Fulltext search in archive

This paper deals with the spatial relationship between national and European regional policies. Spatial coherence of these two types of policies in two CEE countries - in the Czech Republic and Slovakia - is discussed. Our findings point at a higher spatial coherence of national and European regional policy in Slovakia. Thus, there is a higher financial allocation per 1 inhabitant in the nationally delimitated areas of special interest in Slovakia compared with the Czech Republic. Three aspects are discussed in this regard. First, different strategies of the delimitation of the areas of special interest in the both countries are emphasised. Second, different strategies of the implementation of the areas of special interest in programming documents in the both countries are upheld. Third, the factor of territorial absorption capacity is mentioned. We claim that the three aspects should be considered in achieving a higher spatial coherence of national and European regional policies.

Stock market integration of CEE-4 (the so-called Visegrad group or V4) and G7 countries is examined during the period from January 4, 1998 to August 5, 2012. As a proxy of integration we use dynamic conditional correlations estimated in the standard DCC and asymmetric DCC model framework. It is showed that during the recent financial crisis, conditional correlations between the CEE-4 and developed markets have increased more significantly than after the entry of the CEE-4 countries into the European Union. Finally, the estimated correlations exhibit significant relationship with conditional volatility with a positive feedback. This provides an evidence of strengthening relationships between markets under the study during the more volatile periods.

This aim of the article is to determine the optimal tax policy horizon, and thus its strongest impact on economic growth in OECD countries. From a methodological point of view, the empirical analysis is based on a dynamic panel model, in which the data for the OECD countries in the period of 2000-2011 are used. The results confirm the economic theory about the negative impact of taxes on growth and show that the tax policy infl uences the growth the strongest with the 2-3 years lag. The analysis also confi rms that permanent tax changes in sense of increased taxation may not be as negative for growth if they are accompanied by effective tax collection and increase of tax revenues.

The purpose of this paper is to create a financial fragility model for the Czech financial sector. We adapt the Goodhart-Tsomocos model which is based on general equilibrium with incomplete markets, money and default. The calibration of the model is based on publicly available data from the period 2003-2011. Finally, we perform comparative statics to show how the key variables of the model respond to possible events. The model can be used by government institutions to stress-test the banking sector, as well as by banking and other financial institutions to estimate the development of, inter alia, the default rates of their clients. The model also incorporates default of households and may be used, after further extension, in predicting households' default rates with respect to the behaviour of banks in consequence of changes in macroeconomic parameters of the environment.

Central banks of major advanced economies have already started their sixth year of the greatest ever experiment in monetary policy at place. First, special measures were taken to prevent collapse of financial intermediation. At the same time main policy rates were cut down to historical lows hitting the zero lower bound quite soon after the onset of the financial crisis. After that central banks realised various unconventional measures in order to support their weak economies. While exceptional instruments aimed at restoring financial markets seem to have been inevitable to avert a collapse of a much greater magnitude in the short run, some other measures have remained disputable. Not only had these measures limited effectiveness in restoring stronger and sustainable economic growth, but concerns have also been raised recently about their unintended consequences. These side-effects concern not only domestic economies but international spillovers on many vulnerable less advanced and/or developing economies have been evident. Moreover, potential risks of the unprecedented measures may start to act fully in a longer horizon. Quantitative easing has led to enormous increases in balance sheets of the Fed, the BoE and ECB; however structural differences on the asset side have been evident. Main challenge for major central banks thus seems to be the right timing and structure of inevitable exit strategies in the near future so that a smooth exit with minimal side effects could be guaranteed.

The aim of this article is to estimate the mutual interaction of monetary and fiscal policy in the Visegrad Group countries, i.e. in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary. The relations between monetary and fiscal policy - its coordination, cooperation or mutual antagonism - are basic determinants of successful economic policy implementation of each country. Fiscal and monetary policies usually have different aims. Therefore, some conflict situations may arise in practical economic and political decision-making process. Methodical approaches of this article are based on the game theory, which deals with the analysis of a wide range of decision-making situations with more participants (players); it is primarily focused on the conflict situations. Our results confirm the stabilizing role of monetary policy in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary, also the dominant role of monetary policy in the Czech Republic and the dominant role of fiscal policy in Hungary. In the case of Slovakia, inconsistent results concerning the monetary policy role are probably caused by its EMR II membership and Eurozone entry in 2009.

