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What Are the Elements with Strongest Impact on Life Expectancy?: A Study Focused on the United Mexican States During Recent Years
Nedvěd, Vojtěch ; Paulus, Michal (advisor) ; Herman, Dominik (referee)
In this thesis, we focus on the determinants of life expectancy at birth in Mexico's federative entities. The aim is to consider three selected variables determining life expectancy - health care expenditures, unemployment, and school enrolment. We use panel data for up to 21 year period (1994-2014) controlling for already well-examined determinants (vaccination coverage, literacy rate, and infant mortality rate). Fixed e↵ect or random e↵ect estimation is applied according to the hypo- theses. Robustness test is performed using Principal Component Analysis including proxies of the main four groups of variables a↵ecting life expect- ancy - economic, social, health care and environmental. The results suggest a positive e↵ect of health care expenditures on life ex- pectancy at birth. However, a significant e↵ect of unemployment or primary school enrolment is not confirmed. Principal Component Analysis suggests the existence of additional determinant related to health care expenditures a↵ecting life expectancy. This thesis contributes to the debate on discussed variables (healthcare expenditures, unemployment, and primary school enrollment) related to life expectancy. We also extend the limited research on life expectancy in Mexico and Latin America.
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More than Roads? A Gravity Model Analysis of the Institutional effects of Trade in the Belt and Road
Baraniecki, Cezary ; Semerák, Vilém (advisor) ; Paulus, Michal (referee)
Export data from 2007 - 2016 with 175 exporters and 195 importers is combined with institutional data from World Governance Indicators in order to ascertain the institutional effects on trade. This effect is measured by three different metrics using a gravity model: the effects on trade due to institutional quality of exporters and importers, the effects of particularly good and bad institutions and the effects of institutional similarity. These results are then used in order to analyze China's Belt and Road Initiative and its possible goals. China was found to export more to nations with good institutions and far less to nations with poor institutions, even when only looking at trade flows between China and B&R nations. Existing funding information and agreements listed in the last B&R Forum did not follow China's trend of exporting more to nations with good governmental institutions. Instead, a negative correlation exists between B&R funding and agreements and the institutional quality leading to the conclusion that China is not just strengthening existing trading relationships with the B&R Initiative but rather is pursuing other goals, such as trade diversification.
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Does money laundering determine the direction of FDI?
Gjika, Rubi ; Paulus, Michal (advisor) ; Janský, Petr (referee)
Does money laundering determine the direction of FDI? Rubi Gjika The goal of this thesis is to investigate the relationship of FDI and money laundering through a Gravity model approach. Overall empirical results of the thesis suggest that FDI originating from highly developed European economies are insensitive to money laundering motives. However, its findings diverge only for developed destination countries and they suggest that for this group, jurisdictions officially listed as money laundering centers attract significantly more FDI stocks than other countries.
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Analysis of Chinese foreign direct investment to Europe
Bystřický, Lukáš ; Semerák, Vilém (advisor) ; Paulus, Michal (referee)
Foreign direct investment (FDI) from China has been growing rapidly in the last decade and it has become a hotly debated topic. Some countries are actively trying to attract more, while others warn of dangers to local economy and even national security. Both, media and researchers have studied the problem extensively and the outcomes are not uniform. This thesis summarizes all available information and debunks common public misconceptions about Chinese FDI. It studies particular cases to provide a closer look into the innerworkings of investment decision-making. It studies the microeconomic factors and politics that influence the investors. Furthermore, it uses the gravity model to explore the macroeconomic determinants of Chinese FDI flows using the most recent data on 174 countries over 9 years. The results of this empirical part are similar to previous findings and contribute to the existing pool of literature. In addition, they confirm the notion from previous chapters which reappears throughout the thesis. In contrast with media and politicians' statements, Europe is not the primary target for Chinese FDI. Keywords PRC, China, FDI, investment, Europe, gravity model Author's email: lby@seznam.cz Supervisor's email: vilem.semerak@fsv.cuni.cz
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The impact of human capital and population age structure on economic growth
Topinka, Michal ; Baxa, Jaromír (advisor) ; Paulus, Michal (referee)
The demographic transition led to an added productivity commonly referred to as the demographic divided, which resulted in high rates of economic growth in most of the world. The general consensus is that the increased pace of economic growth was attained largely thanks to changes in population age structure. However, the literature contains evidence that the population structure does not have a significant impact on economic growth and that improvements in education attainment have in fact been responsible for the high rates of economic growth. These claims are in contradiction with most of the literature and can have important implications for future research and policy making. Since these claims have not been, to the best of our knowledge, verified, this thesis aims to replicate the original research using newer and more suitable data for a higher number of countries. In addition to the original research, analysis is also performed on various subsamples based on governance and cultural indicators. The level and the change in education attainment did not appear statistically significant in most of the regressions, so the claims could not be proved or disproved. However, important insights about the role of not only population structure and labor force participation in explaining economic growth were...
