Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jiří Blažek Author-Name: Tereza Hejnová Title: Spatial Analysis of Membership of Czech Clusters; Can Czech Clusters Achieve Agglomeration Economies? Abstract: The article aims to contribute to current debate on clusters in the Czech Republic in two main spheres. First, the article aims at assessment of the rate of geographic concentration of members of all active Czech clusters. Therefore, the paper is focused not upon the analysis of distribution of clusters, but deals rather with spatial dispersal or concentration of their members. Three types of clusters have been identified: regional, multimodal and dispersed. Second, the correlation analysis has been employed to investigate the relationship between the spatial distribution of cluster members and the employment structure at the detailed level of 204 municipalities with extended competences. Consequently, the main aim of the article is to explore the extent to which natural preconditions for an effective utilization of agglomerative mechanisms exist within the Czech clusters. Keywords: clusters, klastry, Czechia, Česko, agglomeration effects, employment structure, microregions, smart specialisation, struktura nezaměstnanosti, obvody obcí s rozšířenou působností, aglomerační výhody, inteligentní specializace Pages: 2-13 Volume: 2012 Issue: 2 Year: 2012 File-URL: http://www.regionalni-studia.cz/images/2012-2/1_tematicke_clanky_2-13_02_2012_1.pdf File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlrst:v:2012:y:2012:i:2:id:67:p:2-13 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: David Marek Author-Name: Pavla Žížalová Title: Science-technology parks in Czechia: a successful instrument for innovation entrepreneurship? Abstract: An effective innovation infrastructure that links research organizations with industry represents an important condition of the successful development of knowledge-based economy. Science and technology parks (STPs) belong to measures reducing barriers between actors involved in the innovation process, initiating knowledge transfer and providing tailor-made business services. Czechia follows the model used in developed countries and built up STPs frequently, without sufficient focus on the real effects of STPs on tenant firms. This article using extensive survey describes the main characteristics of STPs in Czechia and in particular analyses the impact of STPs on the activities of their client companies - industry focus, innovation performance, cooperation and the benefits of localization in the STP. Evaluation of 78 tenant firms implies a positive effect of STPs on the ability of firms to innovate, to find cooperation partners and to succeed in the knowledge-based economy. However, the results also point out problems associated with the functioning of the innovation infrastructure in Czechia, combining a limited potential of innovative companies with a development of STPs oriented towards quantity, instead of quality. Keywords: Czechia, Česko, science and technology park, innovation infrastructure, competitiveness, vědeckotechnický park, inovační infrastruktura, konkurenceschopnost Pages: 14-21 Volume: 2012 Issue: 2 Year: 2012 File-URL: http://www.regionalni-studia.cz/images/2012-2/2_tematicke_clanky_14-21__02_2012_2.pdf File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlrst:v:2012:y:2012:i:2:id:68:p:14-21 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Emilie Jašová Author-Name: Božena Kadeřábková Title: Comparation of the Rate of Unemployment, NAIRU and Economic Cycle from the Perspective of Labor Market on Macro-economic and Meso-economic Level Abstract: This article analyses unemployment rate for the Czech Republic under the following criteria: regions, gender and age. Using the Hodrick-Prescott filter it estimates NAIRU for these mesoeconomic levels. Estimated NAIRU values are deducted from the real unemployment rate values. By comparing the values of the NAIRU and unemployment gap at mesolevel with an estimate for the entire national economy it is possible to determine variability within the aggregated values. On basis of this comparison it is possible to estimate the advance of some regions, gender and age categories in comparison with the development at the macrolevel and to make a short-term forecast for the entire national economy. Keywords: regions, regiony, mesoeconomy, national economy, HP filter, NAIRU, unemployment gap, mezoekonomie, národní hospodářství, HP filtr, NAIRU, mezera nezaměstnanosti Pages: 22-32 Volume: 2012 Issue: 2 Year: 2012 File-URL: http://www.regionalni-studia.cz/images/2012-2/3_tematicke_clanky_22-32_02_2012_3.pdf File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlrst:v:2012:y:2012:i:2:id:69:p:22-32 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Jan Čadil Author-Name: Petr Mazouch Author-Name: Petr Musil Author-Name: Jana Kramulová Title: Regional price levels in the Czech Republic - preliminary results and application Abstract: Regional price levels should play important role in any regional analysis as plenty of indicators must be used in relation to the regional price levels and reflect the purchasing power in a particular region. The