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Impact of taxes and social benefits on income inequality and relative poverty in the Czech Republic
Janský, Petr ; Kalíšková, Klára ; Münich, Daniel
International comparisons have long shown that income inequality and the proportion of people at risk of relative poverty in the Czech Republic are among the lowest both in the EU and across the world's most developed countries (OECD). Data from representative surveys on household incomes and expenditures show that the Czech tax and social benefits system has rather little effect on income equality and the risk of poverty. Relatively low variation in gross income, for which the old-age pension system plays a key role, plays a greater part in maintaining the low rates of both measures. If besides direct taxes and social benefits we also take into account the effects of indirect taxation (value added tax and consumer taxes), then we find that the current system reduces income inequality relatively little, and in fact slightly increases the relative poverty risk. 80 % of those in relative poverty and 33 % of other individuals are in receipt of at least one social benefit. Only 38 % of total expenditures on state social support are spent on people who are at risk of relative income poverty. The most potentially effective benefits for reducing relative income inequality and overall poverty rates are benefits in material need (contributions towards basic living costs and accommodation). The most effective instrument for reducing the proportion of the population at risk of relative income poverty is child benefit.
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Public financing for pre-school places pays off: a cost and benefit analysis
Kalíšková, Klára ; Münich, Daniel ; Pertold, Filip
Countrywide statistics suggest that the long-term shortage of places in state preschool institutions (kindergartens) has become gradually less severe over the past few years thanks to population decline, and that in future there will be sufficient places available at pre-schools. Nevertheless at a local level demand is still far outstripping supply in many places, and this is unlikely to change as internal migration and other demographic changes continue. Our analysis of financial costs and benefits reveals that the shortage of places in preschools in the past decade has led to an undeniable net loss for the public budget. Our analysis demonstrates that the net gain to the public budget from every additional place in pre-school is on average 10,000 crowns per year. Public financial support for pre-schools would not result in a loss even under very conservative estimates. On the contrary, the net gains are in fact far higher if the indirect and long-term consequences of supporting further places in pre-schools are taken into account.
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An international comparison of the quality of academic publication output in the Czech Republic
Jurajda, Štěpán ; Kozubek, Stanislav ; Münich, Daniel ; Škoda, Samuel
In our recent study (IDEA No. 5/20154) we have compared the publication output of various Czech research institutions by individual disciplines. The comparison was based on the relative output of institutions working in specific science branches within the Czech Republic, and had no way of indicating which institutions in the Czech Republic were on par with international research and which were lagging behind. Even though an institution is not at the top in its field within the Czech Republic, the quality of its research may still be on par with international research, as the particular branch of science is highly advanced in the Czech Republic. Therefore, this study is a first step toward comparing the research output of Czech institutions on an international level. We have compared the publication output of entire scientific fields in the Czech Republic to the same fields in other countries, basing our comparison on articles published in the years 2010–2014 and included in the Web of Science (WoS) database. The comparison includes eleven small and medium-sized countries, only one of which has English as its official language: five European countries belonging to the so-called former Soviet bloc, four Western European countries, and two non-European countries.
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An international comparison of the quality of academic publication output in the Czech Republic
Jurajda, Štěpán ; Kozubek, Stanislav ; Münich, Daniel ; Škoda, Samuel
In the recent study Jurajda a Münich (2015) we presented a field-by-field comparison of Czech research publication output. This comparison of the relative strength of output by research institutes in each field within the Czech Republic (CR), could not comment on which Czech institutes are working at international level, and which lag behind their foreign counterparts. It is possible, for example, that an institute that is not at the forefront of its field in the CR may nevertheless be performing research at a standard comparable with international competitors, because it is working in a field in which the Czech Republic is performing very high level research. In this study we offer a first step towards comparing the research output of Czech institutes on an international scale: we compare the publication output of each research field, overall, in the Czech Republic with its international equivalent. Our comparison is based on articles published between 2010 and 2014 which are included in the Web of Science (WoS) database. The comparison includes eleven small and medium sized countries, only one of which has English as its native language. Five of the countries are European countries previously within the Soviet bloc, four are Western European countries and two are non-European countries.
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A comparative study of retirement age in the Czech Republic
Bakalová, Jana ; Boháček, Radim ; Münich, Daniel
Our analysis reveals that older generations in the Czech Republic still exhibit\nsome differences from more developed countries in Western and Northern\nEurope. Socio-economic conditions, educational attainment, occupational\nstructure, or health status are still lower due to reasons related to historical\ndevelopment in the 20th century. On the other hand, improvements and\nconvergence of aforementioned characteristics to more economically\ndeveloped countries of the EU during a relatively short period of time has been\nnotable.
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Czech research centres' publication performance in the period 2008-2012, by field of research
Jurajda, Štěpán ; Münich, Daniel
Three years ago, we were the first in the Czech Republic to offer, in IDEA study 3/2012, a comparison of research publication performance (not productivity) based on data about the results of research and development in the period 2006-2010 for the research fields whose ouputs are largely recorded in the Web of Science database run by Thomson Reuters (WoS). For each field of research, we showed which Czech centre has the most results published in journals with a high impact factor (IF). In this study, we bring that comparison up to date for the period 2008-2012. This type of comparison, which is based on the Information Register of R&D Results [Rejstřík informací o výsledcích] (RIV) collated by the government's Council for Research, Development and Innovation (RVVI), identifies the research centres with the most prolific output of excellent results in a given field in the Czech Republic. It also enables us to compare fields in terms of the concentration of their journal publication output in individual research centres, and to look at the relationship between "points-based" RIV assessment and excellence of results.
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Teachers’ pay: consistently low and unattractive
Münich, Daniel ; Perignáthová, M. ; Zapletalová, Lucie ; Smolka, V.
The level and structure of teachers’ salaries significantly affect overall interest in the teaching profession and play a part in determining the structure of those interested in the profession. The quality of new recruits to the teaching profession in turn determines the long term quality of education and educational results in the given country. Salaries for teachers at Czech public primary schools, in a relative comparison with salaries for highly qualified employees, have long been among the lowest in the world’s thirty most developed countries. As far as teachers’ general skills are concerned, these are still relatively good in the Czech Republic compared to many other countries. This is however undoubtedly determined to a large extent on the high numbers of older teachers in the profession, who began their careers decades ago. Interest in the teaching profession among talented younger Czechs is currently very low.
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Learning by torture or learning by play? A comparison of satisfaction with school and mathematics from the perspective of international testing programs
Federičová, Miroslava ; Münich, Daniel
The international survey PISA 2012, which focused on 15-year-old students in OECD countries and many others, showed that almost 80% of students feel happy at school. Among the 64 participating countries, those with the highest proportion of contented students were Indonesia, Albania and Peru (96%, 94% and 94%). However, the countries with the lowest share of such students were South Korea, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (60%, 63% and 64%).
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