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The paper explains modern liquidity crisis and financial contagion from shadow banking system to money market in 2007-2009. Liquidity shock was massive due to high connectivity with the quality of underlying (securitized) assets. Thus, the problem of solvency was main driver of the liquidity crisis on the interbank market. Counterparty risk was transmitted to the money market through various channels: direct or indirect exposition to shadow banking, confidence channel, asset price channel and wholesale funding run. The structure of paper is following: first part analyzes financial market infrastructure of shadow banking, wholesale funding (originate-to-distribute) model and ABCP market; the second one describes financial market turmoil and contagion to the money market. Liquidity crisis strongly hit many segments of the money market: unsecured money market, repo market, FX swap market, Eurodollar market. Liquidity crisis was severe due to strong correlation between counterparty risk and liquidity premium as well between funding and market liquidity. Monitoring of the main causes of the liquidity crisis in his early stages is important for the fast reaction by central banks in terms of collateral quality and quantity of the reserve´s supply.

This article analyses the development of the public procurement market in the Czech Republic in the period from 2008 to the present in connection with the adoption of new legislation relating to the Act on Public Procurement no. 137/2006. This text evaluates the objectives of legislative changes (transparency, increase in competition powers and effective price enforcement) exa-mined from the viewpoint of selected parameters of the procurement market. It was found that the transparency in terms of reducing the use of the restricted procedure of public procurement improved and the share of public contracts conducted under the new Act on Public Procurement increased immediately after new legislation. This article positively evaluates a drop in one-offer contracts and continuous tendency towards lower price levels of the public procurement. This analysis includes identification of the impact of an accelerated drawdown of funds from EU programs in connection with the end of the program period in 2015. Based on the analysis's conclusions, there are obvious limits of the positive impact of the new legislation.

The aim of our paper is to formulate and empirically verify the simple backward looking econometric model of the monetary rule, which would be able to describe the development of CNB repo rate, namely only on the basis of statistically measured and in the given time available information. We focus on the period after 1998, when the CNB's inflation targeting policy is implemented and the repo rate (14 days) plays the role of the monetary policy rate. In the paper we discuss some methodological problems associated with the "ex post" empirical verification of the central bank monetary rule. We construct an empirical model of the monetary rule, justify the choice and the inclusion of explanatory variables, we analyze the statistical properties of time series and verify the alternative forms of econometric models. Our analysis showed that the development of CNB repo rate in the reporting period can be explained by the past and present evolution of three explanatory variables: the yearly inflation rate, the exchange rate and the ECB repo rate. The annualized inflation rate proved to be statistically insignificant in the model. We find interesting that the statistical quality of the estimated model was further increased after a six-month delay of the yearly inflation rate. The obtained results indicate that in determining the CNB repo rate the expected future level of the yearly inflation rate does not play important role and the last yearly inflation rate is more important than its present level.

Freiburg school of ordoliberalism contributions to the modern economic thinking and some of its implications for post-war economic and social policy in West Germany are discussed in this paper. After explaining some elementary terms there is a short excursion in the economic history and external conditions. Part four discusses the importance of competition for both a dynamic and stabile economic growth performance and long-lasting balance in society, followed by a description of the basic premises of the competitive order - the constitutive principles and the regulatory principles preserving the competition and balance in long-run period. The role of state, science and the churches in creating and influencing both the order of economy and society is the theme of part five. Social market economy arising from the ordoliberal theoretical conception is discussed in part six.

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.

This paper deals with the relationship between regional disparities and financing of regional policy. The Czech Republic and the Convergence goal of cohesion policy were chosen as a case study. Four themes are discussed in this regard. First, the spatial distribution of funds is analyzed with respect to the disparity goal of regional policy. Second, the coherence of regional policy on different regional levels is evaluated. Third, the differences in evaluations based on the seat of applicants on one hand and place of realization on the other are discussed. Finally, some thematic issues are considered. Our findings point at some ambivalent conclusions with respect to both, the disparity goal and the coherence of regional policy on different regional levels. In addition, the differences in the both forms of evaluations are emphasized.

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.

This paper deals with the development of mandatory expenditure and its effect on the flexibility of fiscal policy in the Czech Republic. Fiscal flexibility is measured by the Steuerle-Roeper index of fiscal democracy, which expresses the proportion of budgetary revenue that remains after covering mandatory expenditure, i.e. the proportion of resources available for discretionary spending. The lower the value of the index, the lower the flexibility of fiscal resources. A negative value indicates that tax revenue is not sufficient to cover mandatory expenditure and the government has no resources available for discretionary spending. The analysis of Czech fiscal data from the period between 1995 and 2009 shows, that even though the share of mandatory expenditure increases, the flexibility of fiscal policy is still substantially better compared to Germany. The results of the comparison with the United States are ambiguous, depending on methodology. Some of the possible determinants of fiscal flexibility were tested by OLS regression. The analysis confirmed a negative relation of unemployment rate with the index of fiscal democracy. Panel regression also indicates a positive effect of GDP growth and a negative effect of the debt-to-GDP ratio. The effect of population ageing was not confirmed.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion about the influence of family policy on family behaviour. The paper analyses the impact of parametric and system changes introduced in family and social benefits and tax reliefs in 2006-2015 on the income level of families with different demographic characteristics, and evaluates the potential of those changes to influence reproductive and partnership behaviour. The analytical part takes selected instruments of financial support to the family and shows the size of the financial provision families can claim depending on their previous earned income, to what extent that income is being compensated (family benefits), and how the net income is influenced (tax reliefs). Effects of the studied changes vary for different income categories and are more pronounced in the case of low-income families. This differentiation corresponds to the fertility by mother's education, which is tightly linked to the family's income. The analysis has shown that certain instruments have the potential to influence family behaviour, however in diverse ways.

