Prague Economic Papers, 2012 (vol. 21), issue 2

Original contributions, Original article, Research article

New Evidence on FDI Determinants: An Appraisal Over the Transition Period

Yulia Gorbunova, Davide Infante, Janna Smirnova

Prague Economic Papers 2012, 21(2):129-149 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.415  

The aim of this work is to provide new evidence on the factors that determine the flow of FDI among transition countries. The analysis takes into consideration the period of most intense transition and post-transition (1994-2002) of 26 former socialist countries. The empirical estimates enable us to draw two main conclusions: first classical locational FDI factors maintain their role in the context of transition countries, and, second, that FDI are influenced by specific market and institutional factors. Among market variables, relatively higher labour costs surprisingly do not constitute an obstacle for foreign investment. We find that variables reflecting...

Macroeconomic Instability and Fiscal Decentralization: An Empirical Analysis

Ahmad Zafarullah Abdul Jalil, Mukaramah Harun, Siti Hadijah Che Mat

Prague Economic Papers 2012, 21(2):150-165 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.416  

The main objective of this paper is to fill a critical gap in the literature by analyzing the effects of decentralization on the macroeconomic stability. A survey of the voluminous literature on decentralization suggests that the question of the links between decentralization and macroeconomic stability has been relatively scantily analyzed. Even though there is still a lot of room for analysis as far as the effects of decentralization on other aspects of the economy are concerned, we believe that it is in this area that a more thorough analyses are mostly called for. Through this paper, we will try to shed more light on the issue notably by looking...

International Development Cooperation of the Czech Republic in the Context of European Development

Ingrid Majerová

Prague Economic Papers 2012, 21(2):166-185 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.417  

The paper describes the development cooperation of the Czech Republic within the European Union. It has briefly analyzed the evolution of development cooperation until 2004 when Czech Republic joined the European Union and further the situation from 2004 to present. The paper also evaluated the financial resources for development cooperation, bilateral cooperation and the comparison with other EU Member States, background on the progress of Official Development Assistance in European Union.

Analysis of Cross-Country Differences in the Non-Profit Sector Size

Primož Pevcin

Prague Economic Papers 2012, 21(2):186-204 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.418  

This paper theoretically and empirically investigates variations in the size of the non-profit sector among countries. Although the non-profit sector has experienced growth in relative socio-economic importance in recent decades, the available data on the size of the sector indicates substantial variations among countries. Existing literature provides several multi- and interdisciplinary theories, hypotheses and concepts that try to explain those differences, such as for instance the heterogeneity and failure theories, the resource dependence theory and interdependence theory. Empirical findings indicate that the selection of the measurement of sector...

Market Timing and Selectivity Performance: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Malaysian Unit Trust Funds

Soo-Wah Low

Prague Economic Papers 2012, 21(2):205-219 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.419  

This study examines the extent to which fund characteristics contributes to explaining fund returns differentiated by managers' stock picking and market timing abilities. The findings show that funds characterized by high exposures to broad market movements have good timing returns but show poor selectivity performance, suggesting the presence of activity specialization among fund managers. It is shown that large funds enhance managers' timing returns, reflecting the efficiencies of large funds in responding to market-wide movements. However, as the size of the fund gets larger, managers find it more challenging to identify worthwhile investments and...

The Link Between the Brent Crude Oil Price and the US Dollar Exchange Rate

Filip Novotný

Prague Economic Papers 2012, 21(2):220-232 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.420  

Growth in the intensity of the inverse relationship between the US dollar exchange rate and the Brent crude oil price has been observed over the last decade. This may be linked, among other things, to the growing role of commodities as an alternative investment instrument at times of excess liquidity and low interest rates on global markets. This analysis examines monthly data from January 1982 to September 2010. Since 2002 the direction of the relationship in the Granger causality sense has been from the dollar exchange rate to the oil price. A weakening of the dollar of 1% causes the Brent oil price to rise by 2.1%. The contrary movements in the...

Recent Development of the Wage and Income Distribution in the Czech Republic

Diana Bílková

Prague Economic Papers 2012, 21(2):233-250 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.421  

The paper presents the development of monthly gross wages and wage distributions both by gender groups and for the total sample in the Czech Republic over the years 2002-2009. The first part deals with the development of sample characteristics of the level, differentiation and shape of the wage distribution in the research period, including characteristics of wage level forecasts for 2010 and 2011. Special attention is paid to the different behaviour of the wage distribution between men and women in the Czech Republic and the gender dependence of gross monthly wages. A comparison of the income level development in the Czech Republic with that of the...

Book reviews

New Trends in International Marketing

Štefan Žák

Prague Economic Papers 2012, 21(2):251-254 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.422