Politická ekonomie, 2006 (vol. 54), issue 6

Přímé zahraniční investice a vnější rovnováha v tranzitivní ekonomice: aplikace teorie životního cyklu

Foreign direct investment and the external balance in a transition economy: the application of life cycle theory

Martin Mandel, Vladimír Tomšík

Politická ekonomie 2006, 54(6):723-741 | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.580  

The article analyses a development of the external balance in five Central and Eastern European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia. The main idea of the article is to apply, expand, and empirically verify the ideas of life cycle theory in the area of the impacts of foreign direct investment on the balance of payments in the transition countries. The article defines and explores the basic general stages in the external balance of a transition country. The definition of the stages draws from a model consumer behaviour within the life cycle theory once the external balance stages have been defined as follows:...

Makroekonomická rovnováha české ekonomiky v letech 1995 až 2005

Macroeconomic balance of the czech economy in the years 1995-2005

Vojtěch Spěváček

Politická ekonomie 2006, 54(6):742-761 | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.581  

The study is focused on macroeconomic stability of the Czech economy. The first part (methodological) stems from the system of national accounting which offers two approaches: from the point of view of relationship between domestic supply and demand and between savings and investments. Analytical part examines domestic supply and demand, which is reflected in the balance of foreign trade. There was a positive tendency due to a favourable development in foreign trade. The relation between savings and investments, which is equal to current account balance, looks less favourable. The main source of imbalance is a negative balance of incomes expressing...

Výdaje na sociální péči - nové státy Evropské unie a Česká republika

Expenditure on social protection-new EU member states and the Czech republic

Vratislav Izák, Eva Dufková

Politická ekonomie 2006, 54(6):762-777 | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.582  

It is well known that in EMU the degree of similarity in the composition of current expenditures is relevant since the way Member States are affected by external shocks depends at least in part on this composition. In the 8 postsocialist countries recently admitted to the EU (EU-8) the mean value of both current revenue and expenditure correspond to this of EU-12 for the period 1993-2007 (first of all Slovakia and Hungary). Lower are the values in the Baltic States. The dynamics of expenditure on social protection exhibits a clear picture-the main tendency in EU-8 is to decrease the ratio of this kind of expenditure on GDP. Taking into account the...

Inovační výkonnost nových členských zemí EU - situace ČR

Innovation performance of new EU memeber countries - situation in the Czech republic

Karel Müller

Politická ekonomie 2006, 54(6):778-801 | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.583  

The article deals with analysis of the factors influencing innovation performance in new EU member countries, particularly in the Czech republic. The analysis follows the advancement of (neoschumpeterian) economic studies on interfaces between technology and economy, which are reflected in and supported by formation of the international databases on innovation as well as the regulatory policies in the fields of science, technology and innovation. Making use of the concept of national innovation system the analysis is focused on three basic factors of innovative performance: academic resources, resources of innovating firms and impact of regulatory...

Dynamika konvergence cenové úrovně ČR a strategie přistoupení k eurozóně

Price level convergence dynamics in the CR and the accession strategy to the euro-zone

Michal Pazour

Politická ekonomie 2006, 54(6):802-815 | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.584  

Czech economy has recently accelerated the real economic convergence to the European average. Nevertheless, in terms of price convergence the Czech economy is still lagging behind the expected dynamics, which should theoretically respond to the pace of relative economic growth. This asymmetry may (as one of many other factors) contribute to some difficulties in stabilizing Czech inflation during the two-years transition period before accession to the Euro-zone, when price convergence criterion and exchange rate stability criterion should be simultaneously met. The paper points out selected issues of the Czech nominal convergence dynamics and emphasizes...

Úrokové diferenciály a zadlužení v eurozóně

Interest rate differentials and the debt in the euro-zone

Jan Kubíček

Politická ekonomie 2006, 54(6):816-833 | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.585  

The paper deals with unintended consequences of the monetary union for the level of debt in the member countries of the eurozone. First, it is shown that there exist systematic inflation and real interest rate differentials among the member countries. These differentials reach up to 3 percentage points per year between the high inflation countries (e.g. Ireland) and the low inflation ones (e.g. Germany). Different rates of growth of private or total domestic debt in individual countries were closely connected to inflation differentials. Thus the debt was rising very rapidly in high inflation countries. Surprisingly, national saving rates remained stable...

Challenges of globalization, euroregional cross-border cooperation and foreign investment

Jiří Fárek

Politická ekonomie 2006, 54(6) | DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.586

This contribution is focused on the core changes and trends in the globalized world economy. As the globalization advances, countries and regions are challenged to shape more flexible arrangements to ensure that new risks are dealt with and the new opportunities are exploited. It is Europe's regions that are coming to the fore in matters as capacity - building and growth - related activities. As a locally rooted approach, regional cooperation can harness institutions, encourage creativity and take into account local labor, skills, infrastructure, economic mentality, business environment and communities at different levels of decision - making. Globalization...