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Alternative approaches to health promotion
Klesla, Arnošt ; Chytil, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Kadeřábková, Božena (referee) ; Kebza, Vladimír (referee)
The economic concept of health is defined as an ability to fully utilize human capital. The health promotion shall procure healthy lifestyle among the population. It also appears as the most efficient way to prevent diseases, in particular the non-communicable diseases (NCD). Economic analysis of human behavior offers the explanation of the rational choices as well as the decisions with bounded rationality affecting people's' health conditions. The Czech population health development analysis shows tendencies to careless approach in this area, that is illustrated by the increase incidence of sick leaves caused by NCD in higher age categories. Application of the health promotion in Czech Republic may be significantly improved by the outcomes of economic analysis of human behavior in these regards. Incidental issues are to be analyzed by the methods of logical deduction logical deduction, comparative analysis and empirical results of the statistical survey. Synthesis of the findings and conclusions of the analysis is the starting point for the modeling of health strategies, policies and programs promoting health in the Czech Republic. The main hypothesis is supported by the outcomes of this analysis with regards to the applicability of the economic analysis of human behavior on the health promotion and its positive macroeconomical impact on the current medical system sustainability. The primary contribution of the thesis consist in formulation of specific outcomes of the economic analysis of human behavior for the health promotion concept development. A secondary benefit is the proposal to measure personal productive incapacity in time by the indicator of work incapacity. In this context, the risk of non-infectious diseases impact deepening in older age categories of workers in Czech Republic is emphasized
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Essay on Financial Innovation, Credit Constraints, and Welfare
Janíčko, Martin ; Chytil, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Tlustý, Adolf (referee) ; Pavelka, Tomáš (referee) ; Frait, Jan (referee)
The submitted thesis is composed of three different articles dealing with issues of financial innovation, credit constraints, and their impact on welfare. The first article treats the contemporary theoretical grasp of the interaction between the financial and real economies, focusing primarily on the role of modern financial innovation in the business cycle. For this purpose, a framework promoted by the Regulation School and Post Keynesians is frequently employed, whilst some other unorthodox streams and mainstream economics are partially discussed as well. All of them aspire -- either per se or under the pressure of the contemporary economic agenda -- to clarify the evolution of financial innovation and credit in the recent era. It is generally found that certain consensus across the schools of economic thought exists, but some of them have done a better job in predicting the consequences of the financial innovation for real economic activity than others. Further, two dynamic macroeconomic models are developed in order to, inter alia, identify the possible effects of extended credit availability presented in the former article on the example of the housing market, and simulate the effects of housing price changes on general welfare. Clearly, this part of the thesis exhibits the indirect consequences of financial innovation as, once again, being rather ambiguous: after having partially unleashed the unprecedented credit granting in the economy, impacting interest rates and loan-to-value ratios, with a subsequent impact on housing prices, it has also influenced credit constrained and unconstrained households in a different manner. Based on an analysis of the situation using partial and general equilibrium analytical frameworks, two somewhat different conclusions are drawn up with respect to the occurrence of various shocks in the models. Under the partial equilibrium framework the effects of relaxation of credit constraints are visible and quite straightforward, indicating relatively simple and intuitive relationship between the price appreciation and general welfare. This is primarily perspicuous for the credit constrained households. In the general equilibrium framework, on the other hand, the transitional dynamics of shock proliferation is more transparent and the impact on credit constrained vs. unconstrained households is more ambiguous and much different from the basic intuition used in the article anchored in the partial equilibrium toolbox.
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E-Government within Public Administration in the Czech Republic
Lechner, Tomáš ; Mates, Pavel (advisor) ; Polčák, Radim (referee) ; Smejkal, Vladimír (referee)
The objective of the thesis is to analyze the current implementation of information and communication technologies in public administration in the Czech Republic and its development. The presented results come from my partial researches of this area, which I was doing in the whole course of my doctoral study. The thesis is divided into several parts. The first part deals with review of various e-Government definitions and its objectives identification as e-Government has already become an integral part of public administration transformation process. There are also discussed individual e-Government development stages within the broader context of information society development as well as in the context of connections created within the European Union. The second part of the thesis deals with two different points of view of e-Government. The first one includes separate components and institutes of e-Government such as an electronic signature, data mailboxes and contact points of public administration. The second point of view is based on projects. There are mentioned both state level projects such as the Portal of public administration, information system of data mailboxes, Czech POINT, basic registries of public administration and resort level projects as well as projects of particular authorities. Typical examples of regional and local level e-Government projects, which are provided by municipalities, are also included in this part. The third part of the thesis deals with legal, economic, social and regional aspects of e-Government. Indivisible part of this chapter is precise identification and description of constraints that limit implementation possibilities of information and communication technologies within the public administration. These constraints must not be understood as barriers that have to be overcome at any costs or as barriers restraining development of e-Government, but as borders of properly defined space, where the electronization of public administration should operate. Correct understanding of these constraints can help to decrease failure risk of e-Government projects. One of these constraints is legal framework, which I suppose to be crucial and that is why I pay to it the most attention. Besides proving the stated working hypothesis there are given three recommendations for next development of e-Government in the Czech Republic. I suppose that e-Government is a meaningful part of transformation process of public administration and that while keeping some rules it can bring significantly positive results.
