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What are the contributions of historical example to understanding of economic phenomena? Economists widely adopt methods of natural sciences. But economics is a social science and the observed economic phenomena are qualitatively different from phenomena observed by natural sciences. Thus the use of natural sciences methods makes implications of economic theoretical models unrealistic. In this paper, I argue that the evidence of historical example is a good method to illuminate the implications of economic theoretical models, because if implications of economic theoretical models are illustrated in historical perspective, they can be more easily verified by common sense thus particular historical circumstances may be partly revealed. Moreover, historical examples also serve to demonstrate the qualitative content of casual economic relations based on human historical experience, which is ignored by natural science methods. The historical example is thus not only more realistic but it better corresponds with the social nature of economic science.

The authorship of the principle of comparative advantage is generally credited to David Ricardo. Recent papers published in scientific journals have cast doubt on this axiom and have debated roles of Robert Torrens, James Mill and John Stuart Mill in its history. We show many of the arguments used in this debate are unscientific and unverifiable. After conducting an analysis of the history of development of the principle we define the difference between minimum satisfactory and complex formulation of the principle. We come to the conclusion that the first satisfactory explanation of comparative advantage was offered by Robert Torrens.

The article is focused on the analysis of export performance of the German economy, including the model scenarios that illustrate the transmission of shocks to the external environment of the Germany into the Czech economy. The analysis is motivated by the fact that the German economy is by far the largest trading partner of the Czech Republic since its establishment in 1993 and that Germany plays the role of an economic "locomotive" in the broader European region.

Czech economic thought during the 1948 - 1969 was full of sudden turns. Its development was determined by political conditions and spiritual climate that were result of Stalinist soviet type socialism. During the first half of the 1950s the plurality of economic ideas was substituted by the Stalinist version of marxist-leninist political economy using violent methods. Low efficiency of the command system and emerging reform climate in the USSR under N. S. Khrushchev opened the door to the reform thinking of the second half of 1950s and the 1960s in Czechoslovakia. During the 1960s the development of the reform thinking together with renaissance of the theoretical economic thinking culminated in the economic reform of Otto Šik and his team, and democratization process of the Prague Spring of 1968. Promising developments ended as a consequence of the Warsaw Treaty troops invasion in August 1968.

The article discusses the approaches and options for identification of equilibrium exchange rate. It focuses mainly on the outcomes of behavioural (BEER) and fundamental (FEER) model of the equilibrium exchange rate of the Czech Koruna, which are presented in both nominal and real terms. The results of both models of equilibrium exchange rate (BEER and FEER) showed significant long-term appreciation trend, mainly due to faster growth in labour productivity in the Czech Republic compared to the euro area. The results also confirmed the estimates of exchange rate overvaluation by mid-1997 and in 1998, 2002 and 2008. Since 2009, the model suggests a significant slowdown in the appreciation of the equilibrium mainly due to slowing domestic growth rate of labor productivity compared to the euro area.

There is a growing effort to find alternative measures of the overall performance of economy and social development. More complex indicators are constructed, multi-dimensional approaches are searched and concepts of subjective well-being are increasingly applied. While academic research is booming and politicians are interested about innovative approach in the West, not much attention is given to the topic in the Czech Republic. The article drafts some of many problems appearing on the interface of the objective and subjective indicators. In the first section, some multi-dimensional approaches are tackled and in the second, concepts of happiness and satisfaction are overviewed. The relationship between economic growth and human happiness is described next. In the fourth section, survey data on reported happiness in the Czech Republic, ready for analysis and comparison, are described. In the conclusion, perspectives of research in the area are outlined, together with a possible use of subjective indictors in policies.

This paper aims to contribute to the theoretical discussion of free trade and protectionism in international trade within the context of International political economy. Presented approach broadens the standard political economy view of trade policy and goes beyond the redistribution consequences and the political consideration of policy makers. Our interpretation of trade policy works with broader economic values and preferences of individual actors and understands the nation state and its policies as institutions. Social, cultural and historical context is taken into consideration, when interpreting the trade policy. More complex understanding of these determinants helps to explain contemporary trade policies and also their dynamic change. Paper also discuss the links between the trade policy and other economic (structural and industrial) policies and attract attention to possible misunderstandings in contemporary free trade discourse.