The article deals with the theoretical issues of macroprudential policy, shift of monetary policy paradigm towards application of so called "leaning against the wind" strategy and mutual cooperation of these policies, which are both aimed at maintaining financial stability. For detection of financial instability are mainly used early warning indicators, which are most often based on the credit activity of the economy and asset prices development. In the second part, we examine the impact of the credit activity in the Czech Republic on the prices of particular assets and its subsequent effect on the consumer price index.

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.

Effectiveness of actual monetary policy depends on the ability of central banks to stabilize the fluctuations of overnight interest rates around their official policy rate. To ensure the functionality of the stabilization mechanism needs the successful balancing between bank's demand for reserves and central bank's supply of the reserves in interbank market. I discuss the main sources of temporal gaps between the demand for and the supply of the reserves and their impact on the volatility of overnight interest rates. In our theoretical explanation there is stressed the role of intertemporal substitution in fluctuation of demand for reserves. In the empirical part there is analysed the behaviour of overnight interest rates in the Czech interbank market (2001 - 2004) in the context of excess liquidity. Some structural changes in interbank market were found - undershooting of non-stability of excess liquidity and decline of overnight interest rates volatility due to new possibility of intraday credit.

The paper is devoted to the topic of investment with emphasis on their position within the transmission mechanism of inflation targeting. It briefly discusses starting-points of inflation targeting regime, individual transmission channels of monetary policy, and routes through which the central bank may influence the investment. There are mentioned selected investment theories. Other factors, whose changes may induce changes in investment, are derived using these theories. Using available data, sources of investment variability are verified for the Czech Republic. Correlation analysis is performed and the vector error correction model is compiled. It seems that rise of aggregate demand is transformed into rise of investment. Similarly in case of asset prices. Appreciation of CZK is reflected in decline of investment. All three relations are consistent with the theory. On the contrary, sensitivity of investment to changes in market expected real interest rates is not clear.

This article examines the impact of EU Cohesion Policy delivered through the European Structural and Investment Funds in the economic cycle and the fiscal policy of the Czech Republic in the years 2004-2015. Revenue arising from the EU increases aggregate demand, and this is a regular instrument for stabilizing fiscal policy. The key conclusion of the analysis is based on regression analysis, and there is demonstrate the procyclical nature of the EU Regional Policy and its negative impact on the effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of national resources. Temporal definition of programming periods and the ability to prepare projects and their implementation in the context of national and EU legal framework were identified as the main determinants of procyclicality. However, these factors make the cyclicality purely accidental and cohesion policy without links to the economic cycle and performance of member countries.

The paper deals with the issue of interbank interest rate pass-through into client interest rates offered by banks in the condition of Slovak Republic between 2004 and 2016. We provide an overview of studies of the interest rate relationship analysis in the bank and interbank market. We investigate the interest pass-through from money market rates to various loan and deposit rates. The analysis is carried out using the methodology of cointegration error-correction model, which take into account both the long-term and the short-term aspect of interest rate development. Our results point to considerable differences in the size of the pass-through with respect to either different loan and deposit rates. It has also shown a low rate of immediate transmission, the incompleteness of the pass-through, higher efficiency in the process of interbank interest rates pass-through into the interest rates on loans, and we can conclude that the process of interest rates pass-through in our conditions is relatively stable.

Despite the tax coordination and harmonisation, as the tax burden convergence processes, the corporate taxation systems differ among EU Member States, which can affect the development of economies to various degrees. The main objective of the paper is to assess whether the EU-27 countries are competitive in the field of corporate taxation and to verify whether "new Member States" are considered more competitive than the "old Member States". Empirical research from 2004 to 2014 used traditional quantitative indicators and specific quantitative methods in the form of tax rate relations, cluster analysis and constant market shares method, the application of which in the tax field is one of the main benefits of the research. Empirical results have highlighted the significant and positive impact of tax competitiveness on growth of corporate earnings growth. It has also shown that tax competition among countries is not clearly associated with a decrease in tax rates and will persist unless harmonization efforts are successful.

