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Electricity production strategies of countries rely on fossil fuel-based electricity generation. Environmental regulations (ER) are needed to shift to green electricity for achieving energy transition, but corruption and bureaucracy can influence ER, energy transition and ecological quality. Hence, this research considers two important constituents of country risks including corruption and bureaucracy in the model while understanding the connections between green electricity, ER and the load capacity factor (LCF) in BRICS from 1992 to 2018. The research chooses a recent proxy of ecological quality (i.e., LCF), which effectively measures the ecological quality and indicates the possibility of sustainable growth by using biocapacity and ecological footprint figures. The results of the research disclose that green electricity Granger-causes and enhances the LCF, whereas controlling corruption and enhancing bureaucracy quality improves ecological quality. ER improves environmental quality and the load capacity curve (LCC) hypothesis also exists. Lastly, policy directions are discussed.

This study examines the long-run relationship between the unemployment rate and labour force participation rate in South Korea from June 1999 to January 2023. The study utilizes the traditional Johansen cointegration test and augments it with Fourier terms to control for an unknown number of breaks in the cointegration system. The empirical findings suggest a significant long-run relationship between the unemployment rate and labour force participation rate in South Korea, which provides evidence against the unemployment invariance hypothesis. The study also finds evidence of the discouraged-worker effect for males and the added-worker effect for females. The findings of this study have important implications for policymakers in creating more effective plans to lower unemployment and foster economic growth in South Korea. This study contributes to the literature by clarifying the validity of the unemployment invariance hypothesis in the South Korean economy, which is regarded as a growth miracle in the literature. Instead of using the standard configuration of dummy variables, the Johansen cointegration technique now has the ability to adjust for an unknown number of multiple structural breaks in the cointegration system.

The urgent need to address climate change and the depletion of natural resources has led governments worldwide to allocate significant resources towards research and development in clean energy technologies and energy efficiency. This study evaluates the effectiveness of renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives in reducing CO₂ emissions, taking into account the influences of natural resource availability and political risk. Using data from France spanning from 1985 to 2021, we employ the kernel-based regularized least squares (KRLS) methodology, complemented by quantile regression (QR), to analyse these relationships. Our findings indicate that policies promoting energy efficiency and green energy have a positive impact on reducing CO₂ emissions. However, the availability of natural resources and political risk exacerbate environmental challenges by increasing CO₂ emissions. Thus, our study underscores the importance of continued support from policymakers for renewable energy development and energy efficiency research to effectively pursue Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Additionally, as the world prepares for COP28, our findings emphasize the urgency of these initiatives in meeting global climate targets.

This research investigates the effect of political stability and geopolitical risk on environmental sustainability (ES) by considering R&D investments in nuclear and renewable energy. Considering the high political stability and recent energy crisis and increasing geopolitical risk, the study focuses on three leading European countries. We use the load capacity factor, include data between 1985/1 and 2020/12, and apply quantile on quantile regression (QQ), Granger causality in quantiles (GQ), and quantile regression (QR) models. The study finds that in higher quantiles (i) increasing political stability stimulates the ES in Sweden and the United Kingdom; (ii) increasing geopolitical risk supports the ES in France; (iii) R&D investments increase the ES in all the countries; (iv) there are generally causal effects from the explanatory variables to the ES except some quantiles (0.45-0.50) in all the countries; (v) the power effects of the variables differ according to countries, quantiles and variables.

This study examines the impact of monetary developments on environmental quality and economic growth. We utilize ARDL/PMG models to study twelve climatically vulnerable countries from 1996 to 2018. We find that a 1% increase in real GDP and domestic credit harms the environment by 0.827% and 0.220%, respectively. However, savings improve environmental excellence by 0.373%. A 1% environmental degradation decreases human health by 0.317%; consequently, economic growth declines by 1.102%. Good governance emerges as a key solution, with a 1% improvement in public institutions mitigating the adverse impact of real GDP on the environment by 0.777%. Redirecting 1% of loans to eco-friendly projects improves the environment by 1.311%. Dumitrescu-Hurlin and PVAR Granger tests support these findings.

This article studies the environmental and societal impacts of a polluting monopoly when a society strives for a clean environment. Two scenarios are considered: (1) the government levies an environmental tax to induce investment in emission-reducing technology, and (2) the monopolist engages in environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is shown that taxation has a lower environmental impact, but the monopolist undertakes CSR activities only if the abatement technology is efficient. Social welfare is always higher under CSR; therefore, when the technology is not adequately efficient, the government should implement a second-best environmental tax policy to avoid the worst welfare outcome.

