|
|
Consumption over the life cycle : evidence from the Czech Republic
Cahlíková, Jana ; Zápal, Jan (advisor) ; Hlaváček, Jiří (referee)
The main goal of this thesis is to analyze life-cycle consumption using Czech microeconomic data from the 2000-2008 Household Budget Survey (HBS). Inspired by Gourinchas and Parker (2002), who analyzed life-cycle consumption on American data, we construct the Czech average household life-cycle consumption and income profiles. It is found that the Czech average consumption profile is increasing over the whole life-cycle and there is no hump-shape in the profile, contrary to the American results. Consumption tracks income early in life and a breakpoint in household behavior is identified at age 45. Czech evidence on household consumption is interpreted in the context of the Certainty-Equivalent Life-Cycle Hypothesis Model and in the context of the Gourinchas & Parker (2002) Model of life-cycle consumption under income uncertainty, which brings a significant value-added for interpretation of the Czech profiles. The household behavior is interpreted by varying strengths of the precautionary (assuring against income uncertainty) and retirement motives for savings over the life. It is found that the Czech household life-cycle behavior can be interpreted in the similar way as the behavior of the US households.
|
|
| |
|
|
Unorthodox measures of economic performance
Křehlík, Tomáš ; Zápal, Jan (advisor) ; Jeřábek, Jakub (referee)
Assessing long-term economic performance is persistent problem of current economics. Various methods exist, most often in form of indices (Sustainable society index, Ecological footprint, Urban Sustainability index, etc.), which however suffer from many issues (monetization, weighting). In recent years assessment method called NAIADE based on fuzzy logic and multi-criteria decision analysis has been developed. It deals with many problems of aforementioned indices. This approach has not yet been applied to data of many countries. Goal of my bachelor's thesis is to give overview of currently used indices, introduce multi-criteria decision analysis, perform computation of NAIADE and discuss rankings of the Czech Republic in international perspective.
|
|
|
Efficiency of public spending
Lebovič, Michal ; Zápal, Jan (advisor) ; Krištoufek, Ladislav (referee)
This thesis aims to offer a comprehensive introduction into the topic of efficiency measurement in the public sector. Firstly, usual definitions and concepts of efficiency are introduced. Attention is then turned to the description of various factors and problems specific for public sector that are crucial to efficiency measurement. It is shown that these factors preclude the use of general (private sector) efficiency measurement methods or demand their modification. The most common methods of analysis are then introduced and their relative advantages and disadvantages in the environment of public sector are explained. Finally the thesis outlines the possible uses and benefits of efficiency measurement, including the use in the economic policy-making, but also points out the limits inherent to this analysis in the current stage of development.
|
|
|
Effective tax rate measures : (survey of methods, computations and comparison to statutory tax rates in the Czech Republic)
Kábrtová, Jana ; Zápal, Jan (advisor) ; Hedbávný, Petr (referee)
Structure of tax systems of particular countries across the world features with great complexity and largely differ from one country to another. Statutory tax rates are not a good measure of the tax burden imposed by the tax nor are they a good tool for comparing of different tax systems or analysing the effects of changes in tax laws. To gather all these information we need to construct synthetic indicators as effective tax rates that are the main subject of this thesis. The effective tax rates can be calculated using several different methods. The first part of this thesis describes and summarizes these methods of computation of effective tax rates and points its strengths and weaknesses. The second part of the thesis then bases on my own effective tax rate's computations and compares effective tax rates in the Czech Republic with effective tax rates in Europe. The aim of this part is to find out whether the final tax burden in the Czech Republic is higher or lower than in EU-15 countries. Moreover I compare the effective tax rates with the statutory ones and describe the features of Czech tax system. The last part of the thesis is talking about the proposed tax reform with focus on the impact of this reform to effective tax rates.
|
|
|
Life satisfaction : (empirical evidence from the Czech Republic)
Vágnerová, Markéta ; Zápal, Jan (advisor) ; Mlčoch, Lubomír (referee)
Main goal of my bachelor theis is to investigate life satisfaction in the Czech Republic and find explanatory variables influencing it, with an emphasis on economic indicators. It strives to compare Czech Republic with other states of the European Union, especially in relationship to main macroeconomic indicators. Some of the explanatory variables are discussed in detail in Chapter 4. In Chapter 5 are models on life satisfaction on two datasets. The results of the models are compared according to a type of data and on dependence on used econometric Metod. One of the key questions is, how much money "buys" happiness (resp. In our case life satisfaction).
