Public-private partnerships (PPPs) were established in Brazil at the beginning of this century, following a global trend of using these partnerships to stimulate investment in infrastructures, particularly in a framework of restrictive budgetary and fiscal conditions. Despite their growing importance and the expectation of an expanding role in the future, not much is known about the actual facts on the ground. The objective of this paper is to be a first step in the direction of filling this information gap by providing important stylized facts about the universe of PPPs in Brazil: the quantitative evolution of PPP adoptions; the characterization of the geographical distribution of PPPs by government level (federal, state, district, and municipal); the characterization of the PPP intervention areas, including the total value of contracts and the modalities of PPP concession (sponsored and administrative). This objective is rendered possible by the development of a new database that covers the entire process of PPP contracting from 2005 to 2022, including the opening of public consultation procedures, the publication of the official notice, and the signing of contracts, as well as multiple thematic, financial, jurisdictional, and regional indicators. In turn, we see the establishment of these stylized facts as a necessary first step in the direction of understanding the factors that may determine or condition their adoption. In general, having a clear picture of the universe of the PPPs in Brazil is fundamental as their use and their role are expected to significantly increase in the future as the country pursues a path of improved economic activity and well-being of the population.

During crisis events, the government implements many policies to control the development of the crisis and stimulate the economy damaged by the crisis. The government plays a very important role during the crisis. The stock market is a reflection of a country’s economic situation. This article takes the Chinese government policies during the COVID-19 crisis as the research object and analyzes the impact of government policies on the CSI300 index. The following conclusion is drawn: not all government restrictions will cause a decline in stock market prices, among which the Wuhan lockdown policy has promoted the rise of the CSI300 index. The two stimulus policies implemented by the Chinese government are both conducive to the rise of CSI300 index. During the COVID-19 crisis, investors holding high assets, high leverage, and low profitability companies will be significantly negatively affected after the government implements restrictive policies. After the government implements stimulus policies, investors holding high asset and high leverage companies will suffer losses. Investors who hold low asset, low leverage, and high profitability companies will have profits. And this article also finds that the size of company assets is an important driving factor for abnormal returns.

Today it is obvious that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is more than just a volunteer activity, it is also related to the operation of the firms and to competitive advantages. Many factors influence CSR and CSR-competitiveness relations; firm size could be the most crucial one. Originally CSR is related to large companies, although smaller firms can be active in CSR mainly in different ways with different background. Based on this idea the paper aims to explore the correlation between small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) corporate social responsibility (CSR) and competitive advantages. An interview research was conducted among thirty SMEs in a Hungarian city of Győr in 2021/22 to reveal how owner-managers interpret CSR, competitiveness and their relations. As SMEs cannot provide exact data on this topic the personal perception method was used to explore the CSR-competitiveness relation. A moderate relation was observed between CSR and competitiveness and the research revealed that different methodologies have to be applied for SMEs than large companies which results from the fact that SMEs’ CSR is less formal and lacks exact data.

Primary reason for interpretation the paper was the creation of a starting position for setting up e-learning in the structures of the executive forces of the Slovak Republic, which absent in the current dynamic environment. Problems with education arose mainly in connection with the global problem of Europe, such as the influence of illegal migrants, and it was necessary to retrain a large number of police officers in a short time. We reflect on the combined model of LMS Moodle and proctored training through MS TEAMS and their active use in practice. We focused on the efficiency in the number of participants in individual trainings and costs per participant according to the field of training. We compared the processed data with the costs of the pilot introduction of analytical organizational unit providing e-learning and interpreted the positive results in the application of e-learning compared to conventional (face-to-face) educational activities. As a basic (reference) comparative indicator, the costs of educational activities of selected organizational unit of state institution represented by own educational organizations and the number of trained employees for the periods in question were chosen. To measure effectiveness, we set financial—cost KPIs. Our findings clearly demonstrated that it is possible to significantly optimize costs when changing the current form of ICT education to e-learning. The implementation of another educational activities form of education, e-learning, within public institutions, according to the results of the analysis, can simplify and at the same time make education processes more efficient in the context of individual subjects of the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic.

The territorial planning approach to allocating productive forces is based on the fact that territories have competitive advantages in producing specific products. However, in agriculture, the advantages principle cannot be used to shape the allocation patterns, due to a variety of intervening factors, such as the climatic and environmental conditions for agricultural production and the quality of land and availability of water. In the case of Russia, one of the most diverse countries in terms of the territorial disparities in agricultural production, this study examines the location and development patterns of the agricultural sector. The study identifies the competitive advantages of territories by comparing localization of agricultural production, production costs, performance, and profitability of agricultural producers, as well as prices of agricultural products in 78 different administrative regions in Russia. The study reveals which regions have more advantageous conditions for over-concentrating energy capacities, labor resources, fixed capital, and investments. However, at a certain point, over-concentrated production forces can lead to a deterioration in the performance of farmers due to an increase in capital intensity. Therefore, countries with significant regional differences in agricultural production should adjust their spatial development patterns according to the parameters of territories’ comparative advantages.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the imperative of physical distancing has underscored the necessity for telemedicine solutions. Traditionally, telemedicine systems have operated synchronously, requiring scheduled appointments. This study introduces an innovative telemedicine system integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enable asynchronous communication between physicians and patients, eliminating the need for appointments and providing round-the-clock access from any location. The AI-Telemedicine system was developed utilizing Google Sheets and Google Forms. Patients can receive dietary recommendations from the AI acting as the physician and submit self-reports through the system. Physicians have access to patients’ submitted reports and can adjust AI settings to tailor recommendations accordingly. The AI-Telemedicine system for patients requiring daily dietary recommendations has been successfully developed, meeting all nine system requirements. System privacy and security are ensured through user account access controls within Google Sheets. This AI-Telemedicine system facilitates seamless communication between physicians and patients in situations requiring physical distancing, eliminating the need for appointments. Patients have round-the-clock access to the system, with AI serving as a physician surrogate whenever necessary. This system serves as a potential model for future telemedicine solutions.