E30 - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles: General (includes Measurement and Data)Návrat zpět

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.

Empirical research on the differences between unit values in the EU's trade with the Czech Republic and the intra-EU average has shown a significant changes. The comparative level of manufacturing products imported from the Czech republic has increased, the comparative level of products exported to the Czech republic has decreased. The price-gaps, inherited from the communist regime have been substantially reduced. Most remarkable changes of the comparative prices took place in trade with products of metalworking industries. The favourable development of price relations in the Czech foreign trade has been an important element underlying balance of payments performance, it has contributed to the nominal and real improvements of Czech krown and shoud play an importent role in the process of convergence. The analysis is based on Eurostat Comext Database.

The paper deals with equilibrium real price of a fixed asset in a growing economy. The supply of this kind of assets is by assumption fixed. Land or unique works of art are probably their closest empirical counterparts. Economic growth is manifested by a systematic increase in the real price of services provided by the asset. The rate of growth of their price depends on price and income elasticities of the demand for the services. Given these elasticities, an equilibrium price of the asset can expressed using the present value model. The equilibrium real asset price increases in time in the same rate as the real price of the services. The asset price can be highly sensitive to changes in values of the permanent rate of economic growth and real interest rate. Transitory changes in economic growth, however, seem to have only minor effect on the equilibrium price.

The article is engaged in the improvement of quarterly information on the gross domestic product by type of expenditures from the first expectations to final data. It concludes that the first estimate of GDP is under-estimated. This underestimation is caused by underestimation of the final households consumption expenditures and of the gross fixed capital formation. At the balancing process, when the above-mentioned items of expenditures are under-estimated, the surplus of resources side could be allocated to the change in stock of inventories item. Thus this item contains the discrepancy between the resources side and expenditures side of GDP and is disqualified from its role in business-cycle analysis. Differences of biases in constant prices data and in current prices data are also stated.

World economy slowed down more than 2 %, which was the main feature of its development in 2001. There were more factors behind this economic slowdown, primarily the faltering upswing of the world crude oil price, problems of the technological sector, and September 11 events in the USA. Recession forces hit world trade and investment activities in particular. Main sources of economic growth were thus significantly weakened in consequence. The growth rate of GDP in the EU slowed down from 3.3 % in 2000 to 1.6 % in 2001. A larger fall of the economy was prevented by only a slight deceleration of the growth of household consumption from 2.7 % in 2000 to 2.0 % in 2001 and keeping the dynamic growth of services between 2 % and 4 %. However, external trade growth rates were only a third on 2000 and came to limit Czech external trade dynamics in the second half of the year.