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.

Pareto efficiency plays the leading role throughout all branches of political economy. Frequently applied on various economic issues, Pareto efficiency decides on the optimal balance of resource distribution among economic agents. On the other hand, the current state of unequal distribution stimulates new economic researches to bring to light the relationship between market mechanism and observed inequality. The aim of the study is to provide a unique perspective on market-based inequalities which are derived from the self-preserving rationality of agents, and to prove that market mechanism inherently contains diverging forces. Additionally, it is showed that such divergences are not investigable by Pareto-optimization process; the process whose frequent misuse and misinterpretation obscures the general diverging drive of market mechanism and the process which may corrupt results of theoretical researches in the field.

František Vencovský one of the most prominent Czech economists of the second half of the 20th century died five years ago. He has been valued for his very significant contribution to the historical development of the Czech economic theory, to the historical development of banking, monetary policy etc. Being a friend and follower of Karel Engliš, F. Vencovský applied Engliš's teleological method to the solution of contemporary issues especially in the area of money, exchange rate and monetary policy. In spite of working in different conditions than Engliš (centrally controlled economy) F. Vencovský took this attitude from the very beginning of his scientific life in the sixties and not only after 1989.

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).

This paper provides a theoretical framework for a thesis that the transition to the inflation targeting regime, either explicit or implicit, may be one of the causes of the long-term latent accumulations of the financial and structural imbalances, materializing much later and with more dire consequences. Due to the long-term systematic manipulation of interest rates, within the operational framework of the stabilization of consumer prices and the output gap, as well as of anti-deflationary fundamentalism, the economy can transform itself into a kind of "black box", gradually and over time causing an "escape" of credit and monetary aggregates. Money supply tends to be more endogenous and elastic, changing the causality within a link between the money supply and its effective economic materialization, both in production processes of the real economy as well as in banking and financial services. Thereby, the economy lacks a needful defensive mechanism that would pull the overheating economy back through more exogenous and inelastic money supply, automatically adjusting market interest rates. In the empirical part we employed VECM tests to show that the money supply was exogenous before the implicit adoption of inflation targeting in the USA (1985), but endogenous after it.

Using empirical evidence and theoretical analysis we show the fallacy of globalization through free international trade. A new and more comprehesive destructive trade analysis indicates that free international trade per se is likely to worsen world economic conditions and especially those of the poor majority of mankind. The dramatic gap estimated by UNDP between the rich and the poor of the world, and its continuing worsening over the past forty years, are both the cause and the effect of destructive trade. Thus it appears that free-trade globalization involves a state of instability and explosiveness.

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.

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.

There was a need to establish an independent central bank and effective instruments after getting independent. Slovenia dismissed the non-market instruments of monetary policy that were used in the former Yugoslavia. Old, selective instruments of monetary policy were replaced by new instruments: open market policy, lombard loans, bills with warrants, twice bills, foreign currency bills, minimum reserve requirements. Slovenia has to use open market policy instruments as the core instrument, refinancing policy should have a safety valve function to satisfy unexpected needs for the central bank money.

The relatively long term period of stability before the present crises called even "Great Moderation" or "Golden Age of Central Banking" indicated that the infl ation targeting was a success story. As of 2008 a lot has changed and the debate over "Leaning against the wind or Clean afterwards?" is being revisited among central bankers and academicians. At the same time the question "Does money matter in monetary policy" is on the table again. This paper focuses on the discussion of these issues; moreover, some new challenges that emerged in previous three years are discussed. The crisis has highlighted an urgent need to incorporate banks and financial frictions into monetary policy modelling framework - therefore some new findings on this field of research are outlined. An important lesson from the crises is that price stability is not a sufficient precondition for financial stability, therefore an operational framework for financial stability is being searched - this is subject of the final part of this paper.

The article discusses the relationship between monetary policy and price of oil, in broader sense price of commodities. Firstly it focuses on describing the relationship of key macroeconomic variables, gas prices and other commodities against oil prices. Subsequently, it discusses the existence of a "transmission channels" through which monetary policy can be propagated into oil prices (or prices of commodities). Secondly it provides further insight into the forecasting process of the CNB, in both a retrospective look back at the prospects of oil prices in the past and the analysis of transitory and permanent shock (the rise in oil prices of 30 USD/b). Simulated oil price shock is calculated from the average level of Brent oil prices in the first quarter of 2010, i.e. 77.50 USD/b.

