Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Sebastian Gundel Title: Declining german export prices due to increased competition from newly industrializing countries - evidence from germany and the ceecs Abstract: In this paper, the export demand and supply of German manufacturing industry is estimated for the period 1993 to 2005. The Johansen procedure (1991, 1994) is applied to estimate the long-run relationship in a VECM. Special attention is paid to the development of the German export prices being exposed to the competitive environment of fast growing countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. Since they offer similar high-technology products on the international export markets and are gaining the market share, German export prices are under downward pressure. The results show that German export prices grow at a slower pace than that of the competitors and that they are negatively influenced by the growing market share of the CEECs. On the export demand side, the empirical picture corresponds to the theoretical one displaying a less unity income elasticity of demand indicating the decreasing market share for German manufactures in the long run. Keywords: competition, cointegration, Manufactured Exports, VECM Classification-JEL: C32, F10, F14 Pages: 3-22 Volume: 2008 Issue: 1 Year: 2008 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=316.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/316 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2008:y:2008:i:1:id:316:p:3-22 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlpep/references/316 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Borut Vojinović Author-Name: Žan Jan Oplotnik Title: Real convergence in the new eu member states Abstract: This paper presents the analysis of unconditional and convergence among the ten European countries that accessed the European Union in 2004. Unconditional convergence means that the less developed countries (with lower GDP per capita) grow faster than the more developed countries (with higher GDP per capita). convergence exists when income differentiation among economies decreases over time. Our results confirm the existence of both types of convergence in the second half of the 1990s and the 2000s. The poorer New EU Member States grew generally faster than the richer New EU Member States. As a result, the income gap among these countries has decreased (although it still remains quite large). The convergence occurred at the rate of 2.87% in the years 1995-2006 and 3.23% in 1996-2006. This result is very similar to the results of other analyses on the subject. Keywords: European Union, economic growth, transitional economies, economic convergence Classification-JEL: F02, F43, O11, O19 Pages: 23-39 Volume: 2008 Issue: 1 Year: 2008 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=317.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/317 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2008:y:2008:i:1:id:317:p:23-39 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlpep/references/317 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Květa Kubátová Author-Name: Alena Vančurová Author-Name: Michaela Foltysová Title: Impact of globalization on taxation mixes in oecd countries during 1965-2003 Abstract: The aim of the paper is to explore impact of globalization on the tax mixes of the OECD countries. The research object is the tax mix of 21 OECD member countries in the period 1965 - 2003. The relation of tax mixes and globalization, which expresses oneself through a tax competition, is analysed by methods of multidimensional statistical analysis. First, the cluster analysis enables us to identify countries` clusters (subgroups of the OECD group of countries) with similar tax mixes in the observed period. Consequently, the discriminatory analysis explains the reasons of the resulting grouping of the countries. Within the scope of the discriminatory analysis we take into account selected variables of globalization quantified on the basis of the globalization indices (economical, social and political index). The cluster and discriminatory analysis results confirm that the tax mixes in the OECD countries have been gradually approaching under the pressure of globalization. Keywords: globalization, tax competition, tax mix, cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, OECD Classification-JEL: H20 Pages: 40-53 Volume: 2008 Issue: 1 Year: 2008 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=318.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/318 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2008:y:2008:i:1:id:318:p:40-53 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlpep/references/318 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Marie Vavrejnová Author-Name: Herta M. Rack Title: Financing the health care in the czech republic: some comparisons with austria Abstract: This paper presents an insight into problems of financing the greatest part of public services for the population - the health care. The situation in this field in two nearby countries - the Czech Republic and Austria is compared. The health status of the population and the health care bases in both countries are on a high level, and the Czech situation is approaching the somewhat better situation in Austria. The main problem in the both countries is the lack of financial resources for covering the increasing needs in health care services and medicaments. Therefore, the new ways how to balance the deficit of the system both on the revenue and expenditure sides are to be found. The reforms of the system should serve this goal. From the point of view of financial sources for health care a similar model is used in Austria and the Czech Republic, some modifications of it result from different historical development and from different economical level. These modifications and differences, together with the role of the state, insurance funds and direct payments of the population, are described in this paper. The causes of discrepancies between sources of finance and expenditures on the health care are discussed. Reforming the health care system is a long-term task. From this point of view the Austrian reform measures were prepared very well, with the needed advance before introducing them and it can serve as an example for preparation of the Czech reform. Nevertheless, many questions how to improve the financing of the health care for the benefit of patients remain still without answer and they are the matter of further research and discussions in many European countries. Keywords: international comparison, health care financing, resources of finance, reform measures Classification-JEL: I10, I18, I31 Pages: 54-73 Volume: 2008 Issue: 1 Year: 2008 File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=319.pdf File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/319 File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2008:y:2008:i:1:id:319:p:54-73 X-File-Ref: http://www.vse.cz/RePEc/prg/jnlpep/references/319