Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Kamil Janáček Author-Name: Eva Zamrazilová Title: Czech economy in 2002: record-low inflation Abstract: Gross domestic product continued to grow in 2002, faster than in the economies of most of the Czech Republic's major partners, albeit at a slower pace than in 2001. The major driving force of economic growth was private consumption, followed by government consumption. Investment demand registered a slowdown as an indirect result of weak foreign demand. 2002 was the year of record-low inflation in the history of the Czech Republic - at the end of the year, the consumer price index stood at 0.6 %. During 2002, nominal appreciation of the Czech currency accelerated - the koruna appreciated against the euro by almost ten per cent. The labor market was severely hit by the general economic slowdown and the unemployment rate anew reached the record-high level at the end of the year. Keywords: Czech economy, labour market, monetary policy, external balance, world economic growth Classification-JEL: E20, O11, O52 Volume: 2003 Issue: 2 Year: 2003 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/208 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2003:y:2003:i:2:id:208 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Evžen Kočenda Title: Performance of czech voucher-privatized firms Abstract: This paper works with a broad data sample of Czech voucher-privatized firms. The period of 1996 - 1999 enables to capture true post-privatization effects. It analyzes the effect of ownership structure on corporate performance and firm's characteristics. Results show that overall ownership concentration cannot be associated with improving corporate performance. Further, particular types of domestic owners do not affect firm's performance but they do affect firm's characteristics. Effect of foreign owners is limited. No clear or unambiguous effect of changes in ownership structure on corporate performance emerged. Keywords: voucher privatization, ownership structure, type of owner, panel data, firm's performance Classification-JEL: C23, D21, G32, L20 Volume: 2003 Issue: 2 Year: 2003 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/209 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2003:y:2003:i:2:id:209 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Martin Myant Title: Czech banking in comparative perspective Abstract: Banks played a central and, at times, controversial, role in the post-1989 transformation of the Czech economy. This article is trying to assess that role by setting it in a historical and comparative context. Economic historians have specified two broad models of banking behaviour, although the differences can be exaggerated. Transition economies show some common characteristics, but past history gave Czech banks a particularly important role and policy makers pursued a conception under which they would finance rapid economic transformation, partly following a model from the past. With varying degrees of willingness, established banks took on this role, undermining their own financial solidity. As the Czech road ran into difficulties, so a different conception of banks' development was adopted, closer to policies more familiar across Central and Eastern Europe. Keywords: Czech economy, transition, banks, banking history Classification-JEL: G21, G28, N20, P30 Volume: 2003 Issue: 2 Year: 2003 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/210 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2003:y:2003:i:2:id:210 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Zdeněk Dvorný Title: An institutional setup of the czech market for treasury securities Abstract: This theoretical paper maps the transition experience of the financial sector using evidence from the Czech money market. Especially, the respect is paid to the structure of interest rates during the period from 1993 to 2001. The main components of the money market that mostly determine the term structure are the interbank deposit market and the market for short-term securities. The study abstains from interbank market survey and provides a detailed description of the default-free short-term securities market and its impact on past interest rate movements. Keywords: Czech National Bank, treasury bills, treasury bonds, fixed income securities, taxation Classification-JEL: E43, E44, E58, G28 Volume: 2003 Issue: 2 Year: 2003 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/211 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2003:y:2003:i:2:id:211 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Miloslav Vošvrda Author-Name: Lukáš Vácha Title: Heterogeneous agent model with memory and asset price behaviour Abstract: The efficient markets hypothesis provides a theoretical basis on which technical trading rules (TTRs) are rejected as a viable trading strategy. TTRs, providing a signal to the user when to buy or sell asset based on such price patterns, should not be useful for generating excess returns. Technical traders tend to put little faith in strict efficient markets hypothesis. This approach relies on heterogeneity in the agent information and subsequent decisions either as fundamentalists or as technical traders. Switching between the technical trader's and fundamentalist's strategy is a basis of the cycle behaviour. This event is analysed by the Brock and Hommes (BH) model. Moreover, the memory case is added to this model because BH model was the memory-less model. This branch consists of a behaviour analysis among fundamentalists and technical traders. Here is a basis for endogenous source of the real business cycle. Keywords: efficient markets hypothesis, technical trading rules, fundamentalists, technical traders, chartists and contrarians, heterogeneous agent model with memory, asset price behaviour Classification-JEL: C61, D84, G14 Volume: 2003 Issue: 2 Year: 2003 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/212 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2003:y:2003:i:2:id:212 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jani Bekő Title: Causality between exports and economic growth: empirical estimates for slovenia Abstract: This paper employs error-correction representation approach and conditional causality technique to assess the patterns of export-economic growth link in Slovenia. In general, the results support the existence of bi-directional causality between export variables and indicators of domestic economic activity. The evidenced bi-directional causality of export-output relation for Slovenia suggests that any characterization of a small country's growth as export-driven may be at least perfunctory. As the results imply, there are no trade-offs between whether to pursue a growth strategy of structural reforms for internal competitiveness with the goal of higher domestic growth and afterwards an increasing exports, or to apply trade policy for improving the international competitiveness and enabling the economy a quick response to foreign demand. Keywords: exports, economic growth and causality Classification-JEL: C40, F43 Volume: 2003 Issue: 2 Year: 2003 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/213 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2003:y:2003:i:2:id:213