Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, 2011 (vol. 19), issue 1

Comparison of Dimensionality Reduction Methods Applied to Ordinal Variables

Lukáš Sobíšek, Hana Řezanková

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2011, 19(1):3-19 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.323  

Questionnaire survey data are usually characterized by a great amount of ordinal variables. For multivariate analysis, it is suitable to reduce task dimensionality. The aim of this paper is a comparison of the results obtained by the analysis of data files with ordinal variables using selected methods for dimensionality reduction. The results are in the form of individual component values (e.g. factor loadings). For better interpretation and comparability, these component values were consequently analyzed by fuzzy clustering. On the basis of the obtained clusters of variables, we determined the optimal number of dimensions. We applied silhouette and...

The Modwt Analysis of the Relationship Between Mortality and Ambient Temperature for Prague, Czech Republic

Milan Bašta

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2011, 19(1):20-40 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.324  

Weather conditions influence the health of humans. Changing weather patterns may also cause considerable increase or decrease in the number of deaths. In this paper, we use daily data for Prague, Czech Republic, and the maximum overlap discrete wavelet transform to explore the time scale patterns in the relationship between the average ambient temperature and the number of deaths due to cardiovascular diseases. We summarize several well-known facts, give a short introduction to the maximum overlap discrete wavelet transform and study the relationship between several pairs of wavelet coefficients of various levels for the temperature time series and...

Good Faith and Economic Competition

Anton Radaikin

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2011, 19(1):41-53 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.325  

The article emphasizes the underlying problem of good faith in business law. This is a crucial topic widely discussed in the EU, but implementation of common tools is limited. Business practices in the Czech Republic were under the pressure of socialism for more than 40 years; therefore, Czech business culture has not been cultivated enough since the First Republic. The current tendencies in the decisions of Czech courts show a shift in the right direction. An analysis of legal regulations of good faith in different EU countries gives an overview of common similarities and differences.

Consumer Behavior in Spa Tourism in the Czech Republic

Lena Mlejnková

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2011, 19(1):54-72 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.326  

As part of health-oriented tourism, spa tourism has dynamically evolved in the past 10 years. The research focuses on current and future consumer behavior of Czech clients - both insured and self-paying ones - and also analyzes the potential new segment of the population that has not used spa services yet. As for quantitative research methods, we used a combination of personal interviews and online questionnaire data collection. The research includes all regions of the Czech Republic with spa resorts. We also used the quota sampling method for determination of the share of the main segments of respondents. The whole research includes answers of 1,016...

The Sphere of Education as a Source of Interference Errors

Věra Höppnerová

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2011, 19(1):73-76 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.327  

Words of foreign origin can make learning a foreign language easier. However, a comparison of foreign words in Czech and their apparent equivalents in German in the sphere of education reveals numerous instances of different usage and meaning. This interference between languages can be a source of mistakes resulting in misunderstandings.