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Integration of the Financial Markets of the New Member States of the EU
Chaloupka, Jiří ; Taušer, Josef (advisor) ; Záklasník, Martin (referee) ; Varadzin, František (referee)
The subject of the thesis is the integration of financial markets of the new member states of the European Union (hereinafter referred to as the NMS). According to the standard economic theory, the process of financial integration should be associated with several positive effects, among others a) the enforcement of the law of one price in the form of the interest rate parity, b) the smoothening and the synchronisation of the consumption growth among countries, c) the increased diversification of investors portfolios, and d) the decreased dependence of domestic investments on national savings. These envisaged effects serve in the thesis as the indicators of the integration of NMS financial markets with the global financial market. These indicators show that the degree of the financial integration differs among the NMS, despite the fact that they all went through the process of integration with the EU. However, the order of the NMS based on the degree of their financial markets integration could not have been determined as each test indicated a different order. However, most tests indicated that there is a trend towards more integration of the NMS financial markets as the dependence of the domestic consumption growth on the global consumption growth has been increasing and the dependence of domestic investments on national savings has been decreasing. Surprisingly, the indicators did not prove the hypothesis that NMS financial markets are more integrated with the financial market of the EU, despite the fact that these countries had to open their markets to investors from the EU and had to harmonize their legislative requirements. Contrary to the results of previous articles, indicators used in the thesis show that majority of the analysed puzzles in international economics disappeared for large developed markets like the USA. On the other hand, these puzzles persisted for the NMS. Given that majority of the NMS adopted euro during the period under investigation, results presented above indicate that the financial markets of the NMS were not fully integrated with the financial market of the EU and therefore one of the conditions for the existence of the optimum currency area has not been met. Such result also contradicts the hypothesis of the endogeneity of the optimum currency area as the adoption of the common currency did not improve the degree of financial market integration.
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Theoretical Approaches and Practical Solutions of the Socio-economic Problems of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
Harmáček, Jaromír ; Jeníček, Vladimír (advisor) ; Kašpar, Václav (referee) ; Varadzin, František (referee) ; Foltýn, Jaroslav (referee)
The thesis focuses on theoretical and empirical analysis of economic growth and its implications for economic and social development of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The thesis proceeds from the assumption that economic growth is the necessary (but not sufficient) condition for economic, social and human development of societies and nations. In context of the LDCs, this assumption can be modified: it is assumed that it has been the low average rate of growth in the long-run that is associated with the complex social and economic issues of LDCs. The primary objective of the thesis is to verify this association within the LDCs, then to investigate factors that have been the major determinants for economic growth in (African) LDCs. From the perspective of theory the thesis is grounded in theories and models of economic growth that are crucial for researching factors of growth and its implications for development. The thesis focuses also on in-depth analysis of the LDCs both from the classification and statistical perspectives. The latter one is based on comparisons with selected groups of states within the World economy.
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Chinese Economy after WTO Accession - Current Trends
Jurčová, Klára ; Konečný, Čestmír (advisor) ; Brůžek, Antonín (referee) ; Dřínek, Vladislav (referee) ; Varadzin, František (referee)
China is without any doubt one of the hot topics of today`s world and it is going to stay so in the foreseeable future as well. The European Union is aware of that as all other major players in the world are. They look at China in both awe and fear. Whether the fear is justified or not, is another question. China`s WTO entry was a clear signal for its trading partners that the reforms will go on and that China is going to follow its principals. The year 2006 marked the fifth year of China`s accessions to the WTO. By that time, China became, the world`s fourth-largest economy, the world`s third-largest trading nation after the U.S. and Germany, one of the most popular destinations for foreign direct investment, a major global manufacturing center and, along with the U.S. economy, one of the world`s greatest, if not the greatest, engines of economic growth.
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The EU engagement in the international effort on ODA increasing
Vlková, Ivana ; Konečný, Čestmír (advisor) ; Adamcová, Lenka (referee) ; Varadzin, František (referee) ; Sedláček, Petr (referee)
The purpose of this thesis is to analyse in depth the EU position in the international effort to increase the Official Development Assistance with respect to the situation of poverty in developing world and current initiatives on searching for potential solutions of this crucial issue. In connection with poverty traps in developing countries the EU came up with many important initiatives in the field of international development policy, which indicates a strong commitment of Member states towards the poverty eradication. Based on predictions analysed in the 3rd Chapter of this thesis, it is possible to deduce that the EU as a whole will be able to reach its targets in the area of ODA increases. However, there will be a different situation in case of individual Member states - not all of them report about appropriate ODA increases needed for reaching the individual declared targets. There are many more or less suitable solutions: new allocations of additional financial resources from donors` public budgets to the ODA purposes, debt relief, innovative financial resources or methodological changes in the ODA statistical reporting. In any case, it is always needed to pay attention to the principles of effectiveness and raising the ODA quality and impact. The potential for reaching the official targets was, is and will be affected by plenty of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats on the side of the EU, developing countries and the whole international community.
