Prague Economic Papers, 2002 (vol. 11), issue 4

Original contributions, Original article, Research article

Convergence process of central and eastern european countries toward the european union as measured by macroeconomic polygons

Vladimír Nachtigal, Martin Srholec, Vladimír Tomšík, Markéta Votavová

Prague Economic Papers 2002, 11(4):291-317 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.199  

The article analyses the economic development of transition economies (the CR, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) in the nineties by means of the original graphical method based on a multidimensional view, with the intention to assess convergence or divergence of their economic level vis-a-vis the average level of the EU countries. The polydimensional aspect is based in the first step on four basic objectives of economic policy depicted by the macroeconomic (magic) tetragon. In the second step, an each quadrant of the magic tetragon is extended by six detailed indicators to get a multidimensional convergence polygon. The polygon framework allowed...

Social expenditures (czech - austrian comparison)

Marie Vavrejnová, Karl Wörister

Prague Economic Papers 2002, 11(4):318-338 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.200  

This paper describes and evaluates the development of social expenditures in the Czech Republic and Austria during the nineties. The authors compare social systems of both countries with the aim to show the main differences as well as some identical and concurring features, and to take lecture from them for future reforms. In the first part, a short comparison of the main macroeconomic indicators and their development as the bases of social systems is presented. Factors influencing the level and structure of social expenditures in both countries are mentioned: different economic level, demographic, systemic, and governmental factors. In the second...

Foreign ownership and export propensity: the slovenian experience

Matija Rojec, Jože P. Damijan, Boris Majcen

Prague Economic Papers 2002, 11(4):339-355 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.201  

This paper discusses the determinants of export propensity of foreign firms in the Slovenian manufacturing sector relative to domestic firms. Using panel framework we show that superior export propensity of foreign firms is significant due to the foreign ownership and that differences in fundamental operational characteristics between domestic and foreign firms significantly affect their export propensity.

Optimal timing of tv commercials: symmetrical model

Tomáš Kadlec

Prague Economic Papers 2002, 11(4):356-369 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.202  

In this paper I study the behavior of two TV broadcasters on a market where viewers perpetually make a decision whether to watch TV and which TV channel to watch. Both broadcasters optimally allocate time periods where their TV program is replaced by advertising. While TV programs represent broadcaster's costs, commercials bring in revenue that is proportional to the audience reach. I assume that viewers choose among products and the outside option following a Markov process where probabilities of transition reflect various attractiveness of the products. Given symmetrical positions of the broadcasters, I prove that their optimal strategy is to put...