Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Pietro Andrea Podda
Title: The impact of Institutional Distance on FDI inflows in the Czech Republic
Abstract: This paper studies the impact of institutional distance on FDI infl ows in a specifi c country, the Czech Republic. This study contributes to the literature on the importance of institutional distance between home and host country among the factors able to infl uence FDI. The novelty of our paper is that (1) we consider whether institutional distance matters also when the host country is already endowed with institutional standards relatively close to those of the main home countries of MNEs, and (2) we run separate investigations of home-host countries’ institutional distance, distinguishing between institutionally safer and less safe home countries in comparison with the host ones. The Czech Republic has been chosen in view of these perspectives, as (1) it has traditionally been considered as one of the most developed markets among those emerged from the socialist experience, its level of institutional development is close to that of the various home countries of MNEs, and (2) besides hosting MNEs from home countries endowed with safer institutions, it receives a certain amount of FDI also from countries with a relatively less safe institutional environment. Our results challenge the previous literature, in the sense that institutional distance may actually be perceived as an opportunity, especially by MNEs from home countries with higher levels of institutional development. Indeed, MNEs from home countries with less safe institutions than Czech ones follow a more ambiguous pattern.
Keywords: Czech Republic, Gravity model, FDI, Institutions, institutional distance, random effects
Classification-JEL: M1
Pages: 3-14
Volume: 2016
Issue: 1
Year: 2016
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=495.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/495
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Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Tomáš Václavík
Author-Name: Andrea Klimešová
Title: Gas Swing Options: Introduction and Pricing using Monte Carlo Methods
Abstract: Motivated by the changing nature of the natural gas industry in the European Union, driven by the liberalisation process, we focus on the introduction and pricing of gas swing options. These options are embedded in typical gas sales agreements in the form of offtake flexibility concerning volume and time. The gas swing option is actually a set of several American puts on a spread between prices of two or more energy commodities. This fact, together with the fact that the energy markets are fundamentally different from traditional financial security markets, is important for our choice of valuation technique. Due to the specific features of the energy markets, the existing analytic approximations for spread option pricing are hardly applicable to our framework. That is why we employ Monte Carlo methods to model the spot price dynamics of the underlying commodities. The price of an arbitrarily chosen gas swing option is then computed in accordance with the concept of risk-neutral expectations. Finally, our result is compared with the real payoff from the option realised at the time of the option execution and the maximum ex-post payoff that the buyer could generate in case he knew the future, discounted to the original time of the option pricing.
Keywords: Energy markets, gas sales agreement, gas swing option, Monte Carlo simulations, spread option pricing
Classification-JEL: C63, G12, G13
Pages: 15-32
Volume: 2016
Issue: 1
Year: 2016
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=496.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/496
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Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2016:y:2016:i:1:id:496:p:15-32
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Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Diana Bílková
Title: The Best and Worst-Paid Sectors in the Czech Republic
Abstract: The present paper deals with the issue of diff erent behaviour of wage distribution of two highest and two lowest-paid sectors of the Czech economy in the period since the beginning of the global economic crisis; the former ones are the sectors of “Financial and Insurance Activities” and “Information and Communication”, the latter ones being those of “Accommodation and Food Service Activities” and “Administrative and Support Service Activities”. The aim is to capture the diff erences between these two groups of sectors, not only in terms of wage levels, but also as far as the variability and concentration of wage distribution is concerned. The gross (nominal) monthly wage in CZK represents a research variable. The paper focuses on diff erent developments of wage distribution of the above sector groups in time, wage level forecasts for 2015 and 2016 being included.
Keywords: wage distribution, best-paid sectors, worst-paid sectors, global economic crisis, gross monthly wage, wage level forecasts
Classification-JEL: D31, E24, H24, J31
Pages: 33-53
Volume: 2016
Issue: 1
Year: 2016
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=497.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/497
File-Format: text/html
Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2016:y:2016:i:1:id:497:p:33-53
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Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Květa Kubátová
Title: Interval and global progressivity of the income tax from wages in the Czech and Slovak Republics
Abstract: The article deals with the measurement of progressivity of personal income tax in the Czech Republic and Slovakia imposed on wages. It works with both the methods known from the literature: the local method (interval) and global progressivity. The data source is the wage statistics of the Statistical Offices and taxes are calculated fictitiously on the basis of law with adoption of assumptions. Results for interval progressivity in both countries show that while progressivity of the lowest income taxpayers is higher, it decreases with increasing gross income. Personal income tax in the Czech and Slovak Republics is observed as progressive in the entire range, even though the statutory tax rate is linear. The Lorenz curve shows that the distributions of gross wages in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are of a similar nature. The values of the coefficient of interval progressivity and the coefficient according to Musgrave and Thin (CR has a coefficient of 1.024 and SR of 1.037) show that personal income tax is more progressive in Slovakia. Although Slovak personal income tax imposed on wages is more progressive, post-tax incomes of employees are more equitably distributed in the Czech Republic.
Keywords: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Wage tax, tax progressivity, Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient
Classification-JEL: H24
Pages: 54-67
Volume: 2016
Issue: 1
Year: 2016
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=498.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/498
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Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2016:y:2016:i:1:id:498:p:54-67
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Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Zdeněk Tomeš
Author-Name: Monika Jandová
Title: Approaches to Czech Passenger Railway Market Liberalisation
Abstract: Competition on the Czech railway passenger market has been developing recently. It is possible to distinguish two types of competition - unregulated competition (competition on the market) and regulated competition (competition for the market). Competition on the market is present on the Prague-Ostrava route and competition for the market has been applied in a few public tenders for subsidised services. However, the substantial part of the Czech railway passenger market has remained closed and there is a question how to proceed with the competition development - whether to promote competition on the market or competition for the market. Based on European and modelling experience, there is an argument for more competition for the market.
Keywords: Czech Republic, Railways, competition, open access, competitive tendering, direct awarding
Classification-JEL: L22, L43, L92, R41
Pages: 68-81
Volume: 2016
Issue: 1
Year: 2016
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=499.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/499
File-Format: text/html
Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2016:y:2016:i:1:id:499:p:68-81
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Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Pavel Sirůček
Title: Half-Forgotten Personalities of Economic Thought - M. I. Tugan-Baranovsky
Abstract: M. I. Tugan-Baranovsky was a  Russian-Ukrainian economist, scientist, policy maker and journalist. He promoted the ideas of co-operativism. He tried to describe an eclectic synthesis of the marginal utility theory and the value theory of D. Ricardo and K. H. Marx. He is famous for the business cycle theory and he belongs among the best-known Russian economists.
Keywords: M. I. Tugan-Baranovsky, cycle theory, theory of crisis, theory of socialism
Classification-JEL: B14, E32, P21
Pages: 82-90
Volume: 2016
Issue: 1
Year: 2016
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=500.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/500
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Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2016:y:2016:i:1:id:500:p:82-90
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Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Bohumír Štědroň
Author-Name: Eva Kostrecová
Title: Book Review
Pages: 91-92
Volume: 2016
Issue: 1
Year: 2016
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/download.php?jnl=aop&pdf=501.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/aop/501
File-Format: text/html
Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlaop:v:2016:y:2016:i:1:id:501:p:91-92