O15 - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; MigrationNávrat zpět

Studies on the long-term trends of quality of life, and more specifically, the Human Development Index (HDI), have thus far largely neglected East Central Europe, and the existing scholarship tends to be fragmented. The paper seeks to address these shortcomings in research by investigating the trends of the HDI in Poland, Czechoslovakia and its successor states, Czechia and Slovakia, as well as Hungary between 1913 and 2010 within a broader international context. The analysis is based on a new data set developed by the authors. The results demonstrate that the HDI performance of the later decades of state socialism was more moderate than it is commonly assumed.

The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of the economic crisis which commenced in 2008 on fertility levels across the EU, i.e., whether the onset of the crisis influenced the fertility trends and whether the various countries differed in terms of their response to the crisis. The relationship between the two economic indicators GDP per capita and unemployment rate and the total fertility rate as the dependent variable was explored employing panel regression models. Simultaneously, an investigation was conducted into which indicator better fits the modelling of the influence of macro-economic conditions of individual countries on the fertility levels. Data on 28 EU member states from the period 2001 to 2013 were included in the analysis. The results revealed that the onset of the economic crisis exerted a fundamental effect on fertility. In addition, it was found that the two economic indicators were interchangeable in terms of the effects exerted. In conclusion, it was determined that the findings support the supposition that fertility tends to be pro-cyclical in character.

The paper analyzes the theory and construction of four indicators of pro-poor growth and applies them to Bangladesh over two time periods, 2000-2005 and 2005-2010. The following indicators were used: pro-poor growth index (Kakwani and Pernia, 2000), poverty equivalent growth rate (Kakwani and Son, 2008), poverty growth curve (Son, 2004), and the rate of pro-poor growth (Ravallion and Chen, 2003). Applied to Bangladesh, the results of the four indicators mostly point in the same direction. While the conditions for the pro-poor growth in the strict (relative) sense were rarely met, all the indicators suggest there was a certain degree of pro-poor element in the growth process. However, there were noticeable differences between the two periods. In the first period, the growth led to a faster reduction in absolute poverty while inequality increased, whereas in the second period the poor benefited relatively more from growth but the reduction of poverty was less pronounced (since the growth in the mean income was lower in the second period). The results also show that the relatively richer part of the poor population (those not far below the poverty line) benefited more from the growth process than the poorest of the poor.

The paper analyses the relationship between economic growth and human development in developing countries. While the former is often perceived as a necessary precondition for successful human development, the latter is regarded to be the main development objective. However, the link between economic growth and human development seems to be more complex. According to Ranis et al. (2000) the relationship is two-sided and mutually reinforcing, so in the long run the countries usually end up either in the vicious circle of bad economic growth and human development performance, or in the virtuous circle of positive results in both areas. The authors also suggest that the emphasis on economic growth does not lead to desired human development outcomes. Our work builds on their research and improves the methodology: we have introduced two new classifications based on countries' outcomes in areas of human development and economic growth that allow us to obtain better and more precise results. We have investigated data for 71 developing countries in three periods of time within 1980-2012. Our main findings are in some respects in line with Ranis et al. (2000) and suggest that countries with high pace of human development appear to achieve and retain high economic growth in the future, thus heading towards the virtuous circle of fast economic growth and human development. On the other hand, countries with low pace of human development tend to fall into vicious circle of slow economic growth and human development.

In the text finite mixtures of lognormal distributions are used for the modelling of net annual income per capita and equivalized income of the Czech households (in CZK) in 2004-2010. The development of distribution of number of members of households is analysed and the characteristics of standardized units according to EU and OECD methodologies are given. Data from the survey EU-SILC organized by the Czech Statistical Office from 2005-2011 (dealing with incomes from 2004-2010) are used for the analysis. Models (with incomplete data) with two to four artificial components are used in order to fit the distribution of incomes; the development of their characteristics is shown. All estimates in the text are maximum likelihood estimates, EM algorithm in the program R is used for the optimalization. Models are compared with the use of Akaike criterion.

The article evaluates the distributional impacts of the value added tax changes in the Czech Republic using the Household Budget Survey, a representative sample of approximately 3000 households. It evaluates the impacts on the living standards both for the VAT reform that was actually approved in 2011, as well as for alternative reform proposals that were discussed during 2011 and that also considered a reduction in payroll tax rates. The estimates refl ect the recent empirical fi ndings about the incidence of consumption and payroll taxes. Unifying the VAT at a single tax rate has an almost proportional impact on the households from the 2nd to impact 10th income decile while having a disproportionately larger impact on the poorest decile. A reduction in the payroll tax would have reduced the progressivity of the tax system across the entire income range.

The current record wave of immigration is a problem and does not conform to the interests of most people in Europe. Immigration is ineffective as a global development policy. The article argues in favor of an immigration that is balanced and that is in the interests of citizens in Europe rather than just in the interests of potential immigrants, recent immigrants and businesses that like cheap labor. First section of the article perceives immigration in the context of the public debate. Second section calls attention to the record wave of immigration to Europe. Third section asks a question of who are the winners and losers of immigration. Forth section analyses free movement of people in the EU. Fifth section explains why immigration is not remedy to population aging. Sixth section is concerned with the strengths and weaknesses of multiculturalism. Seventh section draws attention to the problem of democratic legitimacy. Eighth section asks a question of whether there is a rational immigration policy.

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.