The article deals with life and job satisfaction of the Czech working-age population. First it highlights concepts of happiness and satisfaction within the emerging multidimensional approaches to individual and societal well-being. Then, it resumes the data sources of those measures, with specific attention to the Module on Subjective Well-being of the survey EU-SILC. Using this data, basic characteristics and determinants of life satisfaction are shown first and basic characteristics and determinants of job satisfaction after that. Finally the relationship between these two dimensions of satisfaction is analysed. It appears that determination of life satisfaction by socio-demographic and economic characteristics of individuals and households is much higher than the determination of job satisfaction. The identity of "contradictory" categories where life satisfaction significantly outweighs job satisfaction and vice versa is weak.

The idea of a positive relation between the real economy and share markets used to be supported by long-term analyses during the 20th century. As a result, the share market was supposed to be a "mirror" of the economy. The share markets tended to outrun the GDP development by a couple of quarters. On the other hand some researchers keep on pointing at some anomalies in the relation between share markets and the real economy in the short-term to midd-term time horizon in some countries. This problem was fully to see over the first decade of the 21st century that was typical for the changes in the structure of the global economy as well as for the increasing frequency of share market bubbles without an adequate economic growth. The aim of this paper is to show a new perspective on the relation between the share market and the real economy and to seek the reasons of their often contradictory development.

Banks which underwent the privatization process in the Czech Republic, i.e. Česká Spořitelna, a.s., Československá Obchodní Banka, a.s., Investiční a Poštovní Banka, a.s., Komerční Banka, a.s., Živnostenská Banka, a.s., have been very widely discussed by both professional and lay public from several perspectives. Namely, what the actual economic condition of these banks was on the date of completion of the privatization, as well as the transfer of graded loans, or rather low-performing assets, which the state took over and reimbursed to the banks through consolidation institutions (hereinafter CI), and all this obviously in relation to the purchase price obtained within the scope of privatization. The aim of this article, within the possibilities stipulated by its scope, is: 1) To analyse the development of the banks' economic condition in the time interval of 1990-2010; 2) To identify factors that determine the volume of income from the sale of the state's investments in privatized banks; 3) To confirm or refute the hypothesis that the bank rescues before the completion of the privatization process were excessive; 4) To analyse the overall balance of the privatization process, or rather the efficiency of the sale of the banks; 5) To test the practical applicability of the economic theories connected to the issue in question. With regard to the above, the article is structured in the following manner. Firstly, literary research of articles on the theme of The Privatization Of Commercial Banking in reputable economic impact magazines is processed. This is followed by the actual economic analysis of the privatized banks in the Czech Republic, where economic parameters are examined in an interval of approximately 20 years - total assets, costs, revenue, profit, capital adequacy, etc. The conclusion firstly evaluates the development of the economic condition, then identifies factors that determine the volume of income from privatization, the excessiveness of the banks' rescue, the overall balance of the privatization process, and the practical applicability of the economic theories in question.

The paper shows the fundamental problems in the area of investment funds in terms of tax burden with special regard to closed-end real estate funds. Based on the characteristics of administrative costs, the study shows that closed-end real estate funds do not behave as investment funds. The study proves that closed-end real estate funds behave more like businesses that are hiding behind investment funds. This conclusion is confirmed on the basis of extensive research, by collecting data from annual reports of independent auditors of all types of funds. More than 51 percent of closed-end real estate funds indicate very high administrative costs and profit reduction by more than half. More than 17 percent of funds decrease their taxable income through higher administrative costs, and thus reduce their tax base to zero or to an absolute minimum. The study points out that if there was a tax-neutral environment in the area of the investment funds in the Czech Republic and investment funds paid 19% tax on corporate income, tax revenues for the state budget would increase by CZK 784 million per year.

An assumption that a central bank can influence the real interest rates is the object of our interest. In the paper we form and solve a model which corresponds to Romer's (2000) assumptions. Our model is IS-LM augmented by a conception of price-adjusting after monetary intervention and inflation expectations. A monetary policy rule is derived from the model. Moreover, it offers a demonstration of economic behaviour by different economic assumptions of different economic schools, similar to one in the book of Heijdra (2002).

