|
|
A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Minimum Wage Increases on Prices
Vavřičková, Jana ; Havránek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Švarcová, Natálie (referee)
As an economically as well as politically sensitive topic, labor market interventions stir up discussions among professionals as well as general public. Most economists take negative stance against minimum wage policies providing arguments backed by theoretical reasoning rather then sound empirical evidence. Knowledge of labor market outcomes and their transmission channel to other segments of the economy are till nowadays limited and inconsistent. Neither empirical research in the field contributes to a uniform consent on the impact of minimum wage hikes on the price level. Moreover, the reported estimates display large heterogeneity and after a brief inspection reveal that the field is infested with publication selectivity. A uniquely constructed dataset consisting of 469 estimates of the price effect of minimum wage changes and their associated characteristics is analyzed using a set of statistical tools generally known as meta-analysis. The method is a powerful tool nowadays widely used in empirical research to synthesize and systematically evaluate sometimes inconsistent research results. While the study finds no consistent evidence of an actual link between minimum wage hikes and inflationary pressures, the empirical results show strong presence of publication selectivity. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
|
|
|
Power Spot Market of the European Energy Exchange and Its Influence on the Czech Power Market
Vavřičková, Jana ; Červinka, Michal (advisor) ; Krištoufek, Ladislav (referee)
The main purpose of the thesis is providing a detailed description of the clearing process on power spot market of European Energy Exchange (EEX), in view of the algorithmic methods employed. The thesis encompasses the mathematical formulation of the discrete optimization problem solved in the price determination process while the algorithm searches for such combination of block and hourly orders to be executed that would minimize the social cost associated to the chosen combination of orders. The market and network constraints typical for electricity trading are considered by the algorithm in the price determination process. The first chapter also provides the reader with basic knowledge of the trading on the Prague-based Power Exchange Central Europe. The last chapter contains an empirical analysis of the spot prices of the Czech and German power markets, which uses vector autoregression to test the hypothesis of dependance of the development of Czech spot energy prices on their German counterparts. Key words: EEX, PXE, spot markets, clearing process, COSMOS, discrete optimization, branch- and-bound
|
guest ::
