Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Vratislav Izák Title: Public Debt Service, Interest Rates and Fiscal Variables in Transition Countries Abstract: The prevailing view in the literature is that the cost of debt servicing depends on the variables that determine the debt dynamics: primary balance, outstanding debt, economic growth and inflation. Several papers devoted to advanced market economies show that a stronger primary balance is associated with a lower cost of debt servicing. The interest cost of servicing the public debt is key both to its sustainability and to the burden it places on the public finances and the economy. A panel of four transition economies: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in the time period 1994 -2002 has been analyzed. The question is if also in these countries much of the variation in the costs of servicing public debt can be explained in terms of fundamentals that determine the debt dynamics. Last but not least country-specific effects are discussed. Keywords: interest rates, public debt, fiscal variables Classification-JEL: E62, H63 Pages: 3-15 Volume: 2004 Issue: 1 Year: 2004 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=227.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/227 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2004:y:2004:i:1:id:227:p:3-15 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlpep/references/227 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Zdeněk Dvorný Title: Efficiency of the Secondary T-Bill Market Abstract: The article analyzes efficiency of the Czech treasury T-bill market and the interbank deposit market over period 1993 to 1999. An efficient market-expectation hypothesis and alternative preferred habitat hypothesis were selected to compare both the markets and to determine the extent to which they are affected by macroeconomic fundamentals. The results reveal that the treasury T-bill market is more effective compared to the interbank deposit market. This founding has strong implication in the sence that only the treasury market over the given period is appropriate to be empirically investigated. Keywords: treasury bill, interbank deposit market, efficiency, term structure hypotheses Classification-JEL: C22, E43, E44, G14 Pages: 17-25 Volume: 2004 Issue: 1 Year: 2004 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/228 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2004:y:2004:i:1:id:228:p:17-25 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Miloslav Vošvrda Author-Name: Filip Žikeš Title: An Application of the Garch-t Model on Central European Stock Returns Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the time-series and distributional properties of Central European stock returns. We test the random walk hypothesis and then consider an alternative to random walk - the ARIMA model for stock prices. The behavior of volatility of returns over time is studied using the GARCH-t model which also allows us to learn more about the distribution properties of stock returns. We employ the BDS test to assess the ability of the estimated GARCH-t model to capture all nonlinearities in stock returns. Our empirical findings reveal that the Czech and Hungarian stock market indices are predictable from the time series of historical prices, whereas that of Poland is not. The returns on all three indices are conditionally heteroskedastic and non-normal. The estimated number of degrees of freedom ranges from 18 to 4. Keywords: conditional heteroskedasticity, GARCH, leptokurtosis, market efficiency Classification-JEL: C32, G15 Pages: 26-39 Volume: 2004 Issue: 1 Year: 2004 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=229.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/229 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2004:y:2004:i:1:id:229:p:26-39 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlpep/references/229 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Petr Duczynski Title: On the Non-Neutrality of Money: Evidence from the 1990s Abstract: The paper examines the cross-country relations between nominal money and real output between 1990 and 2000. Both high money growth rates and declines in money are connected with below-average output growth rates. The association between the monetary base and real output is weaker than between M1 (or M2) and real output. I observe no tendency of money changes to precede output changes. Keywords: consumer prices, M1, M2, monetary base, real output Classification-JEL: E32, E51 Pages: 40-54 Volume: 2004 Issue: 1 Year: 2004 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/230 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2004:y:2004:i:1:id:230:p:40-54 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Marko Ferjan Author-Name: Tomaž Kern Author-Name: Goran Vukovič Title: Being Acquainted with the Employer in Slovenia: Yes-For Employment, No-For Promotion Abstract: The fundamental question which we deal with in this paper is: from which sources do organizations in Slovenia most frequently obtain new staff. We questioned 1,075 people who are employed. We discovered that more than 40 % of them became employed through personal contacts. This means that they know someone at the organization they are employed in. This type of employment procedure is not typical in the contemporary world. It was established that those who became employed because of personal contacts are not promoted any faster than those who became employed by normal application procedures. Therefore, the method of recruiting does not influence promotion. Keywords: unemployment, human resources management, recruiting, promotion, career Classification-JEL: J50, J64 Pages: 55-66 Volume: 2004 Issue: 1 Year: 2004 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=231.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/231 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2004:y:2004:i:1:id:231:p:55-66 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlpep/references/231 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Joel Sandonís Author-Name: Petr Mariel Title: Technology and Antitrust Policies in a Polluting Industry Abstract: We compare different combinations of technology and antitrust policies from a social welfare point of view in a non-tournament model of cost reducing R&D with spillovers, for the case of a homogeneous goods duopoly, where production produces pollution as a by-product, firms face an exogenous emissions tax and can also invest in abatement technologies. We show that for sufficiently polluting industries facing a loose environmental policy, cooperative R&D is not always welfare improving; a policy of subsidizing cooperative R&D is always welfare improving; allowing for mergers may be socially desirable; not regulating the industry at all may be welfare superior to a policy consisting of forbidding market collusion and subsidizing cooperative R&D. Keywords: technology policy, antitrust, R&D cooperation, pollution Classification-JEL: L40, L50, Q28 Pages: 67-81 Volume: 2004 Issue: 1 Year: 2004 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=232.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/232 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2004:y:2004:i:1:id:232:p:67-81 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlpep/references/232