The article argues that many failures of economic policies, especially in the developing world, are accountable to the methodological biases of the underlying mainstream economic science. While the new institutional and development economics have substantially improved economic models, they still rely on the neoclassical assumptions of methodological individualism and utilitarism. Therefore, they cannot fully grasp the gender and cultural aspects of the societies living in developing countries, the dynamic character of their economies and their embedment in the natural, social and institutional environment. These scientific biases are analysed from the standpoint of four heterodox economic schools: those of feminist economics, evolutionary economics, ecological economics, and economic anthropology. The subsequent failure of the economic policies is documented by the cross-cutting example of the Structural Adjustment Programmes of the Bretton Woods institutions. The article concludes by emphasizing the common points of the heterodox schools and advocating for a methodological plurality in the Czech economic research and education.

This paper presents results of repeated economic lab experiments. They were designed to test a model of combinatorial auctions on the case of providing financial support (capital investment subsidies) to polluters. Combinatorial auctions are those auctions in which bidders can place bids on combinations of items. The advantage of combinatorial auctions is that the bidder can more fully express his preferences. This is particular important when items are complements. In the experiment presented in the paper, the polluters have two options: (i) to invest individually or (ii) create coalitions, i.e. to prepare and realize common capital investment projects. The common model of combinatorial auctions is described first in the paper. The design of the laboratory experiment is presented in the next section and the results are shown in the last section.

The paper is concerned with the economic theory of George Stigler. First part outlines the life of George Stigler. Second part examines his dissertation "Production and Distribution Theories" (1941). Third part discusses his textbook "The Theory of Price" (1946). Forth part is devoted to his "Essays in the History of Economics" (1965). Fifth part analyzes the work "The Organization of Industry" (1968). Sixth part explains "The Theory of Economic Regulation" (1971). Seventh part discusses Stigler's book "The Citizen and the State" (1975). Eighth part presents his autobiography "Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist" (1988). Stigler has become famous thanks to articles "Economics of Information" (1961) and "Theory of Economic Regulation" (1971), which says that interest groups and other political participants will use the regulatory and coercive powers of government to shape laws and regulations in a way that is beneficial to them.

The aim of the paper is a verification of particular channels that taxation can influence economic growth by. It concerns an influence by capital accumulation and investments, technological development and human capital accumulation. The effects of total tax burden as well as of particular taxes are analyzed. Tax burden is approximated by tax quota and, in certain cases, by implicit tax rate. There is a method of Panel Data Estimation used, especially in the case of OECD countries sample, and all the common econometric tests are performed. The recommendations for economic policy makers are formulated on the basis of the analysis. Above all, they include the suggestion of overall tax quota reduction, especially the reduction of excise taxes and social security contributions. Concerning new member countries of European Union, there is a recommendation of further elimination of tax burden of corporations.

Starting from endogenous growth models we test the impacts of both taxes (distortionary and non-distortionary) and expenditures (taking into account economic and functional classification of general government expenditure) using the government constraint. We do not neglect the implicit financing assumptions built into the specification of regression utilising both control and fiscal variables. Static and dynamic panel analysis (fixed effects model) of the 25 EU countries covers the period 1995-2008 for the majority of observations. Forward looking moving averages of the growth rate of GDP (2-5 years) are the dependent variable. We find that productive government expenditure supports growth, whilst non-productive expenditure, especially social protection (COFOG) or social payments (Ameco) does not. Distortionary and indirect taxes reduce economic growth.

Tax reliefs (tax expenditures) in the Czech Republic, as well as in other countries, are frequent topic of political and public finance discussion. Sometimes they are presented in a positive spirit as administratively inexpensive tool for promoting desirable public policies. More often, however, they are presented negatively, as an exception, which complicates the tax system and causes distortions. This article aims to identify and quantify the tax reliefs (tax expenditures) of the three major taxes in the Czech Republic in 2008: personal income tax, corporation tax and value added tax. Unlike in many other OECD member countries, in the Czech Republic, tax expenditures have not been quantified and published yet; this contributions is therefore a first attempt to quantify them. For calculation we used the reference law approach and the revenue forgone method.

Building upon exhaustive research of extant and often fragmentary contemporary resources, this paper provides a thorough analysis of financial options trading and sales in interwar Czechoslovakia. Whilst focusing primarily on a remarkable bucketshop episode occuring in the late twenties and early thirties, it also comprises the so far most comprehensive study on the historical development and practices of derivatives trading on the Prague Exchange including the eminent role of private banking firms. A distinct intertemporal and international perspective facilitates the establishment of numerous parallels and patterns, strikingly instructive in times of crises.