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The Influence of the State Debt on defense spending in Selected NATO States
Hodžic, Faris ; Izák, Vratislav (advisor) ; Ochrana, František (referee) ; Holcner, Vladan (referee)
The defense spending plays a significant role in the decision-making process of setting up a defense policy. The economy of a state, its performance and development rank among the main factors that influence the size of this public expenditure. At a time of economic stagnation in the Western European countries, the ongoing public debt crisis affects to a ever growing extent all areas of public spending, including the defense. This work aims to contribute to the current knowledge in the field of defense economy and public finance by investigating the influence of the state debt on defense spending. The first part of the work is dedicated to defining the economy of defense and providing a brief summary of its historical development, followed by a discussion of defense as a pure public good. This chapter analyzes the issue of public debt and explains how the major schools of economic theory approach this problem. The second part outlines the previous research in the field of defense spending and debt, their development and the potential relationship with macroeconomic variables. The third chapter presents and discusses the results of empirical research that is based on the theoretical assumptions and models introduced in the first two chapters. The analysis was performed on time series from the period of 1978 to 2011 (34 years) for seven NATO member states: Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, UK and USA. The empirical analysis was performed by the statistical methods of regression and panel regression. The primary hypothesis on the existence of a relationship between the public debt and defense spending was confirmed and the partial hypothesis that this relationship is negative was refuted.
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Long-term balancing of the pension account through the promotion policy of the reproductive generation in the Czech Republic
Zachařová, Eva ; Daňhel, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Krebs, Vojtěch (referee) ; Šulc, Jaroslav (referee)
Economic reality of these days shows that pension, social, fiscal and educational system (we did not deal with flat politics friendly to young families) suffer from disputable till wrong decisions in last months and years. Many of such a decision seemed not to be effected based on scientific and expert analyses, results and recommendations but based on influence and obstinacy of the lobbyist parties and other groups. In the area of social politics we are missing the real social abstraction (i.e. long-term perspective of the social politics bearing) which could be acceptable by the residents. Pension savings and supplementary insurance act as barter -- we send to you contributions, you invest them into our bonds emitated to balance government debt (caused by this contributions as well) -- you have your profits, we have balance and meet liabilities. Fiscal system with its deductions, discounts and consolidations gives a favour to specific groups prior to the others. Social system with its substitutional durations, early pensions, excess indexation, parent leave duration and other advantages destroys natural development of the society, its revenues and expenditures. Early age educational system cannot ensure a sufficient pre-school education and changes parents into the bribees in bulk in order to find a place for their children (4-years and older). Than prolonged compulsory education causes prolonged entrance to the job market. High schools and universities throw up crowds of graduates without necessary practical skills which cause high amount of a young unemployment. We are the country of phenomenons. In the area of supplementary insurance support to the private pension companies we are the best. In the area of advanced women support for family and occupational life coordination (part-time jobs, flexible labour contracts, huge scale of pre-school day-care service) we are the worst and not only in domestic but also international comparison. We face absence of qualified work-force, human capital (necessary for healthy economic and social progress) in 50 or 60 years. This thesis has had for one's object to confirm or disconfirm the main hypothesis that with combination of defined important instruments and politics (aimed to non-financial benefits and huge flexible labour contracts supply) there is a possibility to achieve the long-term sustainability and balance of the pension account with not big shortage, no direction to destroy the whole economic development and with support to flexible job market. For children the thesis perhaps controversially looks as for human capital but from the economic point of view this is correct. In case of the Czech Republic the government approach does not work, the municipalities approach is absolutely unconceptual which restrains in many regions to achieve the co-operation of work and family life, to achieve the high standard of living of families, both due to unsupported pre-school day-care. We could accept one new solution -- no employers pension funds but employers pre-school day-care in co-operation with government and municipalities. This thesis established a hypothesis at the beginning which has been confirmed. PAYG in case of correct co-operation of important politics remains in long-term period stable (on condition 2 children for 1 mother), is just and effective. State income redistribution has moved to the service provider. Costs of such a day-care have been covered by revocation or reduction of the supplementary pension benefits, cancellation of the second pension pillar, shortening of the parent leave supplement, increasing of the employment and employees activity, increasing of efficiency and productivity and consequently profits of the companies and tradesmen. In combination with the high-quality fiscal politics without distortion and without one-side favouritism and senseless reliefs there has been secured stability of pension account, whole economy and public finance. Lower redistribution has been compensated by higher consumption and investment, government spending etc.
