Title: Economic and environmental drivers of physical safety in Central Europe

Authors: Oleksandra Karintseva; Oleksandra Kubatko; Oleksandr Derykolenko; Vitaliy Omelyanenko; Victoria Sulym; Anastasiia Yaremenko

Addresses: Department of Economics, Entrepreneurship and Business Administration, Institute of Business, Economics and Management (BIEM), Sumy State University, Sumy, Ukraine ' Department of Economics, Entrepreneurship and Business Administration, Institute of Business, Economics and Management (BIEM), Sumy State University, Sumy, Ukraine ' Department of Economics, Entrepreneurship and Business Administration, Institute of Business, Economics and Management (BIEM), Sumy State University, Sumy, Ukraine ' Sumy State Pedagogical University, Institute of Industrial Economics of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine ' Department of Management, Institute of Business, Economics and Management (BIEM), Sumy State University, Sumy, Ukraine ' Department of Economics, Entrepreneurship and Business Administration, Institute of Business, Economics and Management (BIEM), Sumy State University, Sumy, Ukraine

Abstract: Physical safety is not only about the actual safety of humans but also their mental health and calmness. The article examines the key drivers of people's physical safety, well-being and satisfaction with life. The study covers seven Central European countries during 2011-2018. The random effects estimations for the panel data are used for empirical estimations. The study found that crime/violence, unemployment and noise from neighbours negatively impact individuals' physical safety. The empirical results proved that an increase in median income by 1000 euros in Central European states promotes an increase in life expectancy by 0.7 years. However, if unemployment rises by 10%, the decline in life expectancy would range from 0.7 to 1.19 years. The paper proves that the marriage factors like indicators of moral factors are an inevitable part of a healthy society. Noise from the neighbours is considered to be an object of irritation and reduces the level of physical safety of EU citizens. Thus, governments need to stay on top of the problems mentioned above to cope with them.

Keywords: physical safety; economic development; well-being; life satisfaction.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGEI.2025.143350

International Journal of Global Energy Issues, 2025 Vol.47 No.1/2, pp.22 - 38

Received: 28 Jan 2023
Accepted: 17 Oct 2023
Published online: 16 Dec 2024 *