Acta Oeconomica Pragensia, 2011 (vol. 19), issue 5

Economic Growth and Convergence of the Enlarged European Union

Josef Abrhám, Milan Vošta

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2011, 19(5):3-16 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.343  

Economic growth and economic level belong among the most monitored economic figures as they give evidence of the level of both the economic activity and performance of a country as well as of the level of the economic development at which a given state or region finds itself. Within the EU environment as well as in the individual Member States, the issue of economic growth belongs among fiercely discussed topics. The economic growth of the European Union in the last decade was lagging behind most other centres of the world economy. This, however, does not mean that all the EU countries were characterised by a weak growth performance. This paper focuses...

The Economic Crisis and the Development of Tourism in the Czech Republic

Luboš Smrčka, Markéta Arltová, Jaroslav Schönfeld

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2011, 19(5):17-33 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.344  

While the significance of tourism for the Czech Republic's economy is relatively high, it is far from being the dominant industry. Despite the recent substantial investments in this particular field of economic activity, the share of tourism in the gross value added has been steadily declining, similarly to the ratio of tourism revenue to the gross domestic product. The year 2008 saw these values hitting a bottom as a result of the overall stagnation of tourism in the European Union, with the mild growth in 2009 being mostly attributable to the overall economy going through the recession; in this respect, the mild increase in tourism revenue to the...

Alternative Production Models in Economic Theory

Martin Dlouhý

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2011, 19(5):34-47 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.345  

In the paper, marginal analysis and linear programming are described and then compared as two independent theoretical approaches to production theory. Although marginal analysis dominates economic literature, we argue that linear programming is an equivalent theory with some advantages and, of course, some disadvantages in comparison to marginal analysis. Marginal analysis will be a more suitable choice if we assume continuous changes and perfect substitution in production and unlimited capacities of production factors. On the other hand, linear programming describes production as a combination of a finite number of available technologies with limited...

Corporate Environmental Costs Connected with Legislative Compliance in the Czech Republic

Jarmila Zimmermannová

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2011, 19(5):48-67 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.346  

This article focuses mainly on the environmental costs connected with legislative compliance in the Czech Republic, possibilities of their identification and observation in corporations and suggestions for cutting them down. First, we present an overview of theoretical concepts regarding determination of costs connected with environmental protection in companies and possible difficulties with identification of this kind of costs; however, there are various methods depending both on the authors' opinions and purposes of environmental cost identification in companies. Then, the article discusses particular inputs and outputs of companies and tries to...

Comparison of ICT Sectors in the Czech and Slovak Republics

Petr Doucek, Lea Nedomová

Acta Oeconomica Pragensia 2011, 19(5):68-86 | DOI: 10.18267/j.aop.347  

The recent boom of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is over. The impact of the financial crisis and the new scenarios for future development of European countries after overcoming it have formulated new requirements on the ICT sector all around the world. ICT seems to be one of the key factors for a competitive advantage within a country or a community of countries. This article offers a comparison of the development of the ICT sector in the Czech and Slovak Republics with a special accent on the human resources use in this sector and research and development expenditures. Indicators selected by the authors are compared between these...