Prague Economic Papers, 2013 (vol. 22), issue 1

Original contributions, Original article, Research article

A Comparison of the Rates of Growth of Post-Transformation Economies: What Can(Not) Be Expected From GDP?

Miroslav Singer

Prague Economic Papers 2013, 22(1):3-27 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.438  

This paper suggests that real GDP is not an appropriate indicator for long-term comparisons of the performance of transformation and post-transformation economies either with developed economies, or one with another, or across different phases of development of a single economy. We analyse the possible reasons why real GDP diverges from the theoretical concept of the objective level of value added adjusted for inflation. These reasons concern real exchange rate appreciation and overestimation of inflation due to quality changes in output after the collapse of central planning. To overcome the shortcomings of real GDP in explaining the true "transformation...

Interdependence Between Some Major European Stock Markets - A Wavelet Lead/Lag Analysis

Silvo Dajčman

Prague Economic Papers 2013, 22(1):28-49 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.439  

This paper investigates multiscale interdependence between the stock markets of Germany, Austria, France, and the United Kingdom. Wavelet energy additive decomposition was analyzed to investigate which scales capture the most energy (volatility), whereas a wavelet cross-correlation estimator was used to analyze comovement and lead/lag relationship between stock markets' return dynamics on a scale-by-scale basis. The main findings of the paper are as follows. First, major financial market crises had a significant impact on return volatility of investigated stock markets. Among them, the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 had the greatest and the most...

Analysis of European Labour Market in the Crisis Context

Gina Cristina Dimian, Bogdan Ileanu, Josef Jablonský, Jan Fábry

Prague Economic Papers 2013, 22(1):50-71 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.440  

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of labour market dynamics in EU-27 in the recent period and to assess their impact on the process of economic development. The degree of originality is given by our choice to focus on the comparative analysis of two periods of time: 2000-2007, when the European Union as a whole, but especially Central and Eastern European countries as well as Mediterranean ones experienced significant improvements in labour market performances and overall competitiveness and 2008-2010, a recession period characterized by a massive loss of jobs and an equally large increase in unemployment, with anticipated...

Entrepreneurs as Innovators: A Multi-Country Study on Entrepreneurs' Innovative Behaviour

Martin Lukeš

Prague Economic Papers 2013, 22(1):72-84 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.441  

Since Schumpeter, entrepreneurs and innovative activities belong together. Innovativeness as a personality trait is also found to be related to entrepreneurial status and business success. However, not much is known about the specific facets of the entrepreneur's innovative behaviour. This study aims first at better understanding how entrepreneurs differ from managers in the various areas of their innovative behaviour at work. Second, how this behaviour differs for entrepreneurs who have and do not have employees. Representative samples of the working population from Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and Switzerland (N=3508) were interviewed with...

Organization and Firm Performance in the Czech Republic

Štěpán Jurajda, Juraj Stančík

Prague Economic Papers 2013, 22(1):85-110 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.442  

Many economic analyses use employer-employee data to compare wage and productivity differentials across demographic groups. We apply this approach to assess the importance of 'organizational' workers, i.e., managing and marketing personnel. The estimates based on 2000-2006 Czech worker-level data augmented with company balance sheet information suggest that these workers are important for company performance and that they are fairly rewarded for their relative productivity in terms of their relative pay. Foreign-owned companies feature higher shares of such workers who are more productive in these firms (relative to other employees) compared to domestically...

Do E-Auctions Realy Improve the Efficiency of Public Procurement? The Case of the Slovak Municipalities

Jan Pavel, Emilia Sičáková-Beblavá

Prague Economic Papers 2013, 22(1):111-124 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.443  

The article deals with the factors which influence efficiency of public procurement in the competitive contracting conducted through e-auctions in 15 Slovak cities. Data cover building and IT contracts awarded in the years 2007-2009. Together 186 observations were used for the analysis. The article starts with a theoretical discussion on the factors influencing efficiency of the procurement including potential impacts of the e-procurement and the e-auction. Than five hypotheses are formulated and the set of data is described. The next part introduces results of the regression analyses. It shows indirect proportion of the relation between the number...

Development of Life Expectancy in the Czech Republic in Years 1920-2010 with an Outlook to 2050

Markéta Arltová, Jitka Langhamrová, Jana Langhamrová

Prague Economic Papers 2013, 22(1):125-143 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.444  

At present the majority of advanced countries are dealing with the problem of the ageing of the population. The Czech Republic is no exception. Demographic ageing is caused by the fact that mortality is dropping, especially infant mortality, and this expectation of life at birth. At the same time the birth rate is declining and subsequently total fertility rate drops below the preservation level of simple reproduction, which means that there are less children and more persons in particular in the older and oldest age-groups. It is very important to realise that the changes in the level of mortality bring with them positive impacts in lengthening of...