F21 - International Investment; Long-term Capital MovementsNávrat zpět

The objective of this paper is to analyse the outflow of primary income from the Czech Republic in comparison with the inflow of foreign direct investment and to show the causes of this phenomenon and the need for active economic policy in the area of primary income outflows. We look at the impact of pension outflows in the form of dividends on our economy as well as on the external balance from the perspective of the current account of the balance of payments. Attention is also paid to comparing pension outflows with inflows from domestic FDI abroad. The intention is also to test the hypothesis of a relationship between economic growth and FDI inflows and to test the validity of the investment life cycle hypothesis. Data are available for the period 1993-2022, published by the Czech National Bank, and only the period 1998-2021 will be included in the analysis. The long period under study is justified in an attempt to capture the impact of significant milestones that occurred during this period on the behaviour of foreign investors.

The present work is based on a hypothesis that the Czech economy was showing signs of economic deceleration and a potential slump into deeper growth problems way before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., at least in the year 2019. However, the present text does not intend to thoroughly confirm this hypothesis because in order to do so, a longer timeline of key economic indicators needs to be analysed. What it does present is at least a partial argumentation supporting the abovementioned hypothesis and some basic calculations. It proposes two ways towards its confirmation. The first one is a comparative analysis of individual - especially European - economies' response to subsiding external influences, i.e., to the weakening of the effects of the pandemic on the economy. The second way is at least a partial analysis of key macroeconomic indicators from the time before and during the pandemic, with an emphasis on detectable divergences in the development. The conclusion of our research is the finding that as early as in 2019, the Czech economy was showing signs of imminent deceleration of growth, which would probably have turned into stagnation and possibly a certain decrease in economic activity. The conclusions indicate that the reason behind such development was a massive but in fact little effective investment activity in the Czech economic environment, which is historically related to the structure of the economy and to the position of the Czech industrial sector in supplier relationships. Two related phenomena arise from that: firstly, a relatively low labour productivity, with producers domiciled in the Czech Republic reaching quite a low volume of value added, and secondly a massive capital outflow in the form of profits paid to parent companies abroad. The final part of the paper outlines some potentially effective steps which might lead - under favourable circumstances - to restructuring processes in the Czech economy. Due to the date of finishing the research, the paper does not include the consequences of the War in Ukraine.

Considerable diffusion of technology occurs via global trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) while firm heterogeneities cause considerable production heterogeneities. Hi-tech products and investment goods of differentiated varieties from emerging and developed economies are vehicles of superior technology. Given this stylized evidence, we analyse factors facilitating (or inhibiting) technological spillover to domestic firms in the host nations in a counterfactual scenario of a Trans-Pacific-Partnership (TPP) deal. By using a mixture interface of global computable general equi-librium (CGE) models of FDI (GTAP-FDI) and firm heterogeneity model of Global Trade Analysis Project, GTAP Heterogeneous (GTAP-HET), we calibrate impacts of trade and FDI spillovers on: (i) global production, (ii) trade patterns, (iii) welfare and (iv) regional productivity gains. Importance of regional trade agreements and policy for productivity spillovers is highlighted.

Promotion of foreign investment is a well-established practice in many countries with an inadequate capital base, and the benefits of this type of investment, particularly in the form of positive spillover effects on the domestic economic environment, have been repeatedly confirmed by numerous studies. However, still not enough attention is paid to the definition and actual content of the word "foreign" in the phrase foreign direct investment in the domestic environment. This methodological essay attempts to fill that deficit and, using the concepts of foreign and domestic roundabout investment, to propose a categorization of capital investment which would take into account both the actual origin of the investor and the actual place of production or provision of the service, as well as the perception of the product or service as foreign or local. The resulting categorisation matrix is then populated with concrete examples from Czech practice and commented on in detail. The matrix can close the gap in the current Czech literature, which concentrates on the terms "foreign" or "domestic" more than on their very substance and their material meaning.

It is a theoretical fact that countries in which foreign direct investments (FDI) are realized by trans-national corporations for the purpose of profit should have some economical and institutional pull factors. This study examines whether Chinese FDI in African countries is supported theoretically by the economic and institutional factors of these African countries or whether these investments instead serve mercantilist policies of China independently of these factors. With this in mind, we examined the effect of the GDP, trade openness, natural resource rents and some institutional indicators of the host African countries on the Chinese foreign direct investments within the period 2003-2017 for 10 African countries. We used Swamy's random coefficient panel regression method due to the heterogeneity of these 10 African countries. The empirical results show that China makes foreign direct investments in Africa for market and resource-seeking purposes which display significant elements of a "chopsticks" mercantilist policy.

The inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) is linked to several positive effects, which result in growing gross domestic product (GDP) and reduced unemployment rate in the host country. The level of GDP and the unemployment rate determine the FDI inflow, but contrariwise, FDI inflow has an impact on these variables. In the paper, we investigate which of these variables is the impulse and which is consequently determined by the impulse variable. The objective of the paper is to examine the length of the FDI effect in a host economy as well as the impact of FDI inflow on the unemployment rate using vector autoregression and impulse-reaction functions. Based on results of the Granger causality, we analyse linkages between FDI inflow, unemployment rate and GDP growth in the Slovak Republic in the period 1995-2018. The results show that the impulse comes from the unemployment rate, which consequently affects the FDI inflow. However, the length of this effect is very short.

Foreign investment has been an important source of capital formation in transition countries but has caused the division of economies into foreign- and domestic-owned sectors. This paper explores the persistence of dual economy in the Czech Republic as well as the relationship between labour productivity and components used in the income approach to GDP calculation. Analysing the dataset of 20,900 firms operating in the Czech Republic in 2015, the paper presents evidence that higher levels of foreign investment are associated with significant labour productivity and wage differentials. Lower unit labour costs in foreign enterprises are consistent with higher level of investment of foreign-owned firms. Our model shows that differences in the degree of capital intensity are the driving force for the level of unit labour costs (i.e. factors are substitutes concerning the factor payments).

In this paper, we analyze the extent of the impact of FDI on the host economy according to theoretical predictions. Within a broader context of international trade flows, we focus on inter-industry interactions between a multinational enterprise (MNE) that enters the domestic market and other firms in the economy. We seek to determine if the MNE uses domestic suppliers of intermediate goods or if it purchases its supplies from abroad or from other MNEs entering the downstream sector. Our analysis covers both Western and Eastern European countries over the period 2001-2007. Our results show that FDI increases the demand for intermediary goods. However, domestic producers of these goods can benefit only partially from this positive shock, since they are at the same time crowded-out by MNEs entering the upstream sector as well as by importers.

The main target of the paper is to identify the influences of the financial and trade liberalization in the EU and the functioning of the EMU on the realization of the cross-border mergers and acquisitions among the selected states of the European territory. We analyse in the paper, concerning the theoretical background of the foreign scientific studies on the influence of the integration processes in Europe on the realization of the cross-border mergers and acquisitions, the influence of the selected predictors on the cross-border mergers and acquisitions realized in 16 source countries and 25 target countries in the European territory from 1998 to 2012 (database data created by the authors) through the generalized linear model. Empirical results of several foreign studies (e.g. Bjortvan, 2004, Neary, 2007, Brouwer, Paap, Viaene, 2008, Coeurdacier, De Santos, Aviat, 2009 etc.) indicate that European integration had a positive impact on the development of cross-border mergers and acquisitions especially in manufacturing sector. We came to the same conclusion based on our analyses, while the integration into the EU has a critical influence, which is significantly higher in manufacturing sector. The influence of the integration into the EMU can be regarded as additional and it is identical for manufacturing sector and service sector. We can claim definitely that the institutional changes, such as the unified market of the European Union and the European Monetary Union were releasing factors of capital reallocation all over the world. The European Monetary Union encouraged the capital reallocation through the effects of unilateral financial liberalization (a decrease of marginal and fixed costs for execution of reallocation transactions) and thus facilitated the implementation of cross-border mergers and acquisitions in the European area.

The paper deals with a theoretical and empirical analysis of determinants of both net international investment position/GDP ratio and net costs of negative investment position using the case of the Czech Republic in 1999-2011. It defines country's short-run and long-run sustainability conditions that are based on dynamics of both sources created by an economy through net export surplus and negative net yields paid from international investment position. The paper points out important differences between large advanced and small transitive economies in case of costs of net investment position. The factors like country's position of FDI lender/debtor, world investment/ invoicing currency, exogeneity of foreign asset's and liability's interest yields, role of FX reserves accumulation by country's central bank and position of foreign currency denominated loans on foreign liabilities are discussed. Empirical analysis confi rms the Czech economy is not able to satisfy long run sustainability condition due to high net costs of negative investments position. Estimation of parameters in econometric model shows that worsening net investment position to GDP is a result of high dividend and interest yields paid from foreign liabilities that is still above positive balance of net export.

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.

The policy of investment incentives is applied in majority of countries all over the world. This popularity is in contradiction with rare academic analyses. This paper sheds some light on causal impact of such policy on investment of supported firms in Czech Republic. We use individual level panel data containing crucial observables about the firm behaviour. We overcome the selection problem by application of propensity score matching. Our comparison of investment behaviour of supported firms and firms from control group shows that the extra investment generated (or maybe only accelerated) was at most 26% of contracted amounts. Even with constraints and assumptions we explicitly discuss in our work, this indicates that the arguments for the provision of this policy in Czech economy are not valid. These findings are in line with mixed (but mostly similar) empirical evidence from other countries.