The paper deals with interest rate volatility interpretation in the dealer's model of optimal interest margin. It defines main sources of interest rate volatility and studies how specific source of volatility influences optimal interest margin. Special attention is focused on unexpected shock in liquidity of banking system, actual central bank's decision on targeted level of interest rate, long-term deviation of inflation and output from central bank's targeted values and potential impact of these factors on term premium instability. Sources of interest rates are discussed in term of bank's refinancing/reinvestment risk with an attempt to formalize interest rate volatility for further empirical research. Our conclusion is that dealer's model of optimal interest margin is consistent with only permanent shocks to banking system liquidity and long-lasting central bank's surprises with its monetary policy that increase a level of refinancing/reinvestment risk faced up by banks. On the other hand it is not consistent with interest rate volatility caused by transitory liquidity shocks, expected current changes in central bank's targeted main policy rate and long run trends in main policy rate based on disinflation.

This article is a contribution to the discussion of national competitiveness as a concept for analysis of international economic relations. The main goal is the critical reflection of the concept. We consider the Paul Krugman's and Richard Baldwin's remarks regarding the problems associated with using competitiveness as an analytical concept still valid when restrained to the domain of neoclassical economics. Moreover - even though the competitiveness is widely accepted as an analytical concept - we believe a number of problems associated with its current use exist (both in theory and in process of policy formations). Mainly, there is confusion between the micro and macro-economic understanding of concept which stems from confusion between individual and national/territorial level of analysis. We also believe that even if new trade theory (increasing returns and strategic trade) is taken into account, it is quite problematic to formulate policy recommendation for structural and industrial policy on its grounds. When the assumptions of neoclassical economics are loosened, the concept of competitiveness might prove valid. Finally we stress than even if this is the case the sensitiveness of the most of recommendations for competitiveness promotion to retaliation and potential damage resulting to international economic regime from its enforcement is rather high.

The aim of this article is to explore main linkages among the participation rate, potential output and pension funding system. Based on the existing literature, there are several possibilities how to render the current set-up of the pension system sustainable. This sustainability is conventionally regarded from the perspective of provision of "satisfactory level" of retirement pensions as well as from the perspective of general budgetary impact. In this respect, demographic change is accounted for owing to the common perception that it has a lot to do with how the future pension system should and will look like. It has been found out that if appropriate economic policy measures ‒ targeting mainly labour market participation rate and long-term unemployment ‒ are adopted, no need for abrupt changes in the existing social security system framework is actually necessary. Also, the linkages between the participation rate and potential output seem to be relatively strong, so that the economy could be easily considered as signifi cantly influenced by its labour market. The functioning of the latter thus seems to be pivotal for the resolution of some long-term economic capacity concerns, including its dynamics.

The objective of the article is to identify impact of economic policy implications on current financial and economic crisis. The analysis examines a hypothesis that the main causes of financial and economic crisis include unbalanced developments of the macroeconomic sphere as well as existing weaknesses of banking systems, which often do not evolve in line with the development of economy fundamentals. The article is going to inspect three areas: (i) What development trends and economic policy were registered in the pre-crisis period in order to identify the main causes of economic fluctuations of economy; (ii) How economic policies responded to the course of the financial and economic crisis; (iii) What was the effect financial crisis had on the real economy development? The main task for after-crisis periods is to improve setting of monetary and fiscal policy, bank risk management system and also system for monitoring and analysing the business cycle.

This paper aims to commemorate Albín Bráf and Josef Macek as the key figures in the history of Czech economic thinking. It focuses on three topics which their theoretical works had in common: firstly, the methodology of economics and its assesment as a social science, secondly, the solutions to social questions within the framework of economic policies and, thirdly, the significance of economic education and popularization of economics. The objective of the study is to detect continuity in Czech economic thinking and open a discusion on its posibilities within both the Communist and post-Communist period.

