E23 - Macroeconomics: ProductionReturn

The paper estimates the elasticity of substitution between capital and labour under biased technical change in the manufacturing sector in the Czech Republic. We use a dataset covering the period 1995-2019 and a 2-digit industry level, from NACE10 to NACE33. We find industry-level elasticities to be 0.19 and 0.94; therefore, labour and capital seem to be gross complements rather than substitutes across all manufacturing sectors. In the core industries of the Czech manufacturing sector, the elasticity is below average. Even if these core sectors have high and increasing labour costs (except NACE29, where the labour costs are below average), they do not replace labour with capital at a higher pace. This cannot be explained by the direction of technological bias because it is not capital-augmenting. On the other hand, our findings are in line with the literature, as most studies on transition countries report low estimates for the elasticity.

The elasticity of substitution between labour and capital in the Slovak economy is estimated in the paper. We used an econometric specification of capital and labour demand and data from the National Bank of Slovakia's macroeconomic database. In order to filter the processes caused by short-term shocks, the data were adjusted using the frequency filter. Using the Breusch and Pagan test, we have shown that the stochastic terms of capital and labour demand are related. Therefore, we did not use only the least squares method to estimate both specifications, but we also estimated a system of two equations with seemingly unrelated regression. The paper is extended with a discussion showing that the relatively low value of the input substitution elasticity could theoretically be explained by the transitive nature of the Slovak economy during the studied period. The elasticity of substitution between labour and capital in the Slovak economy was relatively low in the period 1997-2014; we estimated its value in the range from 0.03 to 0.11 depending on the choice of the database version.

The aim of the paper is to present traditional and alternative look at the evolution of business cycle synchronisation in the European Union throughout four periods determined according to integration process. Gradually we apply cross-correlations and rather alternative minimum spanning tree method to evaluate synchronization process and core or peripheral countries. An endogeneity argument and decreasing asymmetries among integrated countries were confirmed with a light rupture during financial and economic crisis. Position of France and Germany as core countries was corroborated. However, single monetary policy should be implemented according to average macroeconomic evolution in the euro area and not according to particular situation in France and/or Germany which could be inappropriate for certain countries.

Slovakia is a unitary state with a common legal and macroeconomic environment for all regions. However, such environment may hinder regions with production setting, different from the majority of the regions. Hence, the aim of the following paper is to present an empirical analysis of the production technologies used across Slovak regions and to identify potential regional differences. For this purpose two-factor Cobb-Douglas production function was analysed, using annual historical panel data for NUTS 3 Slovak regions. The panel-data structure allowed the distinguishing of the differences in capital and labour elasticities between the analysed regions and the average of the rest of the regions. Additionally, the same methodology was performed with Cobb-Douglas model built on the first differences of the used data. The results of the two approaches indicate that region "Banskobystrický kraj" has significantly different production setting for capital and labour input than the rest of Slovak regions.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on labour productivity and total factor productivity in the Czech Republic focusing on the period between the years 1995 and 2011. The authors follow the international methodology adapted to the availability of a reliable dataset, and divide the ICT sector in the ICT manufacturing, ICT services and ICT-using sectors. The issue of the quality of data sources and individual indicators entering the analysis is discussed in detail. While in the period between the years 1995 and 2003 the influence of ICT services prevails in the period 2003 and 2011 the influence of ICT using sectors grew much stronger in comparison. In both periods the importance of ICT manufacturing industry is negligible, which is also caused by the methodology of estimation of gross value added and recalculation into constant prices, as well as the low share of value added on production in that sector. Overall, the impact of ICT on the national economic aggregates should not be overstated.

The article focuses on new possible approaches of total factor productivity measurement. The standard computation takes into account the number of hours worked as the labour input and net or gross fixed capital stock as the capital input. This article improves the computation by using labour services as the labour input (it is necessary to take into account the skills and efforts of the workers) and capital services as the capital input. Substitution of capital stocks by capital services means that only flow indicators are used for TFP measurement. This issue became more popular in recent time in line with the revision of the manual for national accounts - SNA 2008. This paper concentrates on the development of the Czech economy between the years 2002 and 2008.