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Measurement of customers´ profitability in corporate banking
Vacek, Petr ; Šoljaková, Libuše (advisor) ; Wagner, Jaroslav (referee) ; Pražák, Patrik (referee)
The dissertation thesis aims to establish a complex theoretical basis for a measurement of customer's profitability which can be easily used in the practice. The main reason for that is the absence of such publication in the current academic sphere. A combination of management accounting and knowledge of banking enables to achieve the aim. The thesis itself is closely linked to the banking practice. There are derived customer's profitability indicators as modifications of the popular RAROC in which a customer margin is used instead of net profit. There is designed a simplified way of operational cost allocation. Questionnaires and interviews with senior representatives of seven Czech banks helped to identify the most significant labor-intensity factors of corporate customers. The description of principal features of risk costs and derivation of formulas for profitability variances are also the part of the thesis. The theoretical part is followed by the practical one where a contemporary banking practice of corporate customer's profitability measurement on the Czech market is explored. It identified three weak points -- cost allocation, profitability variances and one-year horizon of a calculation. At the end, the theoretical basis is applied on an existing customer portfolio and the result is compared with a currently used customer's profitability measurement.
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The Economic Potential of Existing eHealth Systems in the Czech Republic
Bruthans, Jan ; Ševčík, Miroslav (advisor) ; Kotýnková, Magdalena (referee) ; Večeř, Jan (referee)
The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the contemporary area of information technologies employed in health care (eHealth). Focusing on the systems already employed in the Czech Republic, it aims to analyse them, to quantify expenditures of their introduction and maximum benefits derived from these, as well as to evaluate their real current profit. Out of the three existing national systems, this dissertation concentrates on the two only (eRecept, ePACS), as it became impossible to evaluate the third -- IZIP system due to scarcity of the relevant information available. In the field of expenditures not only generally published numbers are taken into consideration, but this dissertation also evaluates the expenditures of other subjects involved (IT systems producers, health care providers, etc.). As the first dissertation in the Czech Republic it quantifies benefits derived from the existing eHealth systems and unlike foreign theses it greatly emphasizes just the expenditures of other subjects involved. Included in this dissertation is also the evaluation of achievements of the eHealth systems in the Czech Republic complete with supposed grounds for this situation. This dissertation also recommends courses of action for contractors of these systems to ensure future basis for more economical and successful eHealth systems. These recommendations are mainly based on analysis of development of the existing national eHealth systems. For the complex evaluation of the costs, maximum of possible and real benefit of the individual eHealth systems the research approach adopted in this dissertation includes descriptive method and SWOT analysis, extrapolation and abstraction, comparative and factor analysis.