|
|
|
The Efficiency of Public Expenditure, Evidence from the Czech Republic
Vraná, Veronika ; Zápal, Jan (advisor) ; Schneider, Ondřej (referee)
1 Abstract Efficiency is an important concept for performance evaluation of decision- making units. This thesis studies efficiency of public spending and methods of its estimation. Firstly, a wide range of efficiency estimators are defined and compared. For the public spending efficiency analysis the most convenient es- timator is found to be the cost frontier approach of the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). The second part of the thesis contains efficiency analysis of public spending in the 14 regions of the Czech Republic in the years 2003-2014. For the analysis current expenditure of regional offices is used as the input. Based on the investigation of regional services output index is formed and employed in the analysis. The estimation is performed using the cost frontier approach of the SFA as the main method. Various other efficiency estimators are then applied to the data in order to study robustness of the results. The thesis further discusses relative ranking of the regions and time evolution of efficiency scores using different assumptions and variety of methods. Lastly, several potential effects on the estimated efficiency are considered and analysed. JEL Classification D24, H41, H72 Keywords efficiency, regions, public expenditure, Czech Republic Author's e-mail verca25.vrana@seznam.cz Supervisor's e-mail...
|
|
|
Inattention, Hand-to-Mouth Behavior, and Poverty Trap
Koval, Pavel ; Matějka, Filip (advisor) ; Zápal, Jan (referee)
In this thesis, I study the hand-to-mouth behavior of the spoor that originates from inattentive savings behavior and leads to a poverty trap. I assume that in the rational inattention model people acquire costly information about stochastic permanent income and choose a savings plan. I hypothesize that in this context high information costs and low income variance may encourage poor agents to choose a rigid savings plan below an optimal level, persistently undersave, and get stuck in a poverty trap. I construct and solve the two-period rational inattention model of savings decisions. The results show that a poor agent chooses a rigid savings plan below an optimal level when information costs are high and income variance is low. I discuss avenues for future research that are based on solving an infinite-horizon model with rationally inattentive agents, provide the conditions under which a poverty trap occurs, and test the model on consumption-savings data. Keywords: information costs, hand-to-mouth behavior, poverty trap, savings plan
|
|
|
Essays on Allocations in Two-Sided Markets
Šedek, Jan ; Zápal, Jan (advisor) ; Miralles, Antonio (referee) ; Serena, Marco (referee)
Chapter 1 studies strategy-proofness in a congested market with asymmetric information and interdependences in players preferences. The market consists of players and depletable locations. Knowing about the asymmetries of in- formation and interdependences in preferences, the players choose one of two locations. In case of congestion, the rejected players are costlessly allocated to the other location. We show that, under correlated preferences, asymmetric information causes strategy-proofness to fail. We further provide a character- ization of strategy-proofness of the allocation mechanism. Finally, we provide several sufficient conditions for strategy-proofness including independence of preferences. Chapter 2 studies information acquisition incentives and welfare in a con- gested market with independent preferences. The players first learn about their preferences over two locations, after which they choose a location. In case of congestion, the rejected players are costlessly allocated to the other loca- tion. First, we show that for independent preferences, the allocation game with information acquisition tends to exhibit complementarities in information ac- quisition. This results in equilibrium multiplicity. Second, we show that due to prevailing positive externalities the equilibrium, in which more...
|
|
|
Sequential vote buying
Chen, Y. ; Zápal, Jan
To enact a policy, a leader needs votes from committee members with heterogeneous opposition intensities. She sequentially offers transfers in exchange for votes. The transfers are either promises paid only if the policy passes or paid up front. With transfer promises, a vote costs nearly zero. With up-front payments, a vote can cost significantly more than zero, but the leader is better off with up-front payments. The leader does not necessarily buy the votes of those least opposed. The opposition structure most challenging to the leader involves either a homogeneous committee or a committee with two homogenous groups. Our results provide an explanation for several empirical regularities: lobbying of strongly opposed legislators, the Tullock Paradox and expansion of the whip system in the U.S. House concurrent with ideological homogenization of parties. We also discuss several extensions including private histories and simultaneous offers.
|
guest ::