This paper deals with the recent empirical phenomenon of intraindustry trade, i.e. trade in similar goods between similar countries. It treats this phenomenon from the point of view of the theory of structure of production, highlighting the importance of sequential nature of production and heterogeneity and specificity of factors of production, as developed by Carl Menger, Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk and their followers of the so-called Austrian school of economics. Simple theory of production structure, along the lines of Austrian economics, is presented and a useful tool for the analysis of intraindustry trade is developed. In the following discussion we make the case for vertical intraindustry specialization, complex manufactured goods and sliced-up production chains across countries. The reader immediately observes the importance of Austrian production structure theory for the analysis of intraindustry trade. We accordingly apply the concepts of the structure of production on intraindustry trade and analyze, in particular, the time- and place-aspects of international production. Finally, we show the relevance of our approach to intraindustry trade for the analysis of business cycle synchronization and Optimum currency areas theory.

The efficiency of macroeconomic policies depends on adequate business cycle approximation. Given that potential output and the output gap (the difference between actual and potential output) are not directly observable, their values need to be estimated using alternative statistical, structural, and combined techniques. In this paper the Hodrick-Prescott filter and the Cobb-Douglass production function has been applied on the Slovak conditions. The pross and coins of both methods are analysed. The Hodrick-Prescott filter does not capture the structural changes, which were significant especially in the first half of analysed period. Thus the Cobb-Douglass production function seems to be more appropriate. It enables to detect particular factors of potential output growth as technological progress, capital and labour. Despite of potential shortcomings, this approach is still widely used by international institutions, governments and researchers.

This article explores development of the industrial structure of the Czech economy in the last ten years from the point of view of the gross value added and employment. It goes from the macroeconomic view at the level of the basic sectors to more detailed view focused on the individual branches. Increased attention is paid to manufacturing, which is analysed in more detailed structure. The accent is put on the labour productivity development and its main factors. The comparison is carried out in the time series, as well as within the EU member states. Besides the analysis on the level of individual sectors and industries the attention is paid to the groups of activities by technological and knowledge intensity in the manufacturing and services. In addition to industrial view the product view is applied for imports and exports of high-tech products.

This study is devoted to analysis of different aspects of world oil market development and its role in further growth of individual national economies, especially in connection with the ever intensifying globalization process. The study shows individual aspects and parts of the oil market, be it production and consumption of crude oil, its territorial dislocation, including EU, and also an analysis of the impact that has the development of oil consumption on economical results of individual national economies. In the first place it analyses the connections with the growth of competition ability of companies. Further research is devoted to the establishment of crude oil price and to the most important aspects on which depends the price creation process. Supply and demand factors are also analyzed. The study comes to a conclusion that the biggest obstacle in using the crude oil will not be its availability, at least in the short run, but the ever fast increasing price. This high price will enable the use of oil only to such companies and countries that will be able to implement the oil in the production process with very high efficiency. Such conditions satisfy only products and services that are based on unique technical and scientific know-how, with high added value, or in such areas of national economies where the use of oil is unenviable.

This article is oriented on the analyses of the development of the mergers and acquisition process. The author shows the main reason and motivations of expansion MA and its influence on the globalization of the world economy. This activity is (in the time and the territory) very different and heterogeneous. The leading players of his process are the multinational corporations, however, the value of deals of SME's is going up, too. In the last years these activities concern to the change of strategy of MNC's, first of all to the supporting of cooperation among them. The latest period is under the increasing pressure of the development of the international production sharing and production cooperation. The final result of this process is creating to a new sharing of the economic power in the worldvide framework, as a whole and influencing all regions, the emerging markets not shows off.

New members of the EU will not form an optimum currency area with the present eurozone member states. The article discusses some costs and benefits of an early EMU entry for the Czech Republic (and other Central-European economies). The authors concentrate on the consequences of loss of country-specific monetary policy, and of exchange-rate flexibility. They also stress the problem of finding the appropriate level at which to fix the exchange rate for both ERM-II and eurozone entry. The importance of both nominal and real convergence is underlined for a successful catch-up. The conclusion is that a "no hurry" policy for euro would be beneficial for a long-term catch-up process of the Czech Republic. Use of country-specific monetary policy is indispensable for real convergence.