• Energy Research

The main purpose of the paper is to evaluate the online teaching process at universities, and detect shortages and gaps in online learning in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The research results are the initial steps leading to the development of a guide and online open access tools supporting academic teachers in the efficient use of an online didactic process, which will be used broadly. The specific objectives are to identify differences in the assessment of online learning among students from different EU countries, to identify differences between face-to-face and online learning among students from the countries surveyed, to assess the attractiveness of online teaching to students in selected EU countries, and to determine the assessment of the preparation of university teachers for online teaching in the countries surveyed. Using a purposive selection method, five EU countries, i.e., Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Poland, and Sweden, were selected for the study. The study is based on questionnaires. The survey was conducted among 809 student respondents representing the five countries. The study was carried out in 2021 and the research period was 2020–2021 (before and after pandemic restrictions). It was found that students evaluate online courses much better in countries/universities with a long tradition in online teaching and usage of interactive platforms, than in those without them. Students generally evaluated in-person learning better than online learning, and their evaluation depended on their previous experience of online learning. The degree of preparation for the online courses is strongly correlated with the overall evaluation of these courses. The attractiveness of the online courses is strongly conditioned by the content of engaging, involving and stimulating elements. There is the need for the development of interactive tools and training for teachers, which will increase the attractiveness of online classes for students.

The recent outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has made a significant impact on the global financial markets. The aim of this paper is to assess the short-term reaction of the Visegrad countries’ financial markets to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Visegrad Group is a political alliance of four Central European countries, namely Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The financial assessment is based on the EUR/CZK, EUR/HUF, and EUR/PLN exchange rates and the major blue-chip stock market indices, that is Prague PX, Budapest BUX, Warsaw WIG20, and Bratislava SAX. It is evident that the ongoing pandemic has changed the expectations of the financial market participants about the future value of exchange rates in the Visegrad countries. This study indicates that, as a consequence of COVID-19, higher probability has been attached to the large depreciation of the Czech koruna (CZK), the Hungarian forint (HUF), and the Polish zloty (PLN) than to their large appreciation. Moreover, based on the TGARCH model, the positive and significant correlation between the number of reported COVID-19 cases and the exchange rates has been confirmed, implying that the ongoing pandemic has resulted in the depreciation of the Visegrad currencies. Additionally, the result of the TGARCH model reveals that there is a significant and negative link between the Visegrad stock market indices and the COVID-19 spread.

The study aims to assess whether there are significant differences among EU member states regarding the Russo-Ukrainian-conflict-driven changes in macroeconomic indicators and whether these differences are linked to the country’s energy vulnerability. Applying the k-means clustering, there are distinguished three country groups similar with regard to regarding their energy intensity, energy dependence (including Russian gas dependence) and household budgets' exposure to energy prices. Based on Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon pairwise comparison tests, the study reveals statistically significant differences among the distinguished country clusters in the level of inflation and interest rates at the time of this conflict and differences in the 2022 forecasts' changes for GDP, inflation, budget balance and unemployment. The results indicate that EU economies characterised by the most significant energy vulnerability economically suffer the most in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The outbreak and rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the global financial markets, including the energy sector. Alternative energy belongs to the economy’s key sectors concerning environmental issues and seems to be a full-fledged alternative for fossil-based conventional energy. This paper aims to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the stock market indices related to the alternative and conventional energy sector. We use daily data on the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Global Alternative Energy Index, the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) Energy Index, and self-developed Average-49 COVID-19 New Cases Index and Average-49 Stringency Index. The research covers the period January–October 2020. The average level of the MSCI Global Alternative Energy Index in COVID-19 year was more than a quarter higher than in 2019 while the MSCI ACWI Energy fell almost one-third in the same period. Based on the Markov-switching model, we show that both the MSCI Global Alternative Energy and the MSCI ACWI Energy are not significantly affected by the epidemic status. The analysed indices decline as the government anti-COVID-19 policy becomes more stringent, but the relationship is statistically significant only in the high-volatility regime. In comparison to the conventional energy index, we reveal that the alternative energy index stays most of its time in the low-volatility regime without being adversely and significantly affected by the COVID-19 related indicators. Our study shows that the alternative energy sector, represented by the MSCI Global Alternative Energy Index, seems to be more resistant to COVID-19 than the conventional energy sector. It might imply that the novel coronavirus pandemic has not depreciated but emphasised the growing concern about climate change and environmental pollution.

The paper aims to detect the differences in stock market performance between companies from the alternative energy sector and main stock market sectors in the first and second years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We used Global Industry Classification Standard to analyse eleven main stock market sectors and the alternative energy sector. Based on the one-factor variance analysis—ANOVA, we reveal the statistically significant differences between the analysed stock market sectors in both 2020 and 2021. The analysis implied that the performance of stock market companies during COVID-19 is sector-specific. Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) test for pairwise comparison indicates that the alternative energy sector shows the most differentiation. Its average rate of return in 2020 is the highest and is significantly different for all eleven stock market sectors, while the top constituents from the conventional energy and financial sectors suffered the most. In 2021, a reverse trend in the stock prices can be observed. Companies from the conventional energy and financial sectors achieved the highest positive average weekly rates of return among all of the analysed stock market sectors, while the alternative energy sector performed significantly worse than the other sectors did. Nevertheless, throughout the entire analyses period of 2020–2021, the companies from the alternative energy sector turned out to be the biggest stock market beneficiaries. This study might imply that the COVID-19 pandemic has not hampered but has instead accelerated growing concerns about the environment and climate change.