common approach in contemporary regional analyses is to use regional indicators converted in PPS. Although the PPS conversion is reliable and valid at the country level it is most likely to be inappropriate for the regional (NUTS 2 and NUTS 3) levels. The main reason is that regional PPS, which analysts usually get from EUROSTAT, actually do not reflect regional prices at all. The current methodology uses the same price level based on prices in capital city for all the regions in the country. This brings a lot of problems and empirical but also theoretical bias. In this paper we show some preliminary results of regional price levels calculation in Czech NUTS 3 regions and some economic implications which calculation of regional price levels brings. We conclude that incorporation proper regional price levels leads to quite different results in economic performance of the regions. Moreover we have to remember that the Czech Republic is quite small and homogenous country and that the differences could be even bigger in larger EU countries. Keywords: regional unemployment, regionální nezaměstnanost, regional price level, regional PPS, regional GDP, regional wages, regionální cenové hladiny, regionální PPS, regionální HDP, regionální mzdy Pages: 52-57 Volume: 2012 Issue: 2 Year: 2012 File-URL: http://www.regionalni-studia.cz/images/2012-2/6_prehledy_a_diskuze_52-57_02_2012_6.pdf File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlrst:v:2012:y:2012:i:2:id:72:p:52-57 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Magdaléna Drastichová Title: The importance of intra-industry trade to the convergence in the EU and euro area and implications for Slovakia Abstract: Assuming the validity of the endogeneity hypothesis of the Optimum Currency Area (OCA) theory, with the deepening integration of countries, where so far the highest stage in the EU is the economic and monetary union, the synchronization of business cycles should increase and the frequency of asymmetric shocks should decrease. However, this should occur on condition that in the integration group the intra-industry trade (IIT) has a significant share in total bilateral trade of economies. Higher range of IIT should ultimately raise the benefits and reduce the costs of economies in the monetary union. In this paper the development of similarities in trade structures of the EU economies is examined and following that the conclusions are derived for convergence in terms of the OCA theory with focus on Slovakia. To express the size of the IIT in this paper the Grubelov-Lloyd index is used and the analysis is completed with the indicator of differences in export structures, which is the component indicator of the Optimum Currency Area index (OCA index). The aim of this paper is to determine trends in the development of intra-industry trade in the EU’s economies and to Význam vnútroodvetvového obchodu pre konvergenciu v rámci EÚ a eurozóny a implikácie pre Slovensko The importance of intra-industry trade to the convergence in the EU and euro area and implications for Slovakia Magdaléna Drastichová | magdalena.drastichova@vsb.cz Katedra regionální a environmentální ekonomiky, Ekonomická fakulta, VŠB - TU Ostrava draw impacts on convergence of the Slovak economy to the EU and on the participation in the monetary union. Keywords: convergence, Intra-industry trade, the Grubel-Lloyd index, the Optimum Currency Area theory, the indicator of differences in the export structures, vnútroodvetvový obchod, konvergencia, Grubelov-Lloydov index, teória optimálnej menovej oblasti, indikátor odchýlok exportných štruktúr Pages: 33-44 Volume: 2012 Issue: 2 Year: 2012 File-URL: http://www.regionalni-studia.cz/images/2012-2/4_kohezni_politika_33-44_02_2012_4.pdf File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlrst:v:2012:y:2012:i:2:id:70:p:33-44 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Oto Potluka Author-Name: Martin Pělucha Author-Name: Viktor Květoň Title: Possibilities of application of the counterfactual impact evaluation in the Czech Republic Abstract: Impact Evaluation of the Structural Funds is a growing area. There had been conducted several counterfactual impact evaluations of the EU funds. Such studies have not been often implemented yet in the Czech Republic. For this reason, the paper focuses on operational programmes and support areas that can be considered for counterfactual impact evaluation in the Czech Republic. We have tested the possibility in all operational programmes in the Czech Republic. For the selection of appropriate programmes, there had been used the core criterias required to conduct out this type of evaluation. The result is a selection of several support areas in various operational programmes that provide an opportunity for the realization of such an evaluation. Keywords: cohesion policy, structural funds, kohezní politika, strukturální fondy, evaluation, counterfactual impact evaluation, evaluace, counterfactual impact evaluation Pages: 45-51 Volume: 2012 Issue: 2 Year: 2012 File-URL: http://www.regionalni-studia.cz/images/2012-2/5_kohezni_politika_45-51_02_2012_5.pdf File-Format: text/html Handle: RePEc:prg:jnlrst:v:2012:y:2012:i:2:id:71:p:45-51