Prague Economic Papers, 1999 (vol. 8), issue 3

Original contributions, Original article, Research article

Employment structure and unemployment in the czech republic

Vladislav Flek

Prague Economic Papers 1999, 8(3) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.46

Did exceptionally low unemployment between 1990-1996 mean that the CzechRepublic had sacrificed more labour market flexibility and faster changes inthe structure of employmnet in exchange for social stability? Or had thecountry made use of its specific initial conditions and managed to followits own mode of labour market restructuring, without the necessity ofincreasing the rate of unemployment drastically? Does currently increasingunemployment accelerate the coversion of the structure of employment towardsthe EU-15 patterns? In attemting to answer the above questions, the paperargues that the Czech unemployment miracle has disappeared as soon as theparticipation...

An analysis of the determinants of managerial pay in the czech republic

Tor Eriksson, Jaromír Gottwald, Pavel Mrázek

Prague Economic Papers 1999, 8(3) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.47

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of the variation inCzech managers' pay levels. The main questions we attempted to answer: Arethe managers in stateowned firms compensated differently than those inprivate owned firms? How much of hte difference in pay is explained bydifferences in individual characteristics and job levels? What is theimportance of the regional location or the industry affiliation of the firmsfor managerial pay differentials? For this purpose we used data from across-section of Czech managers in 1996 and estimated earnings equationsaugmented with a host of explanatory variables related to firm and jobcharacteristics.

Industrial relations in the czech republic

Jiří Kleibl, Zuzana Dvořáková

Prague Economic Papers 1999, 8(3) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.48

Czech representative democracy was initiated from the top down afterNovember 1989. Citizen's associations, trade unions and Tripartite are themajor mediators and interest-representing bodies outside political parties.Trade unions are highly centralised an donly bargain and conclude collectiveagreements on behalf of employees. Union membership dropped sharply from100% of the economically active population in 1989 to 21% in 1997. Tradeunions worked in partnership with government to formulate social policy inthe years 1990-1997, most often in Tripartite. This partnership contributedto the general support of economic transformation and influenced thewillingness...

The restructuring after privatization in the czech republic

Michal Mejstřík

Prague Economic Papers 1999, 8(3) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.49

This paper explains restructuring of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) both bythe national restructuring reflecting changes in enterprise demand and bythe change of ownership oriented towards supply changes. Until 1996 thefirst factor had had the positive restructuring impact. At hte same time thegovernment, however, accepted the general presence of incomplete contracts that negatively affected the contents of privatization, seriously biasedcorporate governance and led to the poor performance of Czech capital marketresulting in highly distorted restructuring of privatized SOEs.Consolidation of shareholding in this non-transparent environment most oftenattracted...

Depreciation rates in a transition economy: evidence from czech panel data

Lubomír Lízal

Prague Economic Papers 1999, 8(3) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.50

This paper examines industrial differences in depreciation rates and thesuitabilitz of financial data for a microeconomic analzsis. Depreciation isa main source of enterprise investment and serves as a source forreplacement of obsolete or used-up capital. The findings on capitalstructure in this paper are consistent with the common view that heavzindustrz firms have long-life capital while firms operating in electronics,or light industrz as a whole, have a capital structure containing a higherportion of a short-life capital. Also, larger firms are more likelz to havea higher portion of long-life capital, like real estate. The last conclusiondrawn from...