D69 - Welfare Economics: OtherReturn

The objective of this study is to estimate effects of tax family benefits, social family benefits, availability of kindergartens and economic situation on fertility in the Czech Republic. The data cover the period 1993-2018 and come from the Czech Statistical Office and Czech legislation. The relationship between the variables and the total fertility rate as the dependent variable was analysed using regression analysis. The results show that fertility is positively affected by the supply of kindergartens and social family benefits. On the other hand, higher unemployment as an indicator of unfavourable economic situation decreases fertility. The effect of tax benefits was not statistically significant, which is not surprising, because tax family benefits are much lower in comparison with social family benefits. The model is limited by the number of variables and the number of observations; therefore, the model results should be taken as signals, not as definite answers.

The paper deals with the so-called small pension reform in the Czech Republic in response to the findings of the Constitutional Court Pl. US 8/07. Through microeconomic modelling of the situation with the help of valid retro data, the development of solidarity and equivalence in the ongoing pension system is analysed in detail, both before and after the so-called small pension reform of basic pension benefits carried out from 2005-2016 in the Czech Republic. The analytical calculations are focused on properly calculating retirement in accordance with Act No. 155/1995 Coll. on pension insurance, as amended, from the perspective of different situations of typified individuals with different incomes (five) and their individual replacement ratio from the perspective of the Czech pension system, which is funded on an ongoing basis. The results quantify the individual replacement rates and are analysed from the perspective of model situations where, despite the enactment of these small pension reform, a high individual replacement ratio still remains for low-income individuals compared with high-income individuals. The analysis shows that the lower the pre-retirement income is, the higher the individual pension benefit itself is in comparison with pre-retirement higher income, and the more it manifests itself in a higher rate of solidarity with the higher individual replacement ratio. Conversely, with an increase in the pre-retirement pension, the benefit income rises, but increases more slowly in relation to the pre-retirement income and the individual replacement ratio decreases significantly. Low-income individuals have a tendency to increase the nationwide replacement rate, while high-income individuals tend to reduce it. In conclusion, the paper also points out the difficulty of achieving ongoing financial sustainability of the pension system in the Czech Republic, where a considerable increase in the so-called awaited dependency ratio (per 100 people) is expected from the 2015 value of 26.6 to 47.8 in 2080 (ceteris paribus).

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion about the influence of family policy on family behaviour. The paper analyses the impact of parametric and system changes introduced in family and social benefits and tax reliefs in 2006-2015 on the income level of families with different demographic characteristics, and evaluates the potential of those changes to influence reproductive and partnership behaviour. The analytical part takes selected instruments of financial support to the family and shows the size of the financial provision families can claim depending on their previous earned income, to what extent that income is being compensated (family benefits), and how the net income is influenced (tax reliefs). Effects of the studied changes vary for different income categories and are more pronounced in the case of low-income families. This differentiation corresponds to the fertility by mother's education, which is tightly linked to the family's income. The analysis has shown that certain instruments have the potential to influence family behaviour, however in diverse ways.

The ageing of population and its economical, social and political consequences is a topic very frequently discussed. This paper contains the analysis of consequences of the ageing of the Czech population during this century based on the population projection using the latest available data reflecting the results of the last census in 2011. Besides the usual simple (and of course very crude) measures of economic dependency in the population (e.g. various dependency ratios) the paper contains a computation of a more sophisticated measure - the ratio of social dependency - which takes into account not only the amount of personal consumption but also costs of education and health care.

This is the reaction on the article of Václav Klusoň "Come-Backs of Dr. Bernard Mandeville: Virtuous Knaves in Economic Transformation". I put in contrast economic thinking of B. Mandeville and A. Smith and argue that both Smith's social and moral philosophy and his economic thought is more relevant for our present time. Smith's system of natural liberty - free trade and free enterprise - brings the invisible hand of the markets to work and transform self-interests of individuals into social benefits. I doubt that knaves were becoming virtuous in the process of transformation and privatization. Rather it is the other way around: virtuous men are becoming knaves in our present social, political and economic system of excessive taxation and regulations. The state is so much involved in bureaucratic, regulative and redistributive activities that it fails to function as the guardian of law and order.

The author undertakes in his essay a risky experiment as he tries to look at the present-time-economic-transformations in the view of the great thinker of 18th century, Dr. Bernard Mandeville, who famed by his Fable of the Bees, or Private Vices and Public Benefits. The philosophy of Mandeville, as is well known, influenced besides others, F. A. Hayek and J. M. Keynes, the former by ascribing Mandeville the primacy of the idea of spontaneity in evolution and the latter by assesing luxury in promoting the spending. In the course of economic reforms the truthfullnes of the so-called Mandevill paradox has been widely afirmed; knaves were becoming virtuous and property conferred respect and authority upon the "nouveau riche".