Prague Economic Papers, 2001 (vol. 10), issue 4

Original contributions, Original article, Research article

Reweighting the votes in the council of ministers (double simple majority voting rule and the nice compromise)

František Turnovec

Prague Economic Papers 2001, 10(4) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.179

In this paper we provide an analysis of the Commission's proposal of so called double simple majority rule (when to pass a decision simple majority of Member States and at the same time simple majority of total population has to be reached) for the voting in the Council of Ministers of the EU. In our evaluation we are using an a priori voting power methodology to measure an influence of the Member States before and after extension of the EU. In the closing part of the paper we shortly compare the double simple majority rule to the compromise approved by the 2000 Nice Summit of the EU.

Inflation targeting and monetary policy rule of the czech national bank

Helena Horská

Prague Economic Papers 2001, 10(4) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.180

This paper deals with the inflation targeting regime in the Czech Republic. The study argues that inflation targeting is a monetary policy strategy that can be adopted by the central banks in more advanced transition economies. A dynamic model of inflation targeting in the Czech Republic is discussed in the context of achieving monetary convergence to the European Union. The specified monetary policy rule describes the basic features of the Czech National Bank's behaviour in the period March 1996 to June 2000.

European union: stability or instability for small periphery economies

Serhan Çiftçioglu

Prague Economic Papers 2001, 10(4) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.181

The main focus of this paper is to analyze the likely consequences of the possible increase in the monetary instability and decrease in the rate of wage indexation in the EU (that can result from the completion of economic and monetary union) on the macroeconomic stability of small, open economies which are in the process of integration with the EU. Such periphery countries include countries as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Turkey and others.

Structural changes in transitive economies

Anna Kadeřábková, Martin Srholec

Prague Economic Papers 2001, 10(4) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.182

The inter-industry differences in the capacity for technology change influence the intensity and quality of structural changes in the economy, its growth dynamics and competitiveness. The intensity of changing qualitative characteristics reflects the transition economies capacity for taking technology opportunities. On this background, the analysis proceeds to the qualitative characteristics of structural changes in selected transition economies (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia). Qualitative characteristics are specified in terms of factor input, technology intensity, product differentiation and market concentration, and labor...

Old age pension system reforms in the czech republic and slovenia

Marie Valentová

Prague Economic Papers 2001, 10(4) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.183

This article examines the introduction of old age pension reforms in the Czech Republic and Slovenia. It is designed firstly to define similarities and differences in enacted legislation affecting the pension systems of the observed countries after the fall of the communistic regime and secondly to compare the influence of the most significant factors which have caused these similarities or differences. Namely this article focuses on a comparison of three factors such as a demographic, political and traditional ones.

Environmental policy impact on a dynamic investment schedule

Jan Brůha

Prague Economic Papers 2001, 10(4) | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.184

The paper presents a tool for the simulation of environmental policy impact. The main concern deals with different market structures and policy results. The subject is analyzed with use of an investment schedule of a representative firm, which faces the choice of two possible production technologies. Both technologies produce the same homogenous product. However, one of the technologies is viewed as a pollutant industrial technology with great negative externalities. Therefore an environmental policy maker may wish to use some indirect tools to influence the investment schedule. The policy maker may tax or subsidize capital used in any technological...