|
|
The Property Rights Security Is Important: How Exactly?
Flanderová, Tereza ; Schwarz, Jiří (advisor) ; Jánský, Ivo (referee)
This thesis focuses on the impact of institutional quality in a particular country on various firm characteristics on a sample of developing economies from the Central and Eastern Europe and Asia. In the first part we review the existing literature on the topic and formulate our two countervailing theoretical hypotheses, both of which use the transaction costs approach and predict different strategic behavior of the firms. In the empirical part we employ seven firm characteristics as response variables to determine the prevailing institutional influence on them, using microeconomic data from the World Bank's Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) and corresponding institutional indices from the Worldwide Governance Indicators dataset. We find that in poor institutional environments, firms often engage in strategic behavior that allows them to minimize transaction costs imposed upon them so that they merge more activities together and become generally bigger.
|
|
|
Economics of Religion: Analysis of Contributions in the Roman Catholic Church in the Czech Republic
Švejdová, Amália ; Schwarz, Jiří (advisor) ; Skuhrovec, Jiří (referee)
The bachelor thesis Economics of Religion: Analysis of Contributions in the Roman Catholic Church in the Czech Republic focuses on economics of religion in the enviroment of the Czech republic and especially the case of the Roman Catholic Church. The main aim of the thesis is to analyze the situation of the religious market and the role and position of the Roman Catholic Church within it, in regards to participation in religious institutions, voluntary donations etc. By studying the relationship between the state and church and it's determined financing system it is possible to set the model for the degree of financial participation of the church's members (voluntary contributions). By using a regression analysis, a hypothesis is tested on specific empirical data - the amount of voluntary contributions, (un)employment, age, size of the church, and percentage of women in the population.
|
|
|
Economics of meaning - comparison of efficiency based on meaning
Kráčmer, Michal ; Mlčoch, Lubomír (advisor) ; Schwarz, Jiří (referee)
This work deals with a relatively new topic for economists. The connection between economic apparatus and the human need for meaning is pioneer, indeed. However, the work does not handle this topic by classical means of economics. The main topic of the work is to show that the human need for meaning is the main source of preference creation and human activity. The tool of analysis is a synthetic approach of various scientific branches. In the work is thus combined knowledge of biology, sociology, psychology, ecology and economics and their related branches. On this basis is constructed a new synthetic theory of the consumer's preference creation. The model has a big predictive and descriptive potential. From the results of the analysis stems that the human need for meaning could really be the key variable having influence in human decision making.
|
|
|
Comparative characteristics of the Czech welfare state
Keprta, Jan ; Schwarz, Jiří (advisor) ; Lešanovská, Jitka (referee)
The thesis discusses the overall characteristics of Czech welfare state. First it describes the emergence and evolution of the welfare state in general and divides particular types of welfare state according to Esping-Andersen's typology. Then it deals with the Czech welfare state. It characterizes the development since Austro- Hungarian Empire until 2010. It points to the specific nature of Czech welfare state, which consists of all different types of welfare state. In empirical part, the social transfer abuse is examined, using a regression model. The examination is restricted to sick-leave. The model shows relation between the sickness benefit, wage and sickness absence, which illustrates the high- probable benefit abuse. Finally the thesis discusses the main reason to defraud - low identification of citizens with the state, which stems from the history.
|
|
|
How people learn from mistakes on an example of weather lores
Skála, Jakub ; Schwarz, Jiří (advisor) ; Šolc, Jan (referee)
The work deals with the empirical research of informal institutions. The aim was to determine on the basis of the verification of weather lores whether our null hypothesis is valid. Our null hypothesis is as follows: known weather lores have a higher success rate of forecast than unknown weather lores. We worked on the assumption, that in the general awareness remain mainly weather lores that works (passed on from generation to generation as a result of long-term learning process). That should have clarified whether not working weather lores are used any more. We verified weather lores on the basis of hydro- meteorological data for the period 1972-2002. We used several measure criteria. Each criteria was tested with Student's t-test. For all criteria, we observed that at the 5% level of significance we could not reject the hypothesis of equal values of known and unknown weather lores. It was not confirmed our hypothesis that known weather lores have a higher success rate of predictions. That means there is no development of informal institutions in the context of informal institutions on the basis of our empirical research. Keywords weather lores, formal institutions, informal institutions, development of informal institutions, categorical evaluation of weather forecast
|
|
| |
|
|
Are the prices higher today than they were before 1989? If not, why do people think they are?
