From the Editors January 2023

We are handing over to the Readers the fourth issue of the journal Economic and Regional Studies / Studia Ekonomiczne i Regionalne, the last issue of the year 2022. The issue presents a diverse range of matters raised by Authors from Poland, Belarus, India, and Nigeria.
Adressed topics include labor market management and the impact of the renewable energy sector on employment, the use of EU funds to support local development, the functioning of farmers, agricultural cooperatives and the fruit market in the state of Haryana in India, and consumer preferences regarding the choice of product supply in the
E-commerce market.
The raised issues are complemented by articles on apprenticeships in technical schools in Poland and the challenges of children's access to water in rural
communities in Nigeria. We sincerely encourage you to read the published papers. Also, we invite you to publish papers in the issue 1/2023.
The content editing of the next issue will be handed over to Guest Editor- Prof. Karol Kukuła, Ph.D., of the University of Agriculture in Cracow.

Mieczysław Adamowicz
Editor in Chief

Overview of the academic biography of Professor Karol Kukuła Guest Editor of Issue 1/2023

Professor Karol Kukuła graduated with honors from the Cracow School of Economics in 1972. In the same year he became a laureate of the Copernicus Competition, which was connected with awarding him the title of the best student in Cracow. He was then awarded the “Primus Inter Pares” medal and the statuette of the Cracow Red Rose. He earned his PhD at the same university in 1976, and received his habilitation degree there. He received the title of professor at the Faculty of Economics and Agriculture of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences in 2003.
In 1992, the professor moved from the Academy of Economics to the Agricultural University, taking up the position of head of the Department of Mathematical Statistics at the Faculty of Agriculture. He developed this faculty and transformed it into a department called the Department of Statistics and Econometrics. He headed this Department until 2018, i.e. until his retirement. However, he does not stop his research and teaching work because he is employed at the Academy of Applied Sciences in Tarnow, where he has worked ever since. During the period of his work, he has completed internships at foreign universities, including in the Netherlands, Hungary and the United States. Several months’ stay in the United States resulted in the development of his interest in operational research, which resulted in the creation of 7 consecutive editions of a nationwide workbook published in the yea rs:1993,1995,1999,2001,2006,2011,2016. This book, published by the Scientific Publishing House PWN in Warsaw for almost a quarter of a century, is entitled “Operational research in examples and tasks”. The professor is its initiator, co-author and scientific editor.
Professor Karol Kukuła belonged to the distinguished scientists of the Agricultural University in Cracow, where he developed a rich scientific and didactic output. Working later at the Academy of Applied Sciences in Tarnow, he built and strengthened a nationally recognized scientific authority, especially in the use of mathematical and statistical methods, modeling and operational research. His scientific and teaching achievements include 155 original creative works published in prestigious journals in the fields of: statistics, econometrics, agricultural economics, operations research and regional research. Among them, there are 7 monographs including one of a methodological nature entitled “The method of
zeroed unitarization,” which was published by PWN Publishing House in 2000 in Warsaw as part of a special series entitled “Econometric-Sigma Library.”
In total, Professor Kukuła is the Author or Co-authorof 18 editions of textbooks. Two main streams can be distinguished in his scientific activity:
1) Statistical analysis of additive economic structures by creating methods for studying the dynamics of structures and their regional variation.
2) Multivariate comparative analysis with special emphasis on the procedure supporting the selection of a linear ordering method.
The Professor has presented the results of his achievements many times in Poland and abroad. He was the organizer of five international conferences. Moreover, he is a member of the Scientific Boards of three Polish scientific journals.
Professor Karol Kukuła is honored to have been invited by the journal “Economic and Regional Studies” to fill the position of Guest Editor for issue 1/2023. He has participated
in six grants, serving as a manager in three, while in one of an international nature, implemented in 1994-1995, he held the position of director. This was a PHARE-funded project No. 9105-03-11/2842. Currently, Professor Karol Kukuła has completed 50 years of scientific and teaching work. During this long period, the Professor taught at various universities: Cracow, Czestochowa, Zamosc, Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, Jaroslaw, Gorzow Wielkopolski and Tarnow. In 1999-2001, he held the position of vice-rector of the Higher School of Business and Entrepreneurship in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, and in the following years, 2001-2003, he held the position of rector at the Higher School of Humanities and Economics in Zamosc. The Professor’s scientific and research activities are complemented by the training of young academic staff for higher education institutions in Poland. His achievements in this field include being the supervisor of 12 PhDs, not only at his home university in Cracow, but also at other universities in the country.