We analyze corruption and economic freedom links to public finance and investment in new EU members. In terms of the public investment our results show that improvement in economic freedom is linked to increases in public investment while lowering of corruption is linked with increase or decrease with respect to public investment. As a complementary finding we show that increases in public investment are also linked with the ambiguous effect. In case of public finance our estimates suggest that debt usually decreases as economic regulation goes down while the effect on budget deficit goes both ways. On other hand, as corruption declines both budget deficit and debt decrease. Based on our results we generalize that measures taken to lower corruption and economic regulation should lead to improvements in fiscal position in most of the new EU member states.

The 2011/12 survey PIAAC is analyzed regarding the formation of skills (literacy, numeracy and information technologies) by family background, gender and age, and regarding the relationships between skill levels and education of adult population in the Czech Republic. The impact of the family background was increasing and the chances of men and women to attain higher education have been reversed in the past: currently, women have twice as high a chance to attain secondary education than men and three times higher chance to pass to tertiary education. Skills are formed both by education and social origin which affects them rather indirectly. In the age perspective, skills are rising up to around 32 years of age and slowly "evaporate" after, with minor differences based on gender and the type of competences. The importance of skills and its empirical analysis is put into the context of political economy research stressing its importance for individual careers and competiveness of national economy.

The transformation of centrally planned economy to a market economy has confi rmed that the basic premise for the economic policy, characterized by liberal market economy, is democratically established property rights. This text analyzes the National Economic effects of one of the most complex transformation processes, which is the process of privatization. This publication examines all three legal regimes through which were the entire privatization process implemented. These are "The Small Privatization" according to the Act no. 427/1990 Coll., "The Large-scale Privatization" according to the Act no. 92/1991 Coll. and "The privatization of agricultural and forestry property" according to the Act no. 229/1991 Coll. and the Act no. 95/1999 Coll., with respect to the: affected economic theories, theory of property rights in particular, transaction costs theory, theory of interested groups, rent-seeking theory, theory of government failure, etc.; macroeconomic analysis of the process itself; macroeconomic analysis of the use of the proceeds from the privatization process; evaluation of the National Economic effects, whether positive or negative, of the privatization process in the Czech Republic. The aim of this text is to provide professional and comprehensive overview of the National Economic effects of the privatization process as a whole, which has not been published until now by any author in view of the fact that the perception of the privatization process of the professionals and the general public has been narrowed to a process implemented by the National Property Fund and the Ministry of Finance (by selling shares through vouchers). Finally, the aim of this publication is to analyze the application of economic theories within the privatization process in the Czech Republic which describes the pros and cons of this unique economic and national economy "experiment".

My article is an impetus for a discussion on liberal aspect of the thinking of social democratic politician and economist Josef Macek (1887-1972). In the first part I define Macek's approach to liberalism (his understanding of the basic notions, concept of the relationship between an individual and the society, idea of the relationship between socialism and liberalism and his interpretation of Adam Smith). My conclusion is that though Macek was a conscious socialist and he had limitations in respect to libertarian interpretation of the classic liberalism of the 19th century, he was at the same time to a considerable extent influenced by liberalism and he constantly oscillated on the threshold between socialism and liberalism. In the second part of the article I contemplate possible sources of inspiration of Macek's opinions - I primarily question the extent of the influence of F. Oppenheimer and J. M. Keynes - and, moreover, I consider the general ideological context in which Macek's opinions could be embedded. In this respect I conclude that Macek was influenced both by Oppenheimer as well as Keynes but by each of them in a different manner, on a diverse level of commonness and at a different moment. However, the liberal aspect of Macek's thinking far more likely grew out of his knowledge of Oppenheimer and some Anglo-Saxon authors, who have either never or seldom been put in context with Macek, than from his knowledge of Keynes.