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Snižování rizik u transakcí na trhu s marihuanou v České republice a v USA - instituce přátelství
Běláčková, Vendula ; Ježek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Zábranský, Tomáš (referee) ; Dušek, Libor (referee)
BACKGROUND: Economists depict illicit markets as violent, due to the lack of centralized property rights enforcement. At the same time, the importance of friendship networks and drug sharing is a recently documented feature of the marijuana market. Recent studies show an increased role of acquiring marijuana through friends, especially in settings where drug policy is rather punitive. This thesis extends this research into the norms that marijuana users attribute to their definition friendship. To do this, the thesis conceptualizes friendship as a type of institution that reduces the transaction costs on the market, and like that, it limits the decision making of marijuana market players. DATA: Marijuana market patterns in the Czech Republic and North-Central Florida were analyzed via both qualitative and quantitative research methods. For the purpose of the qualitative study, 44 (resp 66) study participants were marijuana users and retailers recruited at North-Central Florida (resp in the Czech Republic), with the use of respondent-driven sampling. Inclusion criteria into the study was the use of marijuana in the last 12 months. Semi-structured interviews, that took 80 minutes on average, followed an interview guide focused on marijuana use, sharing, purchases, sales and growing, with extensive probes on activities of respondents` "friends", as they defined them. As for the quantitative data, marijuana market modules from two representative general population surveys on substance use were used (CS 2008, NSDUH). METHODS: Qualitative data were analysed with the use of inductive analysis, and were framed into institutional economics theory. Quantitative data were analyzed with the use ordinary logit models. FINDINGS: The study has shown remarkable impact of drug policies on cannabis markets via comparison between the Czech Republic and the U. S. (North-Central Florida). The study findings suggest that users' definitions of friendship include expectations for behavior that sustain the distribution chain within the marijuana markets. Respondents provided definitions of friendship that contained norms on marijuana sharing and reciprocation, purchases for friends, and introduction to the dealer - for whom the term "friend" has been used as a synonym in most cases. In quantitative analysis, acquistion through a friend made significant reduction of price at last purchase in the U. S., approaving the hypothesis that friendship can be an effective institution to reduce transaction costs on the market. In the Czech Republic, such analysis was inconclusive. This demonstrates that the importance of friendship might be higher in countries where drug prohibition is more severe. CONCLUSIONS: Punitive drug policy provides incentives to shrinking the market into social networks, and like that, it imposes harms on users in terms of decreasing control over their substance use can criminal risks (larger amounts purchased, and the risk of detection to regular citizens, who serve as middlemen on the market without an intention to make profit). For more precise estimates, further surveys shall distinguish between different modalities of friendship, and between different product types.
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Cooperation model for architecture and integration areas
Rubeš, Milan ; Jandoš, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Havlíček, Zdeněk (referee) ; Zuzák, František (referee)
In today's economics, medium and large-size companies are trying to gain a competitive advantage from specialization and centralization of supporting services. This trend affects also areas of enterprise architecture and integration where they establish particular teams to support the disciplines in regular manner. Despite a lot of research activities oriented towards these topics, there are only a few focusing on organizational aspects and cooperation between enterprise architecture and integration teams. As the companies are on different levels of the maturity in both areas and focusing on different aspects of architecture and integration, there is no simple solution that could provide detailed guidelines for establishing the right cooperation approach. Goal of this dissertation is to propose a cooperation model for architecture and integration teams that should make cooperation between such teams more efficient. Integral part of the dissertation is to verify the model in real environment. The model is built on top of integration activities performed either in enterprise architecture or integration teams or both. These activities are categorized into particular integration areas and relations are identified between integration areas and architecture areas defined according to TOGAF architecture framework. The resulting model is then being used to depict various kind of cooperation between architecture and integration teams based on the companys' integration goals. Verification of the model is performed in financial enterprise in two cases and confirms the benefits of the model.
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Methodology of building IS in service-oriented architecture environment
Hauptvogl, Roman ; Buchalcevová, Alena (advisor) ; Matiaško, Karol (referee) ; Richta, Karel (referee)
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) together with Enterprise Architecture (EA) has became a main essence on the way to improve an alignment between business and IT representatives. The result of this alignment should be an increased efficiency of delivering IT projects in the company. Last decade it was the number one declined word in many companies. But most of them found out that SOA did not bring them expected results. The thesis deals with the methodology of building information systems and information and communication technology (IS/ICT) in SOA environment. It is a part of the research plan of the Department of Information Technologies of University of Economics in Prague. The main objective of the thesis is to extend the methodological framework MeFIS2 to add methodical pattern "Building IS in service-oriented architecture environment". In the analytical part of the thesis are presented and analyzed selected methodologies and standards focused on service orientation with aim to assist in the implementation of SOA into companies. A large amount of such methodologies and standards have been unveiled what leaded to a confusing information labyrinth. It's one of the reasons why standardization organizations gradually began to issue additional standards and methodologies to assist in the proper implementation of SOA into companies. The main part of work is to extend methodological framework MeFIS, so that it can be used to create a methodological pattern for building IS/ICT in SOA environment. The result of this section is to achieve the main goal to create a methodological pattern "Building IS in service-oriented architecture environment". In the practical part is the proposed methodological pattern applied in the real case study in the environment of telecommunication operator.
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