Prague Economic Papers, 2015 (vol. 24), issue 1

Original contributions, Original article, Research article

Portfolio Selection with Uncertainty Measures Consistent with Additive Shifts

Rosella Giacometti, Sergio Ortobelli, Tomáš Tichý

Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(1):3-16 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.497  

Assuming a non-satiable risk-averse investor, the standard approach to portfolio selection suggests discarding of all inefficient investment in terms of mean return and its standard deviation ratio within its first step. However, in literature we can find many alternative dispersion and risk measures that can help us to identify the most suitable investment opportunity. In this work two new dispersion measures, fulfilling the condition that ""more is better than less"" are proposed. Moreover, their distinct characteristics are analysed and empirically compared. In particular, starting from the definition of dispersion measures, we discuss the property...

Czech Exports and German GDP: A Closer Look

Josef Taušer, Markéta Arltová, Pavel Žamberský

Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(1):17-37 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.498  

This paper analyses the relation between Czech exports in goods and services and German GDP. In order to contribute to the current state of knowledge the analysis goes more into detail in terms of disaggregating the German GDP. Do Czech exports depend more on German domestic absorption, or is it, rather, German exports which determine Czech exports? Does the Czech Republic produce goods for German consumers or is it an ""outsourced"" supplier to German export channels, instead? Co-integration analysis and the analysis of the commodity structure of Czech exports to Germany are employed to address these questions. The indings of this research indicate...

The Effect of Female Managers on Gender Wage Differences

Veronika Hedija

Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(1):38-59 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.499  

The paper is devoted to gender wage differences; it especially focuses on the impact of the gender characteristics of the manager on gender wage disparity. Under the social identity theory, women in managerial positions, that can affect the wage of their subordinates, are likely to evaluate female employees better than male employees. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the gender characteristics of middle managers on the wages of directly subordinated rank-and-file employees using a variation within the firm. We have used two methods to consider the effect of the manager gender characteristics on subordinates: the estimation...

Causality Relationship between Financial Intermediation by Banks and Economic Growth: Evidence from Serbia

Saša Obradović, Milka Grbić

Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(1):60-72 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.500  

This paper empirically examines the possible causal relationship between financial development and economic growth in Serbia. In this regard, the focus is on the development of financial intermediation by banks, considering the fact that the banking sector plays an important role in Serbian financial system. The empirical research is based on quarterly data for the period Q1 2004-Q4 2011 by using Toda-Yamamoto causality test. Our empirical findings suggest that process of economic growth contributes to process of financial deepening. On the other hand, the results indicate that there is a significant unidirectional causality that runs from both private...

Uneployment Dynamics in Central Europe: A Labour Flow Approach

Vladislav Flek, Martina Mysíková

Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(1):73-87 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.501  

We analyse labour market flows and unemployment rate dynamics in the Czech Republic (CR), Slovakia and Poland. Relative involvement of working-age individuals in movements between various labour market states appears to be approximately five times lower in Central Europe than in the U.S./UK. Compared to neighbouring countries, the CR suffers from a relatively weaker net flow of individuals from unemployment to employment. This net flow alone would cut the unemployment rate in Poland more than twice as fast as in the CR. In particular, currently unemployed Czech men, individuals with primary education, and the 55-65 age group are adversely affected...

Eurozone Crisis

Marek Loužek

Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(1):88-104 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.502  

The purpose of the paper is to analyse the current crisis of the eurozone. The irst part explains why the eurozone is not an optimum currency area. The second part points out that euro is an intensiier of the business cycle. The third part examines the Greek crisis. The fourth part explains the inner tensions in the eurozone. The ifth part asks whether euro is suitable for the countries of Central and East Europe. The sixth part examines the debt crisis within the eurozone.

A Historical View on the Development of Czech Economy from 1970

Kristýna Vltavská, Jaroslav Sixta

Prague Economic Papers 2015, 24(1):105-122 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.503  

The paper describes the changes in Czech economy in the period between 1970 and 2010 from the macroeconomic perspective. It is based on the detailed study of sources and uses of gross domestic product with respect to labour inputs. Used data sources come from recently published historical data on GDP combined with the data of oicial statistics. The paper should provide an analysis of the main determinants of growth based on output and expenditure approach to GDP and employment including the industrial analysis of labour productivity. In this paper labour productivity is estimated as the ratio of gross value added in the constant prices over the input...