Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Yaseen Ghulam
Title: SME’s Credit Conditions during the Financial Crisis in Europe
Abstract: This study examines the role of firm-specific, macroeconomic, banking and financial environment factors in determining whether they were able to access external finance during the global financial crisis. Heckman’s selection approach is used to model the demand and supply of credit in the euro area during and after the financial crisis period. We conclude that since 2011, when the rejection probabilities for external credit applications peaked, the chances of obtaining credit have improved. However, young and small firms are still more likely to have their credit applications rejected. A decrease in government support such as guarantees increases the probability of rejection, as does a reduction in firms’ own capital and a worsening credit history. Among the bankspecific factors, an increase in banks’ equity capitalization reduces the rejection probability, while an increase in the cost of borrowed funds and a decrease in the competition levels raise the rejection probability. The legal structure to deal with insolvency disputes and the development of the credit information market have a significant bearing on credit availability, as we find that an increase in the time to resolve insolvencies and a reduction in adverse selection problems by credit information sharing increase the credit rejection probabilities.
Keywords: credit, financial crisis, supply and demand, small and medium enterprises
Classification-JEL: G20, G21, G23, G28, L11
Pages: 105-125
Volume: 2019
Issue: 1
Year: 2019
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=672.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/672
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Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2019:y:2019:i:1:id:672:p:105-125
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Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Karel Janda
Author-Name: Martin Strobl
Title: Smoking Czechs: Modelling Tobacco Consumption and Taxation
Abstract: We model the future tobacco consumption, size of smoking population and governmental tax revenues in the Czech Republic. The main model assumption states that smokers determine their future tobacco consumption behaviour as adolescents. Further assumptions make the model applicable to the data from the Czech National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. Future teenage smoking rates and average consumption are the inputs to the model; consumption growth coefficients for each age category are estimated using zero-inflated negative binomial regression. Several scenarios are built to model possible developments, including extreme cases. All our scenarios show that all model outcomes are going to grow until 2028 in a very similar pattern. In particular, the projected number of smokers in 2028 is by 4-8% higher than in 2013, the total daily tobacco consumption and tax revenue by 7-26%. This increase is induced by aging of large birth cohorts.
Keywords: forecasting, taxation, smoking, tobacco, cigarettes, consumption
Classification-JEL: D12, I12
Pages: 3-29
Volume: 2019
Issue: 1
Year: 2019
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=685.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/685
File-Format: text/html
Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2019:y:2019:i:1:id:685:p:3-29
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Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Martina Mysíková
Author-Name: Jiří Večerník
Title: Returns to Tertiary Education in Western and Eastern Europe
Abstract: In the 1990s, the transition countries in Central and Eastern Europe witnessed an upward trend in returns to education, unlike in Western European countries. This upward trend led to much higher returns than in what was observed in the communist period or compared to the West. The surveys EU-SILC collected since 2005 show that although returns to tertiary education were converging across Europe, there is still a big difference between East and West, with returns considerably higher in the East. Panel analysis reveals also substantial differences in the factors behind returns to tertiary education in the East and the West. The assumed negative relationship between the share of tertiary-educated workers in the working-age population and the returns to tertiary education were confirmed only in the West. The job vacancy rate has a significant negative impact on returns to tertiary education only in the East. While in the West the labour market seems to react more to labour supply, in the East labour demand plays a more important role.
Keywords: returns to education, tertiary education, Western and Eastern Europe
Classification-JEL: D31, I26, J31, P20
Pages: 30-48
Volume: 2019
Issue: 1
Year: 2019
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=686.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/686
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Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2019:y:2019:i:1:id:686:p:30-48
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Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Marian Siminica
Author-Name: Costel Ionascu
Author-Name: Mirela Sichigea
Title: Corporate Social Performance versus Financial Performance of the Romanian Firms
Abstract: This article analyses the relationship between corporate social performance and financial performance at the level of a panel of 62 Romanian companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The first challenge was measuring of the social performance. A new social performance measurement system was developed based on which the CSP Index was obtained. The GRI criteria for reporting, the channel of communication chosen by the companies, as well as the level of detail of the published information were taken into account. The estimation of the regression model was made using the CSP Index as the dependent variable and the financial indicators (return on assets, return on equity, sales growth, average number of employees, total sales, market value added, PER index) as the independent variables. The panel regression analysis done to highlight the fixed or random effects at the company level indicated a relatively weak causal relationship between corporate social performance and financial performance. The social performance may also depend on other variables that are not included in the model, although, the general conclusion was that the social performance of Romanian companies is relatively low, but in an ascending evolution.
Keywords: panel data analysis, financial performance, corporate social performance, regression models with fixed or random effects
Classification-JEL: A13, C12, M14
Pages: 49-69
Volume: 2019
Issue: 1
Year: 2019
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=687.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/687
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Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2019:y:2019:i:1:id:687:p:49-69
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Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Sara Barcenilla
Author-Name: Gregorio Gimenez
Author-Name: Carmen Lopez-Pueyo
Title: Differences in Total Factor Productivity Growth in the European Union: The role of Human Capital by Income Level
Abstract: This article applies Oaxaca-Blinder and Shorrocks-Shapley decomposition techniques to a logistic diffusion model in order to explain the differences in Total Factor Productivity Growth (TFPG) in European Union (EU) countries for the period 1950-2011. Human capital has a dual positive effect on TFPG by boosting innovation and increasing the catch-up capacity of countries to absorb and imitate foreign technologies. Our results show that there are statistically significant differences in the intensity of these effects between high and low average income EU countries, while there are not between euro and non-euro countries. The mean difference in technical change between high and low-income EU countries is largely the result of three factors. The first is the higher average foreign technology assimilation capacity of low income countries. This is particularly true because they are further from the technological frontier and are able to benefit from the advantage of backwardness. The second is the higher direct effect of human capital on technical change in these countries, while the third factor is the higher slowdown role of proximity in them.
Keywords: human capital, total factor productivity growth, technological diffusion
Classification-JEL: O33
Pages: 70-85
Volume: 2019
Issue: 1
Year: 2019
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=689.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/689
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Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Svetlana Mihic
Author-Name: Miroslava Filipovic
Author-Name: Danijela Dasic
Title: Labour Inequalities in Europe: The Case of Serbia
Abstract: Gender differences present a topic of great interest in contemporary societies. Aim of this paper is to make a comparison between the unemployment in Serbia and the European countries, and to identify those countries which record the most similar performances considering gender and age. The research is conducted through analysis of activity rates, employment rates, unemployment rates, inactivity rates and long-term unemployment rates. The factor analysis enabled us to identify main factors that influence structures of the labour markets in Europe. Final result of this research is the recommendation of policy measures, including the promotion of women entrepreneurship, in order to reduce gender inequalities in contemporary society’s economic activity.
Keywords: unemployment, labour market, Europe, Serbia, gender inequalities
Classification-JEL: J60, J70
Pages: 86-104
Volume: 2019
Issue: 1
Year: 2019
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/download.php?jnl=pep&pdf=691.pdf
File-URL: http://www.vse.cz/pep/691
File-Format: text/html
Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlpep:v:2019:y:2019:i:1:id:691:p:86-104
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