This article aims to determine and evaluate factors influencing migration behaviour and decision to migrate in 14 regions of the Czech Republic in the periods 1995–2018 and 2004–2018 (after the accession to the EU). The panel data analysis conducted mostly confirms our hypotheses on the impact of the analysed factors, confirming the impact of GDP growth, number of job listings at Labour Offices, number of job applicants, employment in industry and number of finished dwellings. The exceptions are the variables for the crime rate and number of college students in the region, where we found a positive but barely statistically significant coefficient. One group of factors (GDP growth, jobs at Labour Office, finished dwellings) prove to be pull factors, i.e., they are statistically significant and have a positive impact on migration flows. There are also two push factors, both of which represent the labour market situation and, to some extent, the structure of the economy in the region (number of job applicants and employment in industry). Their relationship with migration flows is negative and statistically significant, while several robustness tests are employed.

Neoclassical environmental economics, ecological economics and free market approaches to environmental protection are currently three main schools of thoughts that are systematically focused on interactions between the society and the environment. They all have strong defenders as well as opponents. Although the environmental economics is still considered as mainstream, the critique from alternative approaches is increasing. The goal of the article is to briefly introduce main thoughts of all three schools and their interactions. The intensity of mutual interactions in the last decade was investigated via the analysis of articles published in high-rated journals.

Immigration is a controversial and vital issue that has become an acute problem for countries facing cultural and economic difficulties resulting from it, and unemployment is at the forefront of these difficulties. According to theory, migration causes unemployment; thus, the causality relationship between migration and unemployment is empirically ex- amined in our study. For this purpose, we used a new test known as the Panel Fourier Toda-Yamamoto (PFTY) method for the period 1990-2019, which contributes to the existing literature from a methodological standpoint. This test allows investigating multiple structural breaks, cross-section dependence and country heterogeneity. Our first test results show that when we use the Dumitrescu-Hurlin (2012) test, the causal relationship is confirmed neither for any country nor the entire panel. However, when we employ the PFTY test, we reach causality runs from migration to unemployment for the entire panel and four countries.

Monetary metals have historically been important in providing limits to the quantity of money. The mandatory backing of money with gold or silver was gradually circumvented and abolished. Both precious metals have thus become, among other things, investment assets associated with returns and risks. They may or may not be profitable and safe. The absence of precious metal limits has led to a significantly faster devaluation of money. However, inflation may also be reflected in rising market prices for financial and real assets. This paper analyses the potential interrelationships between inflation, market prices of shares in the S&P 500 index, and market prices of gold over the period 1996-2020 in the United States. The analysis shows a strong impact of inflation on both the stock index and gold. The market price of gold was partly influenced by the development of market stock prices.

This paper examines the relationship between insurance market development and economic growth in EU member states in the period 1998-2018. Our results indicate that there is no causality between premium per capita and GDP per capita growth in the case of 11 out of the 23 analysed countries, including four countries classified as emerging markets. However, in the case of panel data covering all the countries, we determined a two-way causality between insurance market development and economic growth. In the short run, premium per capita has a positive and significant impact on the economic growth as proven in the data panel and in the case of individual countries, except in the case of Ireland and Luxembourg, where the applied model shows only error-correction coefficient values. Besides, our results indicate that premium per capita has a significant positive effect on economic growth in the long run in the case of Belgium, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia, i.e., insurance premium is a key determinant of long-term economic growth. The results show a statistically significant long-term positive relationship between premium per capita and GDP growth per capita in the case of a panel analysis of all the observed countries and countries classified as emerging markets. On the other hand, the panel data analysis of the countries classified in the category of developed markets showed a long-term positive relationship, but not a statistically significant one. Since that results indicate that the insurance market development could contribute to ensuring long-term economic stability and growth of observed countries, special attention needs to be paid to the strategy of insurance market development in a changing business environment.

Has the recent illiberal surge altered the neoliberal orthodoxy prevailing in post-1989 Hungary and Poland towards a more developmental modus operandi, or has it just camouflaged embedded neoliberalism with a developmental narrative? This article, trying to contribute to answering the aforementioned question, is structured as follows. First, we provide a general overview of the comparative capitalism approach. We extend the original conceptualizations by the framework of varieties of illiberal capitalism and present two ideal types of illiberal capitalism. Then, we assess five institutional areas of the political economy of contemporary Hungary and Poland. We conclude that although Hungary remains faithful to the neoliberal economic orthodoxy so far with illiberal political forces merely camouflaging its true essence due to political and utilitarian reasons, the post-2015 government in Poland managed to move its economic model closer to a more developmental modus operandi.

