Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jeremy Garlick Title: China's Trade with Central and Eastern European EU Members: an Analysis of Eurostat Data, 2004-2014 Abstract: China is rapidly becoming one of the most significant trading partners of EU countries. This is as much the case for the 11 Central and Eastern European countries (CEE11) which entered the EU in 2004, 2007 and 2013 as for the older members. This paper sets out to examine data obtained from the Eurostat database concerning trade between the CEE11 and China between 2004 and 2014 in an attempt to clarify two main questions. Firstly, are there any differences between individual CEE countries’ trade with China during the last decade? Secondly, have the Visegrad(V4)countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) obtained any advantages over each other or over the other CEE11 countries? The Eurostat data, while limited in some aspects, suggest that all the eleven nations, despite variations, are struggling with trade balance deficits and therefore need to cooperate rather than compete concerning trade with China. Keywords: EU, China, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Visegrad, trade, imports/exports Classification-JEL: F1, F10, F100 Pages: 3-22 Volume: 2015 Issue: 4 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=478.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/478 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2015:y:2015:i:4:id:478:p:3-22 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlaop/references/478 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Ondřej Machek Author-Name: Luboš Smrčka Title: An updated Model of Financial Fragility based on General Equilibrium Analysis Abstract: Financial fragility and instability of banking sectors has received increased academic attention due to recent financial crises around the world. The objective of the article is to extend and adapt a previously created financial fragility model of the Czech financial sector in order to reflect its specific conditions. It introduces the concept of minimum required reserves and uses consistent sources of data collected from annual reports of Czech banks in 2013. Besides the prediction of default of households, the model also allows a prediction of key macroeconomic variables such as the inflation and unemployment rates. However, some of the issues of this class of models - in particular, the impossibility to measure some of its exogenous parameters - remain unresolved and present a challenge for the future development of the model. Keywords: Czech Republic, Financial fragility, banking sector, general equilibrium Classification-JEL: C68, E4, E5, G11 Pages: 23-42 Volume: 2015 Issue: 4 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=479.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/479 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2015:y:2015:i:4:id:479:p:23-42 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlaop/references/479 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Petr Janský Author-Name: Jiří Šatava Title: Property Tax in Prague: Quantifying the current Situation and potential Changes on the Basis of Data from Tax Returns Abstract: The relatively low property tax in the Czech Republic is determined partly by the respective law and partly by coefficients set by municipalities. Only some municipalities take advantage of their power to change these coefficients; this is partly due to insufficient information about the possibilities and their impacts. The objective of this article is to quantify the impacts of the current situation as well as of selected changes and thus provide a basis for public discussion about the design and rate of property tax in the Czech Republic. In the empirical part, based on detailed anonymised data from tax returns, we focus on the capital city Prague. Prague provides an interesting case to study because of its diversity of property, its size and the extent of its possibilities for altering its property tax. We contribute to the so far limited empirical research on property tax in the Czech Republic by quantifying the impact of property tax on various groups of tax payers, the time development of property tax revenues for municipalities, and the impact of changes in the design of property tax. Keywords: property tax, Prague, tax returns, impact evaluation Classification-JEL: H20, H71, K11, K34 Pages: 43-62 Volume: 2015 Issue: 4 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=480.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/480 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2015:y:2015:i:4:id:480:p:43-62 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlaop/references/480 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Milan Vošta Author-Name: Josef Abrhám Title: Global Tourism and Implications for the Czech Republic Abstract: Tourism is characterized by constant spatial expansion and diversification. It is one of the fastest growing global economic sectors. Local economic fluctuations undoubtedly have a significant influence on the development of tourism. The aim of this study is to highlight the crucial importance particularly of stimulating and realisation presumptions, which greatly influence the demand for tourist activities on a global scale in recent years with implications for the Czech Republic. The theoretical base of the paper consists of an overview of concepts of market performance, and multi-criteria competitiveness of tourism destinations is introduced here. The analytical part of the study examines major shifts in the distribution of tourism on a global scale and the impact of changing assumptions of development and determinants, such as information technology, transport, political factors, environmental factors, demographic factors and the degree of urbanisation, travel security, as well as a whole range of social and economic impacts. A special emphasis is devoted to the consistence of the tourism industry with economic fluctuations and recessions. Global trends are then applied to the tourism sector in the Czech Republic. Keywords: Czech Republic, competitiveness, global tourism, international arrivals, diversification Classification-JEL: L83, M38 Pages: 63-77 Volume: 2015 Issue: 4 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=481.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/481 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2015:y:2015:i:4:id:481:p:63-77 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlaop/references/481 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Pavel Sirůček Title: Half-forgotten Personalities of economic Thought - Robert Owen Abstract: Robert Owen was a British businessman, thinker, philanthropist, campaigner and reformer, who was looking non-violently for an alternative system. He is said to be a pioneer of socialism in Britain and a leader of the utopian socialist movement in the 19th century. He is also known as a predecessor of the cooperative movement. He tried to start a set of reforms, which were not followed. Keywords: social reform, R. Owen, utopian socialism, critique of capitalism, cooperative movement Classification-JEL: B4, B51, N30, P29 Pages: 78-85 Volume: 2015 Issue: 4 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=482.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/482 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2015:y:2015:i:4:id:482:p:78-85 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlaop/references/482