The paper analyzes 10-year government bond and stock index of the Czech Republic and the United States in period from January 2002 to February 2012. Main purpose of the paper is to show connection between bond and stock market and verify whether bonds can be taken as stock indicators. A detailed study of fi nancial time series of both countries is performed. Different stages of each financial time series which is called bear, normal and bull state are presented. The conclusion is that all three stages have different means return and they are in accordance with financial theory. For the division of time series into each state Markov-Switching model is used.

The aim of the article is to explore how the results of the U. S. subprime mortgage crisis influenced economic policy of governments in highly developed countries. It analyses consequences of a state intervention especially for government budgets and a rise of government debts. Then the article discusses the point of view of the Austrian school. Austrian economists argue a state is not an economic subject and its fiscal policy is very dangerous for effective allocation of the available resources of production's factors. They advocate a society with a small government and liberal economic policy. The author believes that Austrian approach to economic problems is more realistic and more pertinent than the approach of those, who demand more government intervention.

Teachings of economic policy were present at the VŠE from its inception in 1953 needless to say that most activities were highly influenced by the ruling political climate. Despite all limitations there were some achievements of value, esp. works of prof. Olšovský and his team in 50s and early 60s. Till the economic reform of Ota Šik was real engagement people from the VŠE in economic policy limited (Kurt Rozsypal arrived to the VŠE years after his reform was already enacted). 70s were again years of high political infl uence characterized by creation of Institute of Marxism-Leninism where consisting of all original social science departments. 80s were characterized by the hidden duality of teaching when dominating teachings of political economy of socialism was supplemented by teachings of political economy of capitalism mostly in a guise of history of economic theories. In 90s a full renaissance of economic policy as a subject followed.

The article is the authors' polemic against the review of their book Economic and Social History of Czechoslovakia, Volume II 1945-1992, which was published by Antonie Doležalová in Politická ekonomie No. 3/2012. In this context, the article also deals with general issues of economic historiography, particularly with the development and object of investigation of economic history, periodization of the economic development of Czechoslovakia after World War II, external and internal impacts on the economy, construction of statistical data and terminological problems.

The paper aims to show a comprehensive insight into the history of business economics science in the Czech Republic, marginally also on the European continent and worldwide. It depicts business economics in its beginning as a doctrine that was largely underestimated. This science was, for a very long time, a part of economics (national/public); only slowly has it gradually become an autonomous branch of science. This article shows historical attitudes to the theory of business in Bohemia as well as abroad since the end of the nineteenth century up to this day. It describes the period of statism in Bohemia within the context of business economics, it focuses on fundamentals of this science and depicts consecutively aspects from which the theory of business economics as a science arises in the transition period to free market economy. The paper discusses the future of business economics as a science that, considering current economic conditions worldwide, has a huge potential to grow. The article contributes to the worldwide discussion about its further development.

This article analyses the options how changes in Czech tax-benefit system could increase mother´s economic activity. The article builds up on the study (previous author´s study published in 2015). This underlying study presents a calculation according to which women, taking care of children up to 3 years, results with a lower net cash flow after returning to work compare to staying at home. The aim is to propose measures that would motivate women, with children up to 3 years, to return to work and simultaneously quantify the impact of these measures on the state budget. Economic effects of the proposed measures are quantified, including the cancelation of conditional entitlement to parental benefit, introduction of tax relief for working mothers and 50% relief on employer's mandatory contributions, which employ parents part-time. Implementation of these measures, which would motivate more women to return to work, would bring an estimated net income amounting to 9.5 billion crowns to the state budget per year.

Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) has been widely recognized as a standard model of hypothetical relationship between economic development and environment quality. The article presents results of an empirical research on EKC for the air pollution selected indicators in the Czech Republic in 1975-2012.To deal with the issue of different macroeconomic indicators calculated in socialist economy and after its transition to a market economy, EKC modeling was done with consolidated data on national economic performance. The results suggest, contrary to a widespread opinion, that changes in trends (turning points) for some pollutants on EKC can be found already in the 1980s. It also can be concluded, based on results received for the period after the year 2000 that validity of EKC might be in question for some pollutants. Following research on EKC for other pollutants and countries, as well as an application of other methodological approaches, could contribute both to better understanding of EKC model, including economic and social (pre)conditions of its validity, and its theoretical context.

