J24 - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor ProductivityReturn

This study aims to identify growth-conducive institutions unique to emerging economies. For that purpose, we examine the roles of Anglo-American institutions in fostering total factor productivity growth through the improvement of technical efficiency in emerging economies. Specifically, the impacts of the liberalistic and paternalistic types of regulatory institutions are discerned. The results show that institutional qualities such as reverence for the rule of law and effective governments robustly promote total factor productivity by improving technical efficiency, while voices of citizens and political stability exhibit a symbiotic relationship, where the efficacy of one of these qualities requires the sufficient prevalence of another. Regarding regulatory institutions, we found evidence that calls for protectionist policies to foster innovation, which is the key driver of technical efficiency.

The study provides estimates of the size of the fatherhood premium for the Czech Republic in the years 2006‒2017, using data from the EU SILC survey. In the years 2006‒2009, the fatherhood premium in the Czech Republic does not manifest itself if explanatory variables include the marriage premium and the partner's labour market participation. The fatherhood premium only starts to express itself in 2010 and the following years, when it reaches values from 11% to 15% as a consequence of a decision of families with high-income fathers to have a third child in the years after 2010.

We use EU SILC data for the Czech Republic to estimate the size of the motherhood penalty for the period 2006-2017. We find out that adjusted motherhood penalty amounts to 11-15% in the period 2006-2008. At that time, the Czech Republic appeared to be comparable to countries such as Germany and the UK. However, the motherhood penalty effectively disappears after 2009 and the Czech Republic is now placed in the same group with Scandinavian countries, France and Belgium. Despite that, there are still many obstacles for mothers to increase their labour market participation, which translate mainly into wage penalties via the experience and labour intensity channels. The study also supports other general evidence from cross-country motherhood penalty comparisons, motherhood penalty being mostly a phenomenon of middle-educated, married women located outside large cities, employed in private industry and having more than one child.

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).

The Impact of Immigration on Occupational Specialization of European Union Citizens The article tests whether the impact of immigration on native workers differs depending on the business cycle. Previous studies proved that labor mobility and the effect of immigration differs with respect to the business cycle. For the expansionary years was found a sizable relocation of native workers to occupations with more interactive rather than manual content as a response to immigration. This is no longer the case for economy in recession period. However, there is null impact on native employment that does not change with the business cycle. The European labor market has been studied just in the period before crisis. Following the study about Spanish task specialization we would like to see if there is any change of impact of immigration on native task specialization in European Union. We split the data on the time period of expansion and the time period of economic crisis using the European Labor Force Survey. We would like to examine the effect of immigration on task specialization of natives on three groups of countries, West Europe, Germany and Middle and East Europe. The results show that the impact changes with the economic cycle and the country group.

This paper tests the selected determinants shaping the careers of women. It uses data from an exclusive survey conducted in 2011 in the Czech Republic and confronts the results with Hakim's preference theory. The results suggest arguments both for against the preference theory. We formulated four hypotheses and verifi ed them by binary probit models. In accordance with the Hakim's theory we were able to demonstrate that the preference for work (work-centered preference)has a positive and signifi cant impact on the career choices of women on the Czech labor market. According to the results of the model is the work-centered preference associated with 52% increase in likelihood that a woman will spend most of the energy in employment. The impact of higher education has been shown to be positive and signifi cant - higher education increases the likelihood that a woman will spend most of the energy is employment by more than 14%. The impact of motherhood is according to our data negative and signifi cant. It reduces the likelihood of career choices by more than 19% and this effect is the same for one and more children which is in contrast to Hakim's theory.

Using cross-sectional data from WageIndicator web survey for Czech Republic, this paper shows that motherhood has a negative effect on women's wages. The penalty is between 1-13%, depending on personal characteristics. Results of auxiliary regressions suggest that behind the negative effect is loss of human capital caused by maternity and parental leave as well as lower work effort of mothers at work and self-selection of mothers into more mother-friendly jobs. We have found a significant motherhood wage penalty in the private sector. However, in the public sector mothers receive a 1% wage premium. In contrast with theory, results show that low educated women yield a 4% premium for motherhood. In conclusion, the motherhood wage penalty in Czech Republic exhibits properties similar to those found in other European and US studies.

This paper aims at finding out, whether the previous experience in Ukrainian construction sector increases the probability of doing the same job in the Czech construction sector. We assume that the integration of Czech and Ukrainian construction sectors led to the creation of structural channels directing Ukrainian labour migrants to the Czech Republic along the migration lines and facilitating the process of labour migration between these two countries. We employ the unique dataset created with the help of the survey conducted in Ukraine within the framework of Ukrainian migration project (UMP) in 2010-2012 and estimate multidimensional models in order to establish whether the previous experience in Ukrainian construction sector increases the probability of doing the same job in the Czech construction sector. Our results show strong empirical evidence for our hypotheses and are interpreted in the context of a broader economic restructuralization in the European Union.

