Cereals and oil crops are primary crops worldwide both in terms of their production and cropped area. Production of these two groups in the last four decades has been developing dynamically and – as it is indicated by forecasts – will continue to do so in the future. Development of cereal and oil crop production results from the constantly growing food demand for processing products of both these types of crops, as well as the non-food demand, developing significantly in recent years. Plant production may be increased through an increase in yields or in cropped area, or at the simultaneous effect of both these factors. The constantly growing demand for cereal and oil products and the limited land resources may cause competition for space between these two groups of crops. The aim of this study was to conduct investigations in order to verify whether such competition actually takes place.

A characteristic feature of human behavior is their poly motivations, which means that the person taking deliberate action is guided by more than one motive. Deciding on the economic activity we are also choosing a number of motives. The paper presents the analysis of farm agritourism activity with particular zoom on the motivations and profitability of the surveyed farms. The study was undertaken to analyze the function of tourism farms with particular emphasis on the motivations and profitability of the surveyed households. Due to the fact that the motives for taking up business in tourism are similar in many countries, a study by the author allowed the separation of the three main motives for taking up agritourist farms surveyed in Western Pomerania Region. An important objective of the study was the relationship between the motives and activities undertaken at the farm source of income, age and education of respondents. Also determined the degree of economic viability as a result of agritourism ctivity undertaken, opportunities and barriers to their development. Data were collected from the original character of the agricultural operators in the rural areas of the West Pomeranian region which was conducted in the first quarter of 2011 and one hundred randomly farms were selected. Method of measurement was the questionnaire method and a questionnaire as a research tool.

The aim of the paper is the evaluation of the role of municipal bonds in financing the local governments’ investments at rural areas in Poland. The paper presents some theoretical background of municipal bonds and provides the analyses of empirical data. The investigation showed that the municipal bond market in Poland developed very quickly, especially in 2009 and 2010. The non-public character of bond issues, small value of an average bond issue and the significant role of banks as organiser agents and investors are the characteristic features of this market. During 2005–2009 local governments in rural areas in Poland used the issues of bonds as a source of financing the investments but the role of this instrument was very small, whereas in the other kinds of local governments the revenues from bond issues played much higher role. However, the high dynamics of issued values is a positive signal for the future. It seems that the tighter cooperation between rural gminas in the area of infrastructural investments and common issuing of municipal bonds would help to obtain the advantages of this way of getting of capital.

Integration of the Polish financial system with European financial markets was not limited solely to the increase of foreign capital, but influenced the manner of its operations, in particular, market structure and level of competition prevailing on it. In the case of non-life insurance sector, at that time, the share of foreign investors in the sector’s primary equity, and their total market share increased. This contributed to lower of the market concentration, and improvement of conditions of the competition. Tests conducted on panel data from 35 companies, including data from non-life insurance and macroeconomic sectors from years 2002 to 2009, indicate that the decrease in market concentration was affected by, among others, the increase in foreign investment in the insurance companies’ equity, increase of the market share of medium-sized firms, the growth in sales through the establishment of banks and other financial institutions and reduction of direct sales by the companies’ establishment. Furthermore, it was found that such changes of concentration were positively impacted by the favorable state of the economy and especially low inflation level.

The main aim of the paper is to analyze the relationship between the export diversification and the economic growth in the European Union in the period 1995–2009. This article consists of two parts. The first part concerns the theoretical analysis of the relationships between the degree of exports diversification (concentration) and the economic growth taking into account main determinants of these relationships. The next section examines the relationship between the degree of exports concentration and the economic growth in European Union member countries using a vector autoregression model (VAR). There have been estimated elasticity coefficients of GDP per capita to changes in the exports concentration on the basis of impulse response functions. This was followed by the decomposition of GDP per capita in order to estimate the impact of changes in GDP per capita and the degree of exports concentration on the variability of GDP per capita in the EU.

The functioning of retail trade in the borderland areas of Poland in the 1990s and in the first decade of the 21^st century was largely determined by shopping done in Poland by citizens of the neighbouring countries. Using the multifunctional model of the functions of retail trade and the service and functional trade theories, the author pointed out that the basic functions of retail trade in borderland areas are activities of economic character. Social functions of trade are also of high importance, e.g. the function of an integrator of social life, whose aim is to equalise culture differences, and create the atmosphere of cooperation in diversified territories. The functions of local development are very important in borderland areas, because they contribute to greater competitiveness of border towns, to the creation of new jobs, and to improvement in the living conditions and in the standard of living of the inhabitants.

The paper presents results of analysis of strategies of liquidity in two food companies. There were used for this purpose two methods – ratio analysis and calculation of the residual profit. The study refers to five-year period 2005–2009. Analyzed companies differed because of two different liquidity strategies. Calculated residual profit of both companies was positive, what proves that their liquidity management strategies enhance the value of these companies.

The Common Agricultural Policy is the main agricultural policy in Europe and one the main chapters of the European Union’s budget. It has been subject of several studies, also due to its continuous reform process. The objective of the paper is to present and discuss the approach of the project CAP-IRE and to derive insights from such experience in view of the present perspectives for agricultural policy. After outlining the present trends and perspectives in the CAP and reviewing the main methods used in the literature to provide policy support, it turns to an illustration of the contents of the project CAP-IRE, its methods and organization. Some selected results of the project are illustrated, by considering two overarching issues, i.e. the exit mechanisms and farm-household innovativeness. The paper closes with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the approach and an account of the main research needs identified for the future.

The thesis attempts to create models of standard classification which would enable to predict a bankruptcy of enterprises. Economic aspects of bankruptcy have been presented as well as causes of it. The attention has been devoted to the methods of bankruptcy prediction with emphasis on the discriminant analysis and logit models. The thesis contains a review of literature concerning existing models of early warning. Description and the estimation’s results of own models of bankruptcy have been included in the chapter based on research. It has also presented results of the verification of obtained functional models based on a sample validation.

In the dairy sector of the Podlaskie region, the leader in milk production and processing in Poland, strong concentration processes are observed. Enlargement of herds of dairy cows in a number of farms increases farmers’ interest in adoption of innovative, automatic milking systems (AMS). In this paper, the profitability of different timing of investment implementation in milking robots was assessed, focusing on the dairy farm types dominating in the region. The implemented model is based on a real option approach that includes investment irreversibility and stochasticity in direct payments rate, milk and labour prices. Additionally several investment support rates from Rural Development Plan has been considered. The analysis shows that delaying investment in AMS under conditions of the reformed CAP would be a better strategy as compared to investments in the first year of modelling period. However, the benefit form postponing decision on investment is diminishing with increasing farm size and input of hired labour.

The main purpose of the study, whose results are presented in this paper, was to investigate and assess the influence of the vocational activity on the participation in tourism of people with disabilities residing within the territories of Eastern Poland. The empirical studies using the method of diagnostic survey were conducted in the years 2005–2007 in the following regions: podlaskie, lubelskie and podkarpackie. A comparative analysis of participation in tourism and recreation of two groups of disabled people – vocationally active and inactive – was conducted. There were taken into account the frequency of tourist traveling, preferred forms of tourism, premises and barriers of participation in the activity of tourism and recreation. Studies showed that the vocational activity is an important determinant of participation in tourism of people with disabilities. Conducted studies on the initiative of the Institute of Tourism and Recreation of State School in Biała Podlaska constituted a contribution to studies on the determinants of tourist and leisure activities of disabled people in Poland.