Dynamic Model of Common-pool Emission Permit Market as a Method for Solving the Persistent Pollutant Problem In the paper, we develop a common-pool permit market formulated as a dynamic gross pool for trading emission discharge permits (EDPs) for persistent pollutants. We discuss individual agents' demand decisions concerning EDPs and develop a common-pool market dynamic gross pool formulation, including a general set of marginal-cost pricing rules used in this type of permit trading market. Numerical simulations are used to illustrate the usefulness of this type of permit market design for addressing environmental problems.

The study provides estimates of the size of the fatherhood premium for the Czech Republic in the years 2006‒2017, using data from the EU SILC survey. In the years 2006‒2009, the fatherhood premium in the Czech Republic does not manifest itself if explanatory variables include the marriage premium and the partner's labour market participation. The fatherhood premium only starts to express itself in 2010 and the following years, when it reaches values from 11% to 15% as a consequence of a decision of families with high-income fathers to have a third child in the years after 2010.

The aim of the paper is to verify the sensitivity of national labour markets to economic growth while respecting its sources and different growth trends. We monitored the change in employment caused by economic growth in the set of EU27 member states in the period 2000-2019. The sensitivity of the labour market was quantified by finding the values of the elasticity coefficient. To obtain it, we used a relation to calculate the point elasticity as well as a logarithmic linear regression model compiled for each member state. The differences in the response of the labour market were identified by comparing the values of the indicator. To determine the factors of employment changes, partial analyses were performed by dividing the evaluated period into sections, especially into periods of growth and decline. As a result, it was possible to identify the impact of economic development trends on the elasticity of the labour market. At the same time, subsets (groups of countries) were created based on similarity of labour productivity levels and employment rates. The results of the analyses indicated that the labour market in all cases responded to changes in economic performance in a short period of time, while the strength of the influence is also affected by the stability of economic development.

This paper examines the development and comparison of competition and concentration in the banking and insurance sector in the Czech Republic during the 2007-2019 period using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HH index). In the empirical section we calculate the degree of concentration and indexes separately for the banking and insurance markets, where the main variable in relation to banks is the balance sheet and this variable is the gross written premium in relation to insurance companies. Subsequently, we compare the two examined sectors including the analysis of their long-term equilibrium. The result of this research confirms the determined hypotheses, whereas the oligopolic structure of both markets, which falls over time and aims towards a competitive market but does not achieve this goal during the monitored period. Throughout examination, the insurance market demonstrates higher HH index values and therefore lower competitiveness compared to the banking market.

Pension systems are strained with negative impacts on the state budget as a consequence of the endangering trend of worsening demographic structure and population aging. The aim of this paper is to map trends of employment rates of persons 65-69 years old in the Czech Republic and Slovakia between 1998 and 2017 and to analyse selected determinants affecting these rates. These determinants are then subjected to statistical and regression analysis using panel data for the period 1998-2017. Based on the analysis results, the authors come to three conclusions for both countries: firstly, the increase in pensions is not a limiting factor in the employment of persons aged 65-69; secondly, the participation of persons with tertiary education is of great relevance, implying the need for support to tertiary education; thirdly, the results confirmed the significance of the health determinant of persons aged 65-69, ensuing the need for stimulating investment in health.

This paper analyzes an influence of some economic variables to a probability of the occurrence of currency crises. The variables were at first derived theoretically and then analyzed using logit regression on panel data for up to 78 countries of the word in 1980-2012. The analysis shows that the indicators mostly considered as measures of external economic balance - current account and net foreign assets - have not much statistical significant impact on the risk of currency crisis. Much more important is a structure of foreign liabilities in terms of liquidity - a greater share of foreign direct investments on foreign liabilities and a lower share of short term foreign debt to total debt statistically significantly reduce the risk of crises. The risk significantly decreases also with higher trade openness, faster GDP growth and underestimation of nominal exchange rate with respect to the purchasing power parity. Signs of parameters of these variables are staying unchanged even if we estimate over two thousand models.