The aim of this paper is to show that the current anti-deflationary rhetoric of central banks lacks adequate support from the economic literature. Based on pure theory, there might be both positive and negative effects of deflation on economic development. The historical record is, if anything, also ambiguous. As recent literature reveals, a substantial number of deflationary periods were accompanied by robust economic growth. The two frequently mentioned examples of dismal deflationary periods - the Great Depression in the United States and the lost decades in Japan - seem to be exceptions. Taking into account the arguments presented in this paper, we argue that central banks should revise their communication strategy. If there is a need to defend easy monetary policy, the main argument should be based, dominantly, on the divergence of forecasted inflation from the inflation target, with a much lesser emphasis on the need to avoid the allegedly destructive effect of deflation.

Measuring and managing of financial risks is an essential part of the management of financial institutions. The appropriate risk management should lead to an efficient allocation of available funds. Approaches based on Value at Risk measure have been used as a means for measuring market risk since the late 20th century, although regulators newly suggest to apply more complex method of Expected Shortfall. While evaluating models for market risk estimation based on Value at Risk is relatively simple and involves so-called backtesting procedure, in the case of Expected Shortfall we cannot apply similar procedure. In this article we therefore focus on an alternative method for comprehensive evaluation of VaR models at various significance levels by means of data envelopment analysis (DEA). This approach should lead to the adoption of the model which is also suitable in terms of the Expected Shortfall criterion. Based on the illustrative results from the US stock market we conclude that NIG model and historical simulation should be preferred to normal distribution and GARCH model. We can also recommend to estimate the parameters from the period slightly shorter than two years.

The forecast-based reaction function of the European Central Bank (ECB) is estimated in this paper and the change in the monetary policy regime is discussed in the context of the current economic crisis. ECB/Eurosystem staff projections database is utilized in order to estimate the rule. The advantage of using this database is demonstrated by comparing the results of econometric estimation utilizing these data on projections with the results obtained by popular method of using future values as proxies for expectations. This popular method is shown to be inadequate in this paper not only by econometric verification of alternative forms of the estimated reaction function. Its inadequacy is demonstrated also by analyzing statistical properties of the time series and by showing that standard econometric assumptions do not hold when using future values as proxies for expectations. It is further shown that current values are more suitable proxies for expectations than values actually observed in the future. This fact provides an answer to the question analyzed recently by Arlt, Mandel (2012), (2014) who investigated how is it possible that simple backward-looking rules perform extremely well when describing forward-looking behavior of central banks.

This paper studies the impact of inflation dynamics on a common economic policy in the monetary union using a small New Keynesian model of the monetary union. We are considering two open economy versions of the Phillips curve: a typical New Keynesian Phillips curve with only forward looking dynamics and a hybrid New Keynesian Phillips curve with forward and backward looking dynamics. The main findings are as follows: (i) the backward looking dynamics (persistence) of inflation in the Phillips curve is an important determinant of the common economic policy in the monetary union; (ii) in the case of asymmetric dynamics of inflation in the monetary union countries, the country with more persistent inflation dynamics has a significant impact on the common economic policy.

Crisis development in some banking systems has been associated with large-scale aid programs, which has been heavily involved with the central bank's impact on the very rapid growth of their balance sheets. The banking system in the Czech Republic in the period 2005-2015 has not undergone any crisis. Significant changes in the balance of the Czech National Bank were associated with foreign exchange interventions against the Czech crown. High liquidity determines almost zero demand of banks for loans from the central bank. The Czech National Bank is in the "debtor" position in relation to banks. Central banks in the European Monetary Union and the United States are in the opposite position of the creditors. The dramatic growth in bank reserves had no significant inflationary pressures. The main reason is careful supply of bank loans. All this confirms that issuing money into the economy is associated especially with commercial banks' lending to non-bank subjects. Central bank issues money only to the banking system.