The paper deals with early entrepreneurial activity of individuals. It is focused both on entrepreneurs owning and managing a young firm and on nascent entrepreneurs who do steps towards launching a new venture. Demographic, socioeconomic, psychological and other factors influencing early entrepreneurial activity were analyzed based on data gathered from representative samples of adult population in the Czech Republic in 2006 (n = 2 001) and 2011 (n = 2 005). Unlike some earlier work on the subject, binary choice models were used in order to quantify the ceteris paribus effects of individual factors. Results showed that, ceteris paribus, men, people with higher entrepreneurial self-efficacy and people who know somebody else, who has launched a new business recently, more often involved in early entrepreneurial activity. The probability of such involvement grew, depending on the utilized model, till 36 to 46 years of age and decreased onwards. For both the phase of nascent entrepreneurship and that of start-up management, entrepreneurial status in society and the level of education were insignificant. Region and fear of failure played a larger role in nascent entrepreneurship, while gender and household income were significant factors related to the next phase of launching and managing a new business. Gender inequality related to start-up early management in between 2006 and 2011 increased. Overall, the study (1) shows robust findings concerning entrepreneurial entry in the Czech Republic, (2) differentiates between factors influencing nascent entrepreneurs and start-up owner-managers, and (3) provides policy recommendations for mitigating the negative role of entrepreneurial activity inhibiting factors.

The aim of paper is to estimate internal rates on return on human capital investment in the Czech Republic. Internal rates of returns are estimated from the point of view of individuals and society. Authors did their own computations and estimations, which are based on some selected data: REFLEX survey, Eurostudent IV survey, data about wage development from Czech Statistical Office and from Information system about average salaries. Internal rates of return are differenced by study fields, regions and sex. Pares also reflects the current demographic situation in the Czech Republic and thoughts about reform of tertiary educational system including tuition fees at public universities.

The dramatically growing disproportion between the value of corporate assets and market valuation has resulted in a well-researched schism between strategic management and financial theory. Options theory provides a potent tool to resolve this issue. We propose a model which is consistent with both the Resource- and Contractual-Based Theories of the Firm and which demonstrates that corporate strategy can be perceived as a portfolio of embedded and real options. We further argue that embedded options typically serve as hedging instruments for real options which enhances their value and should be a major consideration when assessing the structure and form of contracts. Special emphasis is granted to human capital and the contractual arrangements through which firms purchase its product. Human capital is the key resource for the processes of real-options discovery and strategy-setting, both of which constitute the essential part of a modern firm's value.

This paper analyzes the tax penalty on volatile personal income under progressive tax rates. The phenomenon may have an effect on long-term entrepreneurial decisions as well as risky occupational choice. An options-based model is used to estimate the expected effective rate due from tax-payers at different income levels and volatilities under the current Czech legislation. A comparison is made to the system which has been in place until 2005, as well as to the Slovak flat-rate schedule. The model shows that volatile incomes incur a substantial penalty of up to 2 percentage points on the effective rate peaking just below the official income statistics mean. The effect is more pronounced than under the former parameters of the tax code. A severe impact on below-average earners due to the mandatory minimum tax-base regulation has been demonstrated. On the other hand, the Slovak flat tax with a single marginal rate bears virtually no sensitivity to income volatility, with the slight exception of very low incomes.

The article consists of theoretical and analytical part. Theoretical part provides a brief review of the academic literature dealing with human capital, it's accumulation and obsolescence. In The second part analyses selected qualitative characteristics of adult population in the CR and compares them with their average level in the European Union. Analysis shows that the strong positive attribute of the CR is a high share of population with secondary education. In 2005 this indicator reached 77% in the CR, the EU-25 average was only 48 %. The other CR' advantage is high average level of quantitative literacy and also high rate of population who took place in the two highest proficiency level of quantitative as well as document literacy. On the other hand the weak point is low share tertiary educated population, low level of prose literacy and ability to speak in a foreign language. CR lacks also in percentage of households having access to the personal computer and to the Internet at home. Population of the CR shows relatively low level of job mobility as well as readiness to move to find job if they were unemployed.

The paper investigates individual wage determinants in context of classic human capital methodology. Paper tries to confront economic assumptions with empirical findings for the Czech Republic and presents that in view of labour market during late-transition period. Czech labour force is relatively well educated and trained, price of labour is low to be competitive to developed economies. Education of employee plays very important role in wage determination and there are significant increase in returns to human capital during all transition process. But working in some occupation has major individual intensity of influence on wage level than level of education. Education and occupation are strongly correlated each other but nevertheless occupation plays major role in wage determination process. Comparing other results with hypothesis, paper concludes that main assumptions are confirmed by derived findings. Paper supports that wage-age profile, regional differences or gender wage gap are becoming similar to other developed countries.