The paper discusses the phenomenon of long-term real equilibrium appreciation of the koruna in the context of economic, i.e. nominal and real convergence. The real appreciation can take place either through a nominal exchange rate channel or through inflation differential channel vis-á-vis the reference country, or through a combination of those two channels. However, the choice of monetary policy regime predetermines the occurrence and intensity of those channels. Subsequently, the paper summarizes the sources of equilibrium real appreciation, i.e. Balassa-Samuelson effect, the effect of terms of trade, FDI inflows, the impact of changes in the structure of domestic consumption and the effect of state administrative prices. It also presents range of models which are applicable for estimation of equilibrium (real) exchange rate. Finally, the paper presents and discusses trajectory of equilibrium real appreciation resulting from models of the CNB (QPM, g3 and others).

This study investigates the relationship between wages and risks of work-related fatalities in the Czech labour market. To prove this relationship, we followed the theory of compensating wage differentials and the theory of hedonic prices. Using data from 2007 Czech labour survey, we econometrically derived three hedonic wage functions. To estimate mortality risks premiums, two of hedonic wage functions used objective measures of fatality risk, one subjectively perceived risk. We found a positive and statistically significant correlation between wages and occupational fatality risks in all three models. The estimated effect was lower for hedonic function with worker's perception of mortality risks. This result implies the workers themselves underestimate the fatality risks that they are exposed. Based on estimated hedonic wage functions, we computed the value of a statistical life (VSL) which indicates the marginal rate of substitution between compensation and mortality risk. The implied value of VSL is 60 million CZK for the model with subjectively perceived risks and 266 million CZK for the models with objective risks in 2009 Czech crowns.

In this paper we analyze the dynamic conditional correlations between CEE stock markets (also known as countries from Vysehrad Group - V4) and developed European stock markets, with German DAX utilized as a benchmark. Our methodology is based on the DCC MV-GARCH approach. It is shown that the dynamic conditional correlations exhibit statistically significant growth after the integration of CEE countries to European Union, i.e. after the May 2004. The only index not exhibiting this trend is the Slovak SAX index.

On the background of current global mortgage crisis the article discusses the housing market theory and particularly the methods and indicators used for the evaluation of long-term sustainability of house price trends. The authors provide the time series of such indicators for selected OECD countries, critically examine the past research studies evaluating pre-crisis house price development and argue that house price falls present in many developed countries are more the causes than the consequences of mortgage crisis. The change in house price trends in 2007 in many developed countries could be thus interpreted as the result of the previous record house price growth, often labeled as a price bubble. In view of this hypothesis the authors try to assess the sustainability of house price development in the Czech Republic, using several indicators, error correction models and different data sources. The methods for construction of reliable house price indices are also discussed here. The results show that house prices in the Czech Republic could be above their "equilibrium" levels at the end of 2007 but this deviation was far lower than in countries like UK, Spain, Netherlands or Ireland.

The aim of the article is to investigate if there exists a systematic link between size of the firm, market concentration and R&D activity of firms. Three tentative results emerged from the regression analysis based on the firm balanced panel data 1998-2006. First it follows from a regression analysis that a positive relationship between size and R&D activity of the firm exists, which is non-linear however. Second the results indicate that a negative relationship between firm R&D personnel and industry concentration exists. If market concentration is a measure of competition than we can conclude that innovation is related to the competitive market structure. We arrived at the same conclusion when innovation was measured by intangible assets and competition was measured by Lerner index. Finally, our analysis concluded that although foreign firms are on average larger than domestic, a negative relationship between the foreign ownership of the firm and the number of R&D employees exists. In comparison to domestic firms, foreign firms have less R&D personnel.

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.

In most industrialized countries, renewable energy is supported by policy schemes burden of which is distributed among taxpayers and energy consumers. Renewable sources of energy face a major problem because of their intermittency and that has not been adequately reflected in the discussions of their subsidies in the Czech Republic and in the analysis of the related costs. The article attempts to contribute to this discussion and to the analyses of the costs of growth of wind energy supply in the Czech Republic.

Monetary and fiscal policy should be paired with the economic objectives on which they have the most influence. The authors have transformed this traditional Mundell's principle of effective market classification into the conditions of the Czech economy - a small open economy with controlled floating exchange rate system and high inflow of foreign direct investment. An empirical verification confirmed the requirement of the modification of this principle in the CR. An application of the modified model in the CR resulted in the following recommendation for the Czech economic policy mix: monetary policy should control the external balance and fiscal policy the internal balance.

The Stability and Growth Pact has become a primary fiscal policy framework in all European countries since 1997. Together with Maastricht fiscal criteria it determines the fiscal discipline of integration process. The aim of this study is to evaluate ex-post effectiveness of the fiscal rules from the view of a primary structural balance development during 1991-2007. A method taken for the evaluation was a panel-corrected standard errors regression with fixed effects applied on the former euro zone countries (EA12), "old" EU members (EU15) and finally on the EU25. The results of the econometric estimation indicate that all considered rules were effective even though with different impacts. Furthermore, the analysis suggests that electoral cycle, among others, has strong impact on the primary structural component of public balance. However against theoretical assumptions, there is not a conclusive statistical significance of the government behaviour on the current state in the business cycle.

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.