Prague Economic Papers, 1997 (vol. 6), issue 3

Original contributions, Original article, Research article

Milton friedman awarded honorary doctorate

editors

Prague Economic Papers 1997, 6(3)

On 17th April 1997, the Scientific Council of the University of Economics in Prague called an official session on the occasion of the awarding of the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa to one of the most prominent economists of the time, Professor Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize winner in Economics in 1976.

Remarks of milton friedman

editors

Prague Economic Papers 1997, 6(3)

The speech of Milton Friedman is focused on the role of university professor in a free society. His duty is to tell the truth as he sees it, to seek the truth as he can find it, without compromise, without sacrificing his beliefs in any way, to what may be the pressures. Friedman also noted that he is delighted to be in the Czech Republic. Which is on its way to becoming a truly free society in whom everybody will feel free to speak, to write, to say what he wishes. But also where everybody will be free to buy from one to another at whatever prices they jointly decide and that is agreeable to both of them, without any restriction or restraint.

Remarks of prime minister of the ČR Václav Klaus

editors

Prague Economic Papers 1997, 6(3)

In his speech Klaus remembers the role of Milton Friedman in economics science and economic policy in the second half of the 20th century. The ideas of Friedman, influenced whole generations of economists not only in his own country, in the United States or in the Western world, but in our part of the world as well. He pointed out that Friedman`s work (Klaus cited Restatement of the Quantity Theory of Money and Essays in Positive Economics) was also discussed in former communist countries. That time it helped, Klaus personally and many others too, to understand economic reality, economics, to understand its methodology, the role of market in the society...

Macroeconomic analysis of the czech economy 1996

Mojmír Hájek

Prague Economic Papers 1997, 6(3) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.130

This article consist of analysis of all main indicators of Czech economy in 1996. They are: GDP and economic growth focused on economic dynamism; Disproportionality in the development of the main components of aggregate demand and supply and productive efficiency of the domestic economy; Productivity focused on trends in productivity of labour in the national economy and selected sectors and finally on total factor productivity (capital and labour); External economic relation focused on balance of trade deficit and trends in export and import and also on the trends in the use of net import of goods and services and trade deficit financing - capital...

Price liberalization in the czech republic: shock therapy versus gradualism

Jan Hanousek, Libor Krkoška

Prague Economic Papers 1997, 6(3) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.131

Reform of the price system is a keystone of transition to a market economy. In all Visegrad countries, competition was introduced quite successfully through price liberalisation, removal of customs barriers and reduction of subsidies. Technically price liberalisation is easy to implement: the government simply announces that all agents can set their own prices from a certain date. The problem is political: necessary price liberalisation leads to income redistribution, and political and social frictions. In order to prevent a sharp rise in inflation, any resetting of prices has to be complemented by certain steps. Namely, a competitive environment should...

Analysis of import demand in the czech republic

Tomáš Holub

Prague Economic Papers 1997, 6(3) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.132

This analysis has confirmed the relevance of the situation in the money market for the development of import and also the monetarist approach to the adjustment of balance of payments. This (together with the growth of GDP and the gradual real appreciation of the koruna through the influence of the inflation differential) means that even in the case of a stable nominal exchange rate there will be a gradual increase in the deficit of the current account to a level in line with the current phase of economic transformation and the connected reconstruction in industry and other sectors of the economy. It is therefore right for the CNB not be afraid to carry...

The long way - a great illusion

Robert Holman

Prague Economic Papers 1997, 6(3) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.133

The article is a response to the contribution written by L. Mlčoch - Czech Privatisation: Penalties for Speed (Prague Economic Papers, 1997, No. 1). Drawbacks of a short way - that means of the way that was implemented - were described here, and they were confronted with advantages of a long way - of the way that was not implemented. The actual life (comprising many drawbacks and giving free space to criticism and condemnation) was compared with a hypothesis dwelling in the scientist's head only. But any comparison of the actual life and the hypothetical situation can hardly result in such sharply defined conclusions that were drawn by Mr. Mlčoch....