The submitted paper is focused on the evaluation of the Common Agriculture Policy impact on economic results of Czech organic farmers. The aim of the paper is a complex evaluation of the influence of subsidy on production, costs, profit and technical efficiency of organic farms. The partial aim is to evaluate different methods of subsidy rate calculation. The main methodological tool for achieving mentioned aims is an analysis using a production and a stochastic frontier production function. This approach has not been used in the Czech Republic yet. The previous studies, analyzed subsidy of organic farming, were based on a comparison of especially family farm income, profit or costs of organic and conventional farming. The analysis was conducted on the basis of unbalanced panel data from 143 organic and 388 conventional enterprises - legal entities, obtained over the time period 2004 - 2008. The sample of organic farms represents 58 % of the entire population of organic legal entities. Results of the analysis indicate negative impact of subsidies on production, profit and technical efficiency of organic farmers and refer to the reality that actual level of subsidy discourages organic farmers from rational behavior and implicates their dependence on state support.

Government systems of accounting are in the EU - as well as in other developed countries - based on the GFS (national) reporting systems and a cash reporting. The presented paper aims to describe main systems of reporting tax revenues, analyse problem areas within tax accrualisation and review international and Czech approaches and experiences. Based on the experiences from the Czech Republic's and international environment, it is pointed out at some disputable features of accrualisation from the perspective of the simplicity of reporting and its transparency. Following the initial overview, the paper deals with a description of various approaches of how to report tax revenues. The main concentration is placed on a purely accrual, time adjusted, cash approach. Next is presented a review of the praxis and results in the Czech Republic and abroad, with examples of various results of a tax quota calculation using four different methods.

The authors of the article point out that the theory of economics has failed to yield a solid theoretical background in such critical situations as the period of the current fi nancial and economic crisis and the transformation period of post-communist economies. Mainly present crisis opens the question of unsatisfactory status of economic science. While classical liberal or Keynesian concepts are failing, theorists cannot look to mathematical modelling for help. It seems that traditional concepts are malfunctioning. Financial market is particularly predisposed for this process. The use of mathematical model is overvalued. The article calls attention on asymmetry of information problem and possible influence and adequacy of regulatory attitudes on return to equilibrium level, particularly in EU. The challenge for today's theoretical economists is to find a new concept for today's global era.

Economic growth accelerated in 2001 mostly as a consequence of renewed recovery of domestic demand, gross fixed capital investment being the main pro growth factor. Industry, construction and retail trade showed a solid growth around 5 %. Along with economic growth, external imbalance has begun to threat, again. Both the deficits of trade balance and current account increased considerably as a consequence of the oil price and growing domestic demand. The economy generated trade deficits even in the period of deepest recession. A small open economy is prone to suck in imports whenever economic growth accelerates. A contributing factor is the high import intensity of Czech exports. This type of an economy is, moreover, highly sensitive to changes in the external environment such as in external demand, commodity prices, situation in financial markets, etc., which was confirmed again by strong impacts of the oil price hike.

The paper deals with the monetary policy of the European Central Bank and its effects on economic development of the Czech economy and other new members of EU from the perspective of Post-Keynesian monetary economics. In the first part the basic principles of contemporary Post-Keynesian monetary theory of relative endogeneity of money are shortly presented. The second part concentrates on the Post-Keynesian criticism of the institutional arrangement of the ECB and its monetary policy. The closing part treats issues concerning potential effects of the policy of ECB in the given institutional framework on economic development of the Czech economy and economies of other less developed members of EU after joining the Eurozone. Possible adverse effects on the process of real convergence are discussed and alternative policies eliminating this danger are presented.

The article is concerned with the influence that the German historical school had on the Czech economic thought. There is analysed life and work of four most important representatives of the Czech economic thought in 19th century. It is shown that František Chleborad distanced from the German school because of patriotic feelings, on the other hand, Josef Kaizl was an enthusiastic adherent of the German school. Albín Bráf attempted to make a compromise between the German's tradition and the Austrian's one. Jan Koloušek rehabilitated the German approach when he criticized the Austrian school. In each case, without knowledge about the German historical school, understanding of the development of the Czech economic thought would stay limited and uncompleted.

What is the role of entrepreneurship in economic development from the perspective of neo-Austrian and new institutional economics and what is the difference between these approaches? Neo-Austrian economists claim that economic development is caused by entrepreneurial discovery. New institutional economists argue that structure of incentives determined by the institutional environment provides a guideline for entrepreneurial decision-making. Hence, an institutional environment that rewards rent-seeking does not provide opportunities for economic development. In this paper we offer a comparison of these approaches to show that both entrepreneurial discovery and institutional environment are closely related. Moreover, with the comparison we demonstrate that entrepreneurial decision-making plays more important role in economic development when an institutional change is taken into account.