Politická ekonomie, 1998 (vol. 46), issue 5

Real Effective Exchange Rate: Problems of Construction

Aleš Čapek

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(5) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.247

Real effective exchange rates belong among principal indicators of price competitiveness. There exist two main approaches to their calculation: one based on the comparison of foreign and domestic price levels, the other based on the comparison of development of domestic prices of tradables and nontradables. In this article different types of real effective exchange rates are calculated. The calculations show in general that the CZK had been appreciating in real terms during the analysed period. This result is achieved using various types of price and wage cost indexes as well as different weighting schemes. The calculations also show that the real...

Hospodářská politika a ekonomický růst

Economic Policy and Economic Growth

Antonín Rusek

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(5) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.248

A relationship between economic policy and economic growth is analyzed in the present paper. Special attention is paid to the situation in the countries still facing the heritage of central planning and real socialism. The focus is on privatization, internal and external price liberalization and balanced public accounts, accompanied by a conviction that economic growth will follow, a gap between the real situation and the considerations is large. Endogenous economic growth is analyzed at first, then a standard theory of specialization in the world economy is applied to this concept: an explanation of differences in long-term growth rates between the...

Tasks of Restructuring in Czech Firms

Leo Vodáček

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(5) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.249

In a broader context of the macroeconomic reform in the Czech Republic (1992-96) the paper points out problems and presents recommendations for the strategic restructuring of former state industrial firms. Strategic restructuring has been considered as the qualitative transformation of inputs, outputs and structures of an industrial firm in order to meet the goals of its business and to cope with this task in compliance with economic requirements of effectiveness. The set of structures being considered in these innovative changes includes production program structure, production base structure, information structure, functional structure, organisational...

Labour and Capital in a Comparative Organisation of the Firm

Vladislav Flek

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(5) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.250

The paper's main purpose is to analyse capital-labour relations in various institutional arrangements at the firm level. In particular, it investigates how the alternative forms of worker's representation affect the firm flexibility. The character of corporate control in a unionised firm is discussed, in order to demonstrate the transaction costs of such a "traditional" setting. The traditional forms of collective bargaining institutions are becoming less able to reflect these needs of modern corporations. As a result, the traditional concept of the role of the workers' representations requires substantial changes.

Discrepancy between Exchange Rate Regime and Monetary Policy

Evžen Kočenda

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(5) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.251

The essence of the argument in the paper comes from a possible dichotomy between exchange rate and monetary policies. Many transition economies adopted exchange rate regimes characterised by different degrees of flexibility and management. Several countries, including the Czech Republic, adopted an exchange regime based on a currency basket peg. In the case of this fixed exchange rate regime, a country has by definition an exchange regime policy, gives up its own monetary policy, and the origin of a monetary base is purely a foreign one. The exact opposite is true for a floating exchange regime. A crucial difference arises in the case of a pegged regime...

The Problem of Short-term and Long-term Inflation Rate

Josef Arlt

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(5) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.252

This paper is engaged in the construction and interpretation of short-term time series of annual rate of inflation. The quarterly time series of the annual rates of inflation can be understood as the series of moving aggregates of the quarterly rates of inflation. When it is considered that the quarterly time series of annual rates of inflation measures price movements in individual quarters, it is very difficult to interpret and explain its values. The interpretation of the simple geometric means of every four subsequent quarterly rates of inflation in the time series is much easier. The problem of the interpretation of the quarterly time series of...

Státní pomoc na ochranu životního prostředí versus pravidla Evropské unie o hospodářské soutěži

State Aid for Environmental Protection Contra the Community Competition Rules

Eva Tošovská

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(5) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.253

Entry to the EU will be denied to those countries that do not meet the legal, institutional and technical criteria of environmental protection. This article deals with state aid for environmental protection. It is known that the EC treaty prohibits government financial assistance to specific enterprises or industries that distorts competition and may affect trade between member states. The article analyses the approach followed by the commission in the assessment pursuant to article 92 EC treaty of state aid for the following purposes in the environmental field: investment, information activities, training and advisory services, temporary subsidies...

Economics Teaching at Czech Universities

Jindřich Soukup, Libuše Macáková, Olga Březinová

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(5) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.254

In the second half of year 1997 there was created the database concerning teaching of macroeconomics, microeconomics and history of economic thought at universities in the Czech Republic. The access to the database is on Internet: http://nb.vse.cz/fak3/win/welcome.htm. The analysis of the database provides several normative conclusions: a) economics faculties would provide three (e.g. basic, intermediate, advanced) courses in macroeconomics and microeconomics plus the compulsory course in history of economic thought, b) business administration faculties would provide two (basic and intermediate) courses in macroeconomics and microeconomics plus voluntary...

Vlastní zájem, trh a morálka - pohled do historie

Self-interest, Market and Morality - Look into History

Václav Klusoň

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(5) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.255

Phenomena of self-interest, market and morality have been undoubtedly ones of the most discussed problems among economists, philosophers, sociologists and others during the last two centuries. The author therefore offers a brief historical survey, in which he presents the most influential ideas pronounced by distinguished thinkers of the past and present time. He shows that two trends of economic thinking have been established; one that supports and another that rejects the proposition: "morality is the constituent part of behaviour of economic agents" and accentuates great practical significance of the solution of this problem.

Modely reakce prodeje na reklamu

Sales Advertising Response Models

Petr Mariel

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(5) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.256

This paper surveys dynamic models in the field of advertising. After a brief introduction to the differential game theory some sales-advertising response models are described. These models are organised under five headings: Vidale-Wolfe generalisations, Lanchester-type models, Leitmann models, Excess advertising models and Combined models. This up-to date review of the existing literature in this field compares specification of models, analysed optimal strategies and obtained results.