In its theoretical part the paper summarizes the main developmental phases of a concept of optimal currency areas. In the empirical part of the paper Mundell's OCA condition of a mobility of factors of production for EMU countries is verified. There is a little doubt that the criteria of labour mobility was not met. On the other hand, capital mobility almost reached its limit. However, labour immobility was not substituted by effective allocation of capital. Moreover, both factors of production were not homogeneous within the Eurozone. To entirely confirm Mundell's criteria it is crucial to scrutinize not only the mobility of factors of production but also their homogeneity.

Until now there is no scientific consensus about the concept of national competitiveness. Despite the ambiguity of its definition, it has become a goal of numerous political documents. Economic policies in many countries are devoted to raise their overall competitiveness. But an unclear definition of relations between different components of national competitiveness represents an obstacle to formulate effective political measures. The aim of this paper is to clarify the relation between the competitiveness of the Czech Republic and its export performance which is considered as one of ways to improve overall competitiveness. The contribution of external competitiveness to the export performance of the Czech Republic in European Union is quantified using an econometric version of Constant Market Shares analysis. The results suggest that the external competitiveness of the Czech Republic has significantly positive effects on its export performance. Moreover we conclude that the positive spillover effect from external to aggregate competitiveness could be reach via increasing productivity.

The Impact of Immigration on Occupational Specialization of European Union Citizens The article tests whether the impact of immigration on native workers differs depending on the business cycle. Previous studies proved that labor mobility and the effect of immigration differs with respect to the business cycle. For the expansionary years was found a sizable relocation of native workers to occupations with more interactive rather than manual content as a response to immigration. This is no longer the case for economy in recession period. However, there is null impact on native employment that does not change with the business cycle. The European labor market has been studied just in the period before crisis. Following the study about Spanish task specialization we would like to see if there is any change of impact of immigration on native task specialization in European Union. We split the data on the time period of expansion and the time period of economic crisis using the European Labor Force Survey. We would like to examine the effect of immigration on task specialization of natives on three groups of countries, West Europe, Germany and Middle and East Europe. The results show that the impact changes with the economic cycle and the country group.

The aim of the article is to describe effects of selected institutional factors on structural and cyclical unemployment. The theoretical and methodological basis of institutional aspects of the labour market functioning draws from a number of previously published studies. Factors are modified for national conditions of the Visegrad Group (hereinafter V4). The article compares NAIRU estimates of previously fine-tuned models with estimates of models extended by selected institutional factors. The difference between these groups will then be compared with development of relevant variables of the real economy. That will allow us to determine whether the institutional factor infl uenced structural or cyclical unemployment. We will also specify the intensity of its negative influence on the two types of unemployment. The final results of the analysis are compared with results of previous studies and world literature data.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the market concentration of audit services in the Czech Republic and compare its results with the international research. The analysis is based on transparency reports for years 2011-2014. Auditors that in the reporting period carried out the statutory audit at some public interest entity are required to compile and publish the transparency report. Among other information, auditors are required to specify their total turnover split into turnover of audit fees and turnover of non-audit fees. Globally recognized Herfindahl-Hirschman index is selected as an appropriate analytical tool. Herfindahl-Hirschman index is complemented by indicators of market share (Current ratios) and the Lorenz curve which graphically displays the unequal distribution of the turnover on the market of audit services. These data show that in the period under investigation the firms forming Big4 obtained about 85% of audit fees. In the year 2014 the Big4 firms occupied 80% of total fees and 84% of audit fees. As a major player on the Czech market of audit services can be regarded two firms - Ernst & Young (EY) in the area of total fees and KPMG in the area of audit fees. The analysis clearly indicates a high level of market concentration of audit services in the Czech Republic. The high level of market concentration has its impacts on the audit quality and leads Authorities in the US and in the EU to the tightening of audit regulation.

The article aims to analyse the effects of the start-up subsidy programme for unemployed in the Czech Republic, which is provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. We explored to what extent participants in the programme in 2014 returned to unemployment three years after the end of the programme, i.e., 2014-2017. Methodologically, we conducted counterfactual impact analysis, where we matched participants in the programme with those who were not supported by any measures of active labour market policy. The results show that participants in the programme return to unemployment to a lesser extent. In total, they spent fewer days in unemployment during the follow-up period, and they returned to unemployment fewer times when compared with non-participants. Overall, 91.3% of participants never returned to unemployment during the analysed period. These results can be interpreted as a positive outcome of the programme. The article also offers implications for targeting the programme and for future research.

