Eva Ivanová

The study aims to identify the EU’s trends in the use of flexible forms of working time and to determine the specifics of individual EU countries. The study monitors the flexibility of working time based on the following indicators: persons employed part-time (as a percentage of the total employment); involuntary part-time employment as % of total part-time employment; the share of employed persons by the flexibility to decide on working time by a country; the share of employed persons who can easily take one or two days off at a short notice by working at home. The paper uses descriptive statistics, analysis of the development of time series using the growth rate, sigma convergence, and weighted sum approach. All analyzed indicators were taken into account to express one value, based on which it is possible to compare countries. Thus, the study expressed the overall benefit using the weighted sum method. The maximum value of the total benefit expressed using all the indicators among the EU countries was reached by the Netherlands. One of the reasons may be the short period of parental leave and the large share of women working part-time for a long time. The second reason is the large share of young people working part-time. On the contrary, Bulgaria, where women spend a relatively long time with their children after birth and then start full-time employment, ranked the last. This should be justified by the fact that flexible forms of work are mainly used by women and their prevalence is largely dependent on the length of maternity and parental leave.

Acknowledgment
This paper is created within the project funded by the Scientific Agency of Slovak Ministry of Education VEGA reg. no. 1/0689/20 “Digital economy and changes in the education system to reflect labour market demands”.

Innovation is critical to modern economies’ development; new process requirements within Industry 4.0 highlight its significance and necessity. This study aims to identify the relationship between R&D expenditure and the aggregate innovation index in the V4 countries. The statistical data from 2014 to 2021 are taken from the European Commission and Eurostat databases. The analysis focuses on identifying the degree of correlation between the standardized score of the Aggregate Innovation Index and the amount of R&D expenditure in countries of the Visegrad Group. The study uses the following methods: the Shapiro-Wilk test (to verify the normality of the samples), Pearson’s correlation coefficient (to check the degree of tightness of dependency), the Tukey test (to examine which countries have statistically significant differences), and chi-squared test (Χ2-test). Among the V4 countries, the Czech Republic was the best performer in the aggregate innovation index. Hungary showed the second-highest score, Slovakia ranked third place, and Poland had the lowest score. The findings indicate a positive correlation between R&D expenditures and the aggregate innovation index in all V4 countries. However, the relationship is statistically significant only in the Czech Republic and Poland. These results were confirmed by the Tukey test of differences within the correlation coefficients, which showed only a statistically significant difference within the correlation coefficients between Poland and Slovakia (1.790) and between Poland and Hungary (–1.640), respectively.

Acknowledgment
This study was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic [grant VEGA No 1/0357/21], “Multiplier effects of human capital quality on economic performance and competitiveness of the Slovak economy.”

Digital transformation is now one of the most important topics in all EU countries in creating and managing strategies and visions for states, businesses, organizations, and citizens. The ICT sector is currently one of the most important sectors with significant added value. The main purpose of the paper is to identify the efficiency of the digitalization of the economy and society concerning the performance of the ICT sector. This paper uses multi-criteria efficiency evaluation methods – Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA models). Inputs in the basic DEA model are the dimensions’ values of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), which are also used to express the DESI summary indicator, such as human capital, connectivity, digital technology integration, and digital public services. Output in the DEA model indicates the ICT share of GDP. Finally, output-oriented DEA models are used to express the efficiency score. The analysis results show that Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and Malta have a below-average level of DESI, but they can be classified as efficient. Italy, Lithuania, and Slovenia are the worst performers in the efficiency score. The next step was to express the efficiency scores in the DEA models in terms of different combinations of inputs and outputs. Malta was efficient in all fifteen DEA models. Based on these findings, Malta is considered significantly positive. Its approaches can serve as an example for other countries.

Acknowledgment
This paper was supported by the Slovak Ministry of Education’s Scientific Grant Agency VEGA: “Digital Economy and Changes in the Education System as a Reflection on Labor Market Requirements”. Project registration number: [Reg. No.: 1/0689/20].