Boček, Josef ; Schwarz, Jiří (advisor) ; Havránková, Zuzana (referee)
In my thesis, I have focused on a comparison of consumer prices from 1989 and 2009. As in the Czech society are emerging ideas about lower prices before 1989, I decided to test the hypothesis of lower prices before the year 1989 compared to 2009 using data from the Czech Statistical Office. Methodology of this study includes sophisticated statistical tests (Student Two-sample tests), conversion of prices to the adjusted average wage and the construction of consumption baskets from 1989 and 2009. Based on my tests and performed recalculations I have found out that the prices before 1989 were on average 2 times higher than in 2009.
|
|
|
Perceived vs. observed inflation. Perceived inflation in connection with the euro adoption
Klubíčková, Kateřina ; Schwarz, Jiří (advisor) ; Martišková, Monika (referee)
This thesis deals with the difference between observed and perceived inflation. It builds on literature which focuses on perceived inflation and its difference from observed inflation. The thesis broadens existing literature with detailed analysis of factors affecting the difference between observed and perceived inflation (inflation gap) and its size. There are numerous theoretical explanations for the gap increase which followed the euro-changeover. This thesis summarizes these reasons and analyzes what and to what extent affects the size of the inflation gap using data about awareness about the euro among public, macroeconomic (GDP, rate of inflation, rate of unemployment etc.) and social variables (sex, age). Result of the analysis is that the size of the gap is affected particularly by the euro introduction. Extent of this impact differs for men and women, but is very similar across age groups. The impact of HICP and its components in various sectors was in most models larger in periods when countries were using euro as their national currency. Hypothesis stating that the higher is the awareness about the euro among public, the smaller is the inflation gap was confirmed in models considering later waves of the euro introduction.
|
|
|
Does RIA Really Evaluate Regulatory Impact? The Case of the Czech Republic
Jára, Karel ; Schwarz, Jiří (advisor) ; Cahlík, Tomáš (referee)
Regulatory Impact Assessment/Analysis (RIA) has become a hot topic in the world politics as well as economic research in the last 20 years. Its basic definition as a tool to improve regulatory quality using cost-benefit analysis is viable only in the case when it is properly implemented for all potential sources of regulation, one of which is parliament with its amendments to bills. After summing up basic information about RIA and its history and surveying relevant literature on RIA, this thesis performs a pioneer analysis of the changes in regulatory impact of laws caused by parliamentary amendments. A sample of all laws passed in the Czech Republic in 2010 is studied. The passed amendments to these laws are analysed and it is found that only 3 out of 20 bills with RIA had amendments which made no changes in regulatory impacts of the bill. This supports the conclusion that the RIA implementation should take these amendments into account. Another finding is that circumventing of the RIA system occurs also in the case of non-governmental bills, which are not subject to RIA in the Czech Republic, as 18 of 32 bills without RIA did not have it due to their non-governmental origin.
|
|
|
Molecular monitoring of residual disease in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Forsterová, Kristina ; Schwarz, Jiří (advisor) ; Pospíšilová, Šárka (referee) ; Žák, Pavel (referee)
The detection of residual tumor cells in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was the goal of this study. Since there is no CLL-specific molecular marker, minimal residual disease detection (MRD) is not simple. The outcome of 29 patients treated with fludarabine, cyclophosphamide and rituximab (FCR) was monitored using PCR with "consensus" primers and comparative PCR. 16 patients subsequently underwent autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) which did not significantly prolong the length of molecular remission reached by these patients in comparison to patients treated with FCR only. However, it seems that the length of molecular remission of transplanted patients was not affected by eventual contamination of progenitor cells with leukemic cells while it was affected by the presence of detectable CLL cells in their bone marrow at the time of ASCT. Since "consensus" PCR is not a method sufficiently sensitive for MRD detection in CLL the usefulness of detection of DNA methylation was explored for this purpose. Methylation status of 5 genes (DLC1, SHP1, p15, p16 and lamin A/C) was analyzed in the tested group of patients. DLC1 methylation was detected in the majority of patients so changes in its methylation levels in relation to disease evolution were further analyzed using real time...
|
guest ::
RSS feed.