Politická ekonomie, 1998 (vol. 46), issue 6

Monetary Transmission Mechanism - Lending Channel

Vratislav Izák

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(6) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.257

The Czech National Bank has through Repo rates effectively influenced the money market rates (PRIBOR). The strong cointegration has been also valid for the impact of PRIBOR rate on the interest rates on newly granted credits. The expected negative correlation between interest rates on the one side both investment and newly granted credits have been found. Industrial production and crown credits into industry have not been cointegrated. More detailed analysis of the credit structure in industry in 1997 shows the increasing ratio of credits in foreign currencies on the total credit volume. The potential efficiency of Czech monetary policy is limited...

Negotiation between Authority and Polluters - Model for Support of Decision Making in Environmental Policy

Petr Šauer, Antonín Dvořák, Petr Fiala

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(6) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.258

A new trend in environmental policy has emerged in the 1990's. This trend is the voluntary participation of business in environmental protection and problem-solving. So-called environmental management system principles and standards are being developed and certified in many countries. A reasonable number of corporations have already introduced this system. Voluntary agreements between industry and authorities have occurred and have achieved benefits that are significant to both parties. This paper contributes to the development of theories that could promote further progress in the field of business participation in environmental protection. It describes...

Strukturální odvětvové změny v procesu transformace české ekonomiky - s ohledem na mezinárodní aspekty

Changes in the Industrial Structure of the Czech Economy in the Process of Transformation - with Regard to International Aspects

Alois Holub

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(6) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.259

Prior to the 1989 revolution, the structure of the Czech economy was characterised by the so-called industrialisation structure of GDP. Industry was the largest and most developed sector in the economy followed by services while agriculture remained the smallest sector. During the initial phase of transformation, the share of the services sector dramatically increased while the share of industry and agriculture declined. The Czech economy recorded a rapid transformation from the industrialiation structure into the services sector oriented one. Changes in the structure of GDP in these countries were always associated with the process of long-term economic...

Is the State in Retreat?

Josef L. Porket

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(6) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.260

Currently, the world is undergoing change. The factors underlying it are material as well as non-material, personal as well as impersonal. The outcome of this change is uncertain, because the future is not predetermined. There may be linear developmental of evolutionary patterns in history, yet, there are cyclical patterns of varied duration too. In modern societies, one cyclical pattern concerns the role the state in the economy and society or the scope of political power or government. Although these days totalist authoritarianism is discredited, liberal democracy has triumphed neither in theory nor in practise. Actually, since the early 1990s support...

The Development of the Czech Economy and of Its Position in Europe in the First Half of the Next Century - an Attempt to Apply and Expand on Janossy's Theory of Economic Miracles

Jiří Sláma

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(6) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.261

After the second world war "economic miracles" occurred in a number of countries. One of the most creditable theories of economic miracles is the work of the Hungarian economist Ferenc Jánossy. I try to expand and to apply Jánossy's theory to our country. According to my study we should reach the economic level of Austria and Germany around the year 2030, the level of the USA between the years 2040 and 2050 and of an average EU country between the years 2020 and 2030. The condition of that is the change of social behaviour of our population according to the needs of market economy.

Human Resource Management and Transformation Strategy

Luděk Rychetník

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(6) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.262

The quality of management has turned out to be the critical factor in the transformation of the Czech Republic to an open liberal market society. At the level of firms, privatised enterprise must be transformed into "high performance organisations". Initiatives as "lean production systems", "process reengineering", "human resource management", which have emerged in the West during the last 20 years, show the way. At the macro level, they can be interpreted as a search for a new post-fordist production system. Their common denominator is an effort to employ the whole personality of the worker his/her mind and creativity as well as his/her hands. They...

Public Goods and Publicly Provided Goods

Ivan Malý

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(6) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.264

There seems to be an inaccuracy concerning the concept of public goods in the common Czech language. While the most scholars define this concept using some specific characteristics of its consumption, for instance education and health services are calls "public goods" by public often because they are publicly provided. This leads to some statements as "the government has to finance health care services because they are public goods". Such an arbitrary definition of public goods is possible, but it is not correct if we want to use the concept as an example of objective micro-economic market failure. We believe the characteristics of consumption of public...

The Ramsey Model

Tomáš Holub

Politická ekonomie 1998, 46(6) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.263

In December 1998 it will be exactly 70 years F. P. Ramsey laid the foundations of modern neo-classical growth theory. However, during The Great Depression of the 1930s the Ramsey's work fell into oblivion. In mid-1950s the interest in the growth theory started to revive again, and R. M. Solow and T. W. Swan created what is now called Solow model. When the Ramsey model was re-discovered in mid-1960s, it became clear how much ahead the Ramsey's work was. In the Ramsey model, the consumption and saving behavior is put strictly on the microeconomic grounds and it is analyzed through a dynamic optimization of fundamentally rational economic agents. The...