D83 - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; UnawarenessNávrat zpět

A representative survey of adult population is used to analyse perceptions of existing income inequality and preferences for ideal income distribution in the Czech Republic. On average, Czechs view the distribution of disposable income as more unequal than it actually is. This biased perception results from underestimating total income shares belonging to bottom quintiles and overestimating the total income share belonging to the top income quintile. Whereas the majority of Czechs prefer some level of income stratification, there are about four tenths of people who would prefer to live in a completely equal society. These are primarily older, less educated and lower income people whose preferences formulated under uncertainty are mostly consistent with the maximin principle and inequality aversion. Almost a fifth of Czechs would prefer an income distribution consistent with efficiency concerns.

The paper synthesizes the current literature regarding information aggregation, voter compe-tence, voting paradox and behavioral economics in order to answer the question whether the phenomenon of "wisdom of the crowds" can be reasonably relied upon during a referendum. Review of the 'wisdom of the crowds' research reveals two key assumptions: voter competence and voter independence. Although direct testing of the actual fulfillment of these assumptions in a real-world setting is not possible, both empirical literature on voting behavior and rational choice theory provide ample ground for skepticism in this regard. Low level of knowledge together with unmitigated influence of systematic biases is expected to dominate the actual voting behavior. Affect heuristic is used as an example to illustrate this point. The paper concludes that referendum does not seem to be a reliable way to revealing preferences regarding various social issues.

The aim of the article is to explore how the results of the U. S. subprime mortgage crisis influenced economic policy of governments in highly developed countries. It analyses consequences of a state intervention especially for government budgets and a rise of government debts. Then the article discusses the point of view of the Austrian school. Austrian economists argue a state is not an economic subject and its fiscal policy is very dangerous for effective allocation of the available resources of production's factors. They advocate a society with a small government and liberal economic policy. The author believes that Austrian approach to economic problems is more realistic and more pertinent than the approach of those, who demand more government intervention.

We analyse regional spill-over effects from FDI on innovation activities of domestic firms in Eastern European and Asian transition and post-transition countries. The analysis is carried out using the World Bank 2009 Enterprise survey. We look also at the impact of FDI on innovation activities of domestic firms at regional level. We find the evidence for a non-linear impact of foreign firms on innovation. An increasing regional foreign presence at first reduces innovation activities and then beyond a certain point increases it. This is consistent with the literature which suggests that either effect may be plausible. Foreign owned firms are more likely to engage in product innovation and license products from other firms. We also find the evidence for the positive statistically significant impact of access to bank credit, infrastructure, size of the firm, being part of a group of firms and competitive pressure on innovation activities of firms.

This paper discusses recent claims made by Caplan (2000, 2001a, 2001b, 2001c, 2002, 2007) who argues that democracies produce bad policies as a result of voters' irrational beliefs. We start by outlining the motives which led Caplan to amend classic Public Choice in such a radical fashion. We analyse the likely repercussions that his hypothesis might have on the future of the profession. We provide a critique of Caplan's distinction between experts and ordinary people and we conclude by suggesting an important degree of caution in interpreting Caplan's results and in providing any policy advice based on his hypothesis.

Results of a survey concerning the importance of quality management of the educational process among high officials of Czech universities and colleges are summarized in this article. Three of possible methods of quality management in the educational process are described here: Standardization ISO, Model of Excellence EFQM and benchmarking. General approach to evolutionary processes is applied on the development of quality of the educational process and the problem of coordination to cooperation is discussed, because cooperation is the very basis of benchmarking.

Learning is a subject of intense research in economics. We present persuasive evidence that learning took place among uninformed heterogeneous agents during a large-scale naturally-occurring set of auctions. Empirical study employs a unique bidding data set of 5000 individual investors that placed their bids in the voucher scheme that in terms of size, incentives, and variation is one of the largest experiments ever conducted. To detect and quantify learning we develop new measures of individual performance during the bidding process on the artificial stock market where prices of goods vary over successive stages of bidding on the basis of supply and demand.