and productivity. Looking at the effects of changes in competition overtime or analysing the relationship between competition and productivity across many product markets, a large body of empirical studies finds evidence of a positive relationship between competition and productivity, greater competition on the market leading to higher levels of productivity. On the other hand, the relationship between competition and innovation is highly debated, evidence suggesting a non-linear relationship with both very high and very low degree of competition discouraging firms from innovating.

The current research is based on the connection between two variables: ICT use and Culture. This paper aims to analyse two key factors that are closely linked to culture, namely ICT use for entertainment and ICT use for education, within the 28 countries of the European Union. The research is based on a survey made by Eurostat for the year 2016 for EU-28 countries. The final results were obtained using factor analysis with SPSS 21.0 software. The current research can be considered a starting point for new research in the field of new technology development and its influence of the main areas of the economy.