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Key Development Challenges of the Vietnamese economy in the framework of regionalism
Fejfarová, Michaela ; Konečný, Čestmír (advisor) ; Adamcová, Lenka (referee) ; Varadzin, František (referee) ; Mothejl, Pavel (referee)
The dissertation focuses on the Vietnamese economy and its development during the time period from the end of the World War II until present. Its objective is to map and analyze the process of integration of Vietnam into the regional and global economic structures in the aforementioned time period and identify the main challenges of current Vietnamese economic development. The issues of deficient infrastructure, energy shortage and environmental pollution can all hinder further economic development in terms of trade and investment absorption capacity. Although many other developing countries face similar problems, in Vietnam the conditions had been aggravated by more than 30 years of war, socialist planned economy, division of the territory and long lasting economic isolation all resulting in inefficiencies in use of resources, division of labor and environmental devastation. Nevertheless, Vietnam skillfully uses the newly acquired regional network within the Association of South East Asian Nations as well as the advantages of deepening relationships with the economic centers in Europe and North America to further enhance trade, attract investment and raise development aid. With its outstanding record of high economic growth and dynamic development, Vietnam has proved the ability to employ its resources and comparative advantages to the full.
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Perspective of the EU-Russia economic relations – building common economic space
Sokolov, Ivan ; Cihelková, Eva (advisor) ; Kalínská, Emílie (referee) ; Němcová, Ingeborg (referee) ; Varadzin, František (referee)
The main objective of the doctorate thesis was to explore the causes of the current state of relations between the EU and Russia and to provide substantiation for future effective cooperation. The main analytical assumption of the thesis is that deeper regional economic cooperation creates positive effects for improvement of economic relations. Based on that assumption a complex exploratory framework with solid theoretical grounding was created in order to evaluate potential gains from trade liberalization scenarios between the EU and Russia. Main research is focused on the three following areas: historical background of economic relations, current developments and perspectives of the future cooperation in light of trade liberalization. Historical background of common economic relations stems from political and economic development on both sides, legal and institutional framework and problematic areas. Current development of trade and economic relations is based on analysis of trade flows in goods, trade in services and capital flows. Analysis of the future development is based on three liberalization scenarios: - Accession of Russia to the World Trade Organization (WTO), - Free trade agreement (FTA) -- scrapping customs tariffs between the EU and Russia, - Comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA+) -- reduction of non-tariff barriers to trade, liberalization of trade in services and capital flows, regulatory harmonization. Meta-analysis of different computable general equilibrium (CGE) modeling is used to evaluate the liberalization scenarios. Research results proved positive effects of trade liberalization for both sides. However, comprehensive free trade agreement seems to be the most effective form of trade liberalization with maximum economic welfare gains for the EU and the Russian Federation.
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Discourses and practices of the Czech development cooperation
Horký, Ondřej ; Jeníček, Vladimír (advisor) ; Varadzin, František (referee) ; Fárek, Jiří (referee) ; Adamcová, Lenka (referee)
As a part of international economic relations, development cooperation is a relatively new issue area of the Czech foreign policy. In spite of the strong Czechoslovak cooperation with the pro-socialist Third World countries during the Cold War, the country quickly abandoned delegitimized development activities only to restart them in the mid-1990s. This time, the policy was induced mostly externally by the international and EU commitments to provide aid to developing countries. Building on James Ferguson's concept of 'anti-politics machine' and the Bourdieusian concept of illusio, this dissertation argues that (i) the apparatus of the Czech development cooperation deals with development as a technical matter and leads to the depoliticization of the Czech relations with the South; and (ii) the low public awareness of the policy and the dependence of the civil society on government funding tones down their criticism and facilitates the use of the policy for the particular interests of the Czech implementers instead of contributing to poverty reduction in the South. The second chapter justifies the interdisciplinary approach adopted in the dissertation. It argues that in the same way as multidimensional poverty cannot be reduced to mere income, a holistic analysis of development cooperation must extend beyond the neoclassical economic approach and include social, cultural, political and environmental aspects of development. The third and fourth chapters analyze accordingly the discourses (historical and legal sources, political and social context, government strategies) and practices (content of bilateral cooperation, its effectiveness, actors and interrelations between them) of the Czech development cooperation. The following chapters extend from the narrow topic of development cooperation to gender as a cross-cutting issue and further to the problem of policy coherence. While gender has gained serious credit on the international development research and policy agenda, it is reflected in policy and operational documents only formally, making bilateral cooperation projects gender blind, and hence detrimental to women. Finally, the Czech discourses and practices of the formally institutionalized policy coherence for development are analyzed in cases studies on migration, trade and agriculture. The chapter argues that slight changes in other government policies may have greater impact on developing countries than any substantial reforms of development cooperation. Overall, the dissertation advocates for a repoliticization of the development agenda and its return to the public space. So far, it was mostly the European Union funding that incited the civil society to raise new policy issues and question the effectiveness of the Czech development cooperation in reducing global poverty, but it is crucial to involve political parties, civil society at large, media and academia in the process as well. An annex lists a range of detailed policy recommendations for development cooperation generally, in particular its gender dimension, and its coherence with the Czech migration, agriculture and trade policies.
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Chinese Economy after WTO Accession - Current Trends
Jurčová-Antošová, Klára ; Konečný, Čestmír (advisor) ; Brůžek, Antonín (referee) ; Dřínek, Vladislav (referee) ; Varadzin, František (referee)
China is without any doubt one of the hot topics of today`s world and it is going to stay so in the foreseeable future as well. The European Union is aware of that as all other major players in the world are. They look at China in both awe and fear. Whether the fear is justified or not, is another question. China`s WTO entry was a clear signal for its trading partners that the reforms will go on and that China is going to follow its principals. The year 2006 marked the fifth year of China`s accessions to the WTO. By that time, China became, the world`s fourth-largest economy, the world`s third-largest trading nation after the U.S. and Germany, one of the most popular destinations for foreign direct investment, a major global manufacturing center and, along with the U.S. economy, one of the world`s greatest, if not the greatest, engines of economic growth.
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