Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, 2015 (vol. 23), issue 3
Data representativeness problem in credit scoring
Josef Ditrich
Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2015, 23(3):3-17 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.472 
When building models, it is common to split the whole dataset into a development and a validation sample. In some cases, using random sampling instead of stratified sampling can lead to loss of representativeness of final samples. In such cases, a model built on these data gives different or unexpected results when its performance is measured on the validation sample. In the business area, a lack of representativeness can cause interpretative problems and can have a huge financial impact when a biased model is involved in the credit granting process. The aim of this paper is to examine and understand why representativeness should be checked before...
Elasticity of taxable income. A case study for the Czech Republic
Kateřina Gawthorpe
Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2015, 23(3):18-29 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.473
Elasticity of taxable income has increasingly become an important subject matter for economists in recent times. This study provides an estimate for the Czech Republic by exploiting panel data for corporate income tax rates between 2004 and 2009. The severity of the tax evasion and avoidance issue in this country triggers a question about the existence of the elasticity itself. The uniqueness of this study also stems from its focus on proportional tax rates while other influential studies examine this subject for progressive taxation. The result of this research supports a hypothesis about indifference between taxable incme decision and the size of...
Economic dimension of the Czech republic's development assistance-Case study of Serbia
Kristýna Kloboučníková, Radka Druláková
Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2015, 23(3):30-47 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.474
The article deals with the economic dimension of the Czech Republic's official development assistance. It discusses that aid and trade need not act contradictorily; in fact, they may work complementarily. In particular, the study focuses on the Czech Republic's bilateral official development assistance towards Serbia, which shows synergic effects of development assistance and business interests. The first part of the paper is concerned with the various forms of private sector involvement in the Czech Republic's official development assistance. The second part describes the Czech Republic's official development assistance on the example of Serbia. First,...
Environmental or ecological economics and resource economics: terminological inconsistency in Czech research
Lenka Slavíková
Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2015, 23(3):48-57 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.475
The paper deals with terminological issues within economics of the environment as used in Czech socio-economic research. In particular, it criticises the misuse of the term "environmental economics" in the context of Simon and Lomborg's criticism of the Club of Rome reports. In reaction to recent research papers [such as Louzek, 2013], it argues that the neoclassical anchor of environmental economics needs to be reflected when discussing various applications of economics to environmental problems.
Cluster analysis in the field of taxation
Jarmila Rybová
Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2015, 23(3):58-66 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.476
Cluster analysis is a method of multivariate data processing. It can be easily applied, for example, by means of statistical software. The article focuses on an application of cluster analysis in the field of taxation. The possibility of applying the method is compared for each tax or groups of taxes at two levels: by an individual state and between selected countries. It is also possible to determine, on the basis of cluster analysis, the impact of taxes on economic operators, which can be sorted according to various criteria (income, types of households represented by their members, etc.). An overview of studies in which the selected method of cluster...
Half-Forgotten Personalities of Economic Thought - A. A. Cournot
Pavel Sirůček
Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2015, 23(3):67-75 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.477
Cournot was a French mathematician, philosopher and economist, said to be one of the most important predecessors of neoclassical economic theory. He belongs among the pioneers in econometrics and mathematical economics. He is also highlighted for creation of market prices, the demand function and the basis for marginalist firm theory. He was unacknowledged in his lifetime.