O16 - Economic Development: Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and GovernanceNávrat zpět

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.

This paper aims to find the microeconomic and macroeconomic determinants of European bank profitability from 2012 to 2019 using the regression model with the multicollinearity condition as a matrix parameter, the multicollinearity below the defined value, ensuring regression model reliability. The bank sector profitability is measured by return of average equity, return of average assets and net interest margin as dependent variables. The research creates a set of independent variables based on a literature review. The model is built on a sample of 3,257 European commercial banks for all EU countries excluding Romania due to missing data, and the input data were obtained based on the Orbis Focus Bank and the World Bank Database. The results revealed that the cost to income ratio and loan loss reserves to gross loans are the most important determinants of profitability of European commercial banks as measured by return of average assets. The results also show that GDP growth rate, inflation measured by the consumer prices and loan loss reserves to gross loans are the most important determinants for the net interest margin indicator. We recommend that commercial banks optimize the cost structure, create sufficient reserves, monitor the process of digital transformation and monitor credit risk indicators.

More than EUR 347 million from EU funds was allocated for boosting competitiveness of Czech economy during the time period from 2004 to 2006. The aim of this paper is to evaluate effects of subsidies from programme "Development", which was focused on rising small and medium company competitiveness. Method Benchmark and method Per se were created for this purpose. Analyses confirm that subsidies are drawn by companies with above average rate of competitiveness. On the other hand, competitiveness of these subsidised companies (measured by eight financial indicators) was ostensibly decreasing after drawing the subsidy. The cause for this fact can be found in Czech accounting legislation which creates a dilemma for company managers. Research results show that managers of subsidized companies have probably chosen conservative strategy - the above average EBIT (created thanks to the subsidy) hold in liquid assets and use it for necessary future reinvestment but formally worsen profi tability ratios.

This article provides a brief but comprehensive overview of microfinance academic literature with emphasis on recent innovations, trends and efficiency. In particular, we focus on controversial issues of microfinance, such as commercialization, regulation, interest rate policy and the balance between outreach and performance of MFIs. In summary, the findings of the reviewed literature underline the great improvement in the microfinance field that, however, has not reached its full potential yet. At the same time, we outline potential risks and drawbacks which are being discovered along the way of microfinance development and maturing, many of which still waiting for more rigorous scholarly examination.

This article examines for the first time the relationship between transparency of ownership structure and (i) profits of firms winning public procurement contracts and (ii) competition for the contracts and savings of the public authority. These characteristics are compared for two groups of public procurement contract winners that differ by their ownership structure. The detailed data from the Czech Republic are used and the firms with bearer shares in paper form serve as the less transparent firms. The results show that less transparent firms have significantly higher profit margins in terms of tens of percentage points and participate in less competitive public procurement contracts and result into lower savings for the public authority. This could be an indirect indicator of conflict of interests or corruption. The article concludes with policy recommendations.