We use EU SILC data for the Czech Republic to estimate the size of the motherhood penalty for the period 2006-2017. We find out that adjusted motherhood penalty amounts to 11-15% in the period 2006-2008. At that time, the Czech Republic appeared to be comparable to countries such as Germany and the UK. However, the motherhood penalty effectively disappears after 2009 and the Czech Republic is now placed in the same group with Scandinavian countries, France and Belgium. Despite that, there are still many obstacles for mothers to increase their labour market participation, which translate mainly into wage penalties via the experience and labour intensity channels. The study also supports other general evidence from cross-country motherhood penalty comparisons, motherhood penalty being mostly a phenomenon of middle-educated, married women located outside large cities, employed in private industry and having more than one child.

Due to progressing globalisation and deepening integration of global financial markets, the topic of relations between individual markets has got into the centre of attention of many economists. Especially on the stock markets, we can observe a tendency of the more developed markets to affect developments on the less developed markets. This is also valid for stock markets of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, the V4 countries included. In the case of returns and volatilities of the V4 stock markets, it is possible to expect a strong influence of the German stock market. We follow this influence using the Granger causality. Our analysis shows that in the period 1999-2018, the German DAX stock index was Granger-causing the development of the Czech (PX), Hungarian (BUX) and Polish (WIG 20) stock indices, while this relation was not confirmed for DAX and the Slovak stock index SAX. However, the analysis of two sub-periods (1999-2007 and 2010-2018) shows slightly different results.

The analysis builds on existing empirical and theoretical literature in the field of job polarization, which is primarily focused on advanced economies. Hypotheses of the incidence of "skill-biased" and "routine-biased" technical change in the Visegrad group countries are verified in the analysis. The aim is to find out whether the impact of technical change on the labour market in the V4 countries is similar to or different than that in advanced economies. The analytical part is primarily performed on the EU-LFS. The results suggest that the structure of the labour market has changed in the V4 countries in a heterogeneous way. In Hungary and Slovakia, there was an apparent slight job polarization over the period under review. In addition, the evidence suggests that the technical change in these countries may be of a "routine-biased" nature. On the contrary, the pattern of "upgrading" was evident in the Czech Republic and Poland, where the evidence suggests "skill-biased" technical change.

This article addresses the issue of the relationship of parenthood, employment and economic inactivity of childcare holders. It focuses on the mother's motivation to work in the context of Czech social policy measures. The aim is to empirically verify the willingness of women, taking care of children under three years old, to return to work. The decision of mothers, about their participation the labour market, is analysed by indicator "Effective cost of return to work" and by using sensitivity analysis. Negative net fi nancial effect of return to work was identifi ed for all studied regions and types of workloads. These results demonstrate clearly that mothers, entering the labour market, are confronted with very high additional costs. These costs would not be covered by their employment income and other received benefi ts. Estimated amount of potential wage, which would encourage women to return to work, reach in some cases up to four times the median wage of women in the particular region.

The paper explains wider economic, financial and macroeconomic context of the unconventional monetary policy during 2001-2006 in Japan. The objective of the article is complex discussion of Bank of Japan's unconventional monetary policy measures from theoretical and practical point of view. The structure of the papers is following: the fi rst part reveals macroeconomic condition behind unconventional monetary policy, the second part describes changes in monetary policy implementation, focuses also on commercial assets purchasing and describes exit strategy as well. The last part of the paper evaluates unconventional monetary policy impacts. Bank of Japan achieved accommodative financial condition and reduced uncertainty in the money market. Large liquidity buffer works preventive in case of unexpected liquidity shocks. Excess ample liquidity did not support prices and real economic activity considering broader deleveraging process and corporate markets fragmentation. Entry and exits strategy was successful without financial markets disruption but exit was not complete. Finally, the paper can conclude, that unconventional monetary policy had positive stabilization effect without significant transmission to the real economy.

The aim of the presented paper is to estimate the cost of unemployment in the Slovak Economy. The cost of unemployment can be divided into a direct component, composed of decreasing government revenues due to reduced direct taxes and social contribution payments from the employees and the employers; increased public spending on unemployment benefi ts, social security and health insurance and finally increased expenditures on running the administration of unemployed persons and active labor market policies. The second part, consisting of indirect costs, is composed of one component, represented by the decreasing collection of indirect taxes. The analysis showed that the average estimated real monthly cost per one unemployed throughout the years 2008-2012 fall within the range from 416 euros to 588 euros.