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Strategic analysis of Electronic Arts™
Zahermanesh, Arian ; Balcar, Petr (advisor) ; Paulus, Michal (referee)
The present thesis focuses on and provides a case study of a merger and acquisitions of an interactive software industry. The author analyzes a comprehensive managerial and financial metrics. The thesis includes a thorough historical, industrial, managerial, statement, crisis management and volatility analysis with a benchmark comparison. The focus of this thesis is stability in the long run. The thesis should contribute to M&A literature, coming in favor of such actions taken by corporations.
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Cross-Country Analysis of Life Satisfaction
Stehlíková, Zuzana ; Janhuba, Radek (advisor) ; Paulus, Michal (referee)
This thesis examines the relations between subjective well-being and economic, politic and social characteristics of individual countries. We study the link between three components of subjective well-being - life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect and other country characteristics. First, we use the dataset containing countries from almost all countries of the whole world and then with a more detailed European dataset. For the analysis of life satisfaction, panel data models are used. The results indicate that we are able to explain better variation in life satisfaction by our set of explanatory variables in comparison with positive affect and negative affect. In the former dataset, we discovered that the most important determinants of life satisfaction are GDP per capita, health, freedom to make life choices, political conditions and social support. In the latter, European dataset revealed a strong negative correlation between tertiary education attainment and happiness. The results also indicate that female representation in national parliament is an important predictor of life satisfaction in European countries. This supports the idea that equality between men and women plays an important role in developed societies. Keywords Subjective well-being, Happiness, Life satisfaction,...
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Observing the Effects of CAFTA on Trade Using the Gravity Model of Trade
Škreb, Jan ; Paulus, Michal (advisor) ; Semerák, Vilém (referee)
This thesis aims to analyse the effects of the Central America Free Trade Agreement on trade using the gravity model. The principal actors of interest are the United States of America and Central American countries combined with Dominican Republic as the other regional actor. Panel data was used with 153 countries for the period of 1995-2015. The model was specified using the dummy approach and estimated with OLS and PPML estimators to obtain results on effects of trade policy variables on exports. Estimates show mixed results but the general effect of CAFTA on exports is positive and significant. This trade creation effect makes CAFTA an important trade agreement for economic relations between member countries.
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Does Aid Lead to More Trade? Evidence of the Effect of US Aid on its Exports
Schütz, Anna ; Paulus, Michal (advisor) ; Semerák, Vilém (referee)
This thesis investigates the effect of US development aid on US exports to 134 recipient countries over the time period 1993 to 2015 with an application of the gravity model of international trade. Estimates of one-way panel dataset, specified by a dummy approach and estimated with OLS and PPML, suggest that for every aid dollar spent by the United States, US exports significantly increase by 1.59 US dollar. By lagging the aid variable for several years after disbursement, we find a declining effect of US aid on US exports, which indicates that tied aid is an important channel of the effect's magnitude. The effect does not vary systematically across income groups. Yet for geographical regions with a higher US export share, the impact of US aid on US exports is significantly larger suggesting that existing trading relations contribute to a larger effect of aid on donor's exports. The evidence shows that US aid increases US exports and reinforces economic relations with recipient countries and, thus, can be regarded as an important motive for the donor to provide development aid.
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Trade and Politics: Political Determinants of International Trade Flows
Sosnovec, Jan ; Semerák, Vilém (advisor) ; Paulus, Michal (referee)
Charles University in Prague Faculty of Social Sciences Institute of Economic Studies Master's thesis Trade and Politics: Political Determinants of International Trade Flows Author: Bc. Jan Sosnovec Supervisor: Ing. Vilém Semerák, M.A., Ph.D. January 3, 2018 Abstract This thesis takes a comprehensive look at the relationship between international trade and politics. The first part of this thesis is theoretical. Besides providing a useful overview of this highly complex subject, it makes a contribution to the contemporary theory by proposing two simple models. The first of these models explains how because of complementarity of institutions, countries end up stuck with inefficient institutions and consequently high trade costs; countries can break out of this inefficient equilibrium only by coordinating their actions. The second proposed model shows how governments set trade barriers in order to pursue their political aims, while at the same time staying popular in order to remain in power. This model is consistent with a wide variety of regime types and ideologies, and takes into account voter heterogeneity. The second part of this thesis is empirical. It uses the gravity model of trade, with multilateral resistance terms represented either by fixed effects or by the Baier-Bergstrand linear approximation of...
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