The article deals with the phenomenon of globalization and in particular its influence on production chains of multinational firms. The on-going process of globalization has set off new trends and possibilities of production (e.g. outsourcing) which resulted in changes of firms' behaviour. This led to new approaches in their decisions concerning internationalization of production process, i.e. investment abroad, mainly realised by setting-up a new production facility in a foreign country, usually in the form of the foreign direct investment (FDI). Some of these influences are also connected with new types of production and its structure. The first part of the text is devoted to a brief review of theories which may be used by explaining different ways of internalisation of firm's production, to the latest empirical data concerning FDI and some thoughts concerning methodological problems linked to FDI statistics. The next part of the text tries to shed light on different producing methods, classification schemas and definition of selected modern forms of production and discusses possible links to the FDI. The third part of the text presents a simple model for assessing value of FDI which can be used for decision-making within a multinational firm. The last part summarises the main findings.

This paper examines international relocation determinants of Czech manufacturing companies in order to estimate the probability of potential delocalizations. The research is based on statistical evaluation of "internal keep-factors" (particular company features strengthening the location inertia of manufacturing), which are divided into three main groups - capital intensity, complexity of value chain and business sophistication. Keep-factors were examined on the company level and represented by six financial indicators. The sample covers 692 Czech manufacturing companies (foreign owned) with one hundred or more employees. The main goal is to identify branches of manucaturing threatened by delocalization. Manufacturing companies with low capital intensity, low value added/output ratio, high relative wages expenditures and no R&D activities are regarded as footloose - with high probability of potential relocation.

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 paper deals with the relationships between the inflow of FDI in the Czech economy and the Czech labour market. First part is focused on general issues related to the FDI inflows and to the analysis of the penetration of the foreign controlled companies into domestic economy. Special attendance is devoted to the scope and developments of the duality in the Czech economy, in particular in its key segment - manufacturing industry. The findings indicate gradual and differentiated diminishing of the scope of duality in the Czech manufacturing. The necessary conditions for positive spillovers of FDI into the domestic economy have been outlined, with flexible and qualified labour force being a very important channel of the transfer of technology. Therefore the impacts of FDI on the Czech labour market have been analyzed from the regional and industrial viewpoint. Low flexibility of the Czech labour market has been one of the reasons behind still considerable scope of duality in the Czech manufacturing.

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 study deals with analysis of economic reforms in South-Eastern Asia affected by financial crisis in 1990s. Authors have stressed, that it was a result of internal and external influences, which caused not only the fatal destabilization of main economic fundaments of affected countries and they have had consequences on international business authority of these countries. It was approved, that the high rate of internal interdependence of countries affected by crisis and also the interdependence on Japan, could be considered as basic, but hidden accelerators of crisis. Nevertheless using of important reforming interventions eliminated most of the economic implications of it the risks of re-outbreak of the crisis have been decreased to certain level only. For prevention against its expansion are responsible all "attended" subjects and equally they have to share on realization of reforming economic programs for its long-term elimination.

The article deals with political risk, its definition, assessment and measuring. In the theoretical part different approaches to the definition of political risk are discussed and methodical approaches to its measuring and assessment are explained. The practical part is focused on the analysis of political risk assessment in transition countries of Europe and in countries of former Soviet Union compared to political risks in EU countries. The conclusions indicate that transition economies lag behind substantially in the areas of corruption, law observance and bureaucracy quality. For economic policy it is urgent to improve the quality of the institutional environment.

The article discusses different causes of financial crises and shows that the imputation of reinvested profits of the subsidiaries of foreign firms as a debit item on a host country's balance of payments account tends to overstate the current account deficit and to make the host country seem more vulnerable to financial crisis. It also shows that, because of the workings of the foreign direct investment financial life cycle, this phenomenon is most evident for countries that have recently received large inflows of capital. The transition economies of East Europe certainly fall among such countries. Authors verify the working of the foreign direct investment financial life cycle using a panel of transition economies.

This study provides information on trends and role of the Czech outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and evaluates the effects of the OFDI on parent companies. The analysis of trends is based on Czech National Bank data; the effects are evaluated through a unique set of data gathered through a sample survey. The stock of OFDI has grown slowly but steadily between 1993 and 2002. To date, about 80 per cent of OFDI is located in services and about 40 per cent in Central and East European countries (CEECs). The nature of OFDI in the EU is trade facilitating while the nature of OFDI in CEECs is tilted toward manufacturing. Much OFDI aims at avoiding a specific regulation in the home country or takes advantage of financial incentives in host countries. Our results indicate that OFDI is often related to parent company restructuring and is a precondition for maintenance and improvement of competitiveness.