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Live Stories of Nuns, who Were Working in Social Care Institutions before the Year 1989
Němcová, Marcela ; Vaněk, Miroslav (advisor) ; Hlaváček, Jiří (referee)
This thesis is focused on the life stories of four nuns of St. Vincent de Paul during the period of communist administration in Czechoslovakia. Between the years 1948 and 1989 the communist government persecuted all orders, whether male or female, confining their members in internment camps where they often were not provided even the most basic needs. The communist regime also prevented the orders from their activities and forbade them to accept new members. The most important part of this paper consists of the four life-stories of nuns - stories which tell us why they decided to join the order during this particular period which was so very unfavorable for the orders, then they depict how the regime was treating them and how they were actually able to survive these difficult times. To be of aid to others is among the highest priorities for nuns, and thus, they were able to endure this period without a single hateful word against their occupiers. They accepted it as their destiny, knowing that they had to work in terrible working conditions and were forced to do strenuous physical labor. This thesis uses the method of oral history - interviews with the nuns of St. Vincent. The opening chapters serve as a supplement to this information and were compiled on the basis of available literature. Last but...
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The life afterwards. The return of Czechoslovak political prisoners to society.
Vránková, Ivana ; Bouška, Tomáš (advisor) ; Hlaváček, Jiří (referee)
The Master's thesis "The Life Afterwards. The Return of Czechoslovak Political Prisoners to Society" is concerned with the topic of the re-integration of Czechoslovak political prisoners of the 1950s back into society after their release from prison. In the conceptual framework I provide the political and historical background of the Communist Czechoslovakia during the 1950s. I discuss the concept of political prisoner and describe the living conditions in prisons and labor camps. As observed from their narration, I also briefly outline the various strategies employed by political prisoners in their attempts to deal with imprisonment. Although the descriptions of the respondents' arrests and events that had led up to them are topics not directly concerned with the primary topic of my thesis, they are included, because they are vital in understanding the existential and other re-integration-related problems these prisoners faced. In my research, I employ the qualitative method of oral history. I focus on the time period when the interviewees were released from prison and try to describe the numerous issues they faced and had to deal with. More specifically, I focus on family and friendship relations, which had been often disrupted and the issue of seeking a new employment, an area of life in which...
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Central banking: political opportunism or economic necessity?
Donelle, Justin ; Cahlík, Tomáš (advisor) ; Hlaváček, Jiří (referee)
Throughout history, at multiple times, countries have implemented central banking systems by monopolizing currencies. The following study looks at key indicators such as bond yields, central bank legislation and free banking era legislation to identify whether changes were due to economic necessity or political opportunism on the part of politicians. The study will analyze 5 countries, most notably Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, United States and Scotland, all of which have had a free banking period and can shed some light on the topic of transition from a free banking system to a centralized monopoly. The comparison draws light on the diverse problems and challenges that arose, most notably finding that in the majority of cases, government intervention caused the banking system to become unstable and help governments to engage in large debt financing under the central banking era. Keywords: Free Banking; Rent-Seeking; Comparative Banking Systems; Central Banks; Political Economy of Monetary Institutions JEL Classification: B53, E02, E42, E44, F59, N13, N14, N11, N12, N21, N22, N23, N24
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Financial Globalization and Macroeconomic Volatility: an Empirical Study of the Effects of Foreign Bank Presence on the Volatility of Consumption and Growth
Casula, Chiara ; Cahlík, Tomáš (advisor) ; Hlaváček, Jiří (referee)
Financial integration has been at the centre of a wide debate, especially with respect to its effects on stability, inequality and welfare. This thesis presents an empirical investigation on the relationship between financial integration and macroeconomic volatility. The present study takes advantage of the publication of a new database on integration in the banking industry, and estimates its effects on the volatility of output and consumption, on a set of 136 countries over the years 1996 to 2009, using regions and country fixed effects. The analysis focuses on the effect of foreign bank presence on macroeconomic volatility, and as a further application, on the effect of foreign bank assets on macroeconomic volatility. Furthermore, the present study will determine whether the findings change for Central and Eastern European Countries and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The main finding is that foreign bank presence is significantly related to the volatility of output, but it is not related to the volatility of private consumption growth. The original contribution of this paper is to empirically analyse data on foreign bank presence as proxies for financial integration, and to relate them to the volatility of output and consumption.
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Economic rationale of private donors
Miklovičová, Katarína ; Hlaváček, Jiří (advisor) ; Turnovec, František (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to analyze motivation of companies to support social, environmental and development projects. The analysis is focused on Central European companies, namely the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. In the empirical part of the research interviews with selected companies and non-profit organizations are conducted. By interviewing both sides we can see how both donors and main recipients view the motivation behind the support. Afterwards, the relationship between supporting social, environmental and development projects and long term financial performance is examined. Coefficients are assigned to each company according to their involvement in the three categories - social, environmental and development. As measures of financial performance we choose stock market returns, which are then regressed on the three coefficients and selected control variables. The regression results show that supporting development projects tends to have a positive influence on companies' stock market performance. We do not confirm that supporting social and environmental projects improves stock market performance of companies. This outcome suggests that supporting development projects is a win-win situation for both companies and non-profit organizations. Companies can improve their...
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The impact of the Swiss-EU relationships on the Swiss banking secrecy
Burkhard, Mike-David ; Cahlík, Tomáš (advisor) ; Hlaváček, Jiří (referee)
Switzerland and the European Union share common values and have peaceful and well functioning economic and political agreements. Nevertheless, the Swiss banking secrecy is definitely a thorn in the EU's flesh, especially because of tax fraud or money laundering. Since the existence of the Swiss banking secrecy it has been associated with holocaust money, tax evasion, potentates' money etc. and also has been confronted with espionage attacks by foreign authorities and various other disputes. Recent global events have shed light on the Swiss banking secrecy's wider international agenda. A newly debate about the Swiss banking secrecy started with the global economic crisis and the Euro crisis. Finally, not a day goes by where there is no report or article in the media regarding the banking secrecy, the Swiss banks and its issues concerning the European Union or the United States. This writing focuses on the relationship between Switzerland and the European Union which is affected by Swiss banking secrecy: By explaining the history and importance of the Switzerland as a financial centre, its banking secrecy and the differences to other systems, possible issues and conflicts can be outlined. This thesis covers existing issues with EU member states. What regulations and restrictions were enforced by the...
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Altruism in economics
Zdeněk, Jakub ; Štika, Pavel (advisor) ; Hlaváček, Jiří (referee)
In this thesis I set up an alternative approach to the phenomenon of altruism. I point out current dominant economic approaches imperfections and presenting alternative approach to this phenomenon based on psychological motivation for altruistic behaviour. This approach attaches importance to social nature of man. It deals with altruism through relational goods which represent human relationship in economics. It allows to describe altruism and avoid dominant economical approaches imperfections. Social nature of man and Relational Goods are characterized by reciprocity in interpersonal relationships. That is an important part of common life, but it is unreachable with an individualist methodology of mainstream economics.
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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. JEL Classification: D11, D12, D91, E21 Keywords: Consumption, Life-cycle, Household Behavior,...
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Analysis of the institutional environment in the context of small business tax-evasion in Russia
Lopatina, Anastasia ; Cahlík, Tomáš (advisor) ; Hlaváček, Jiří (referee)
In this work we make analysis of the tax evasion practices which have become widely used by the small and medium enterprises in the Russian transitional economy. Taxation has always been the issue best describing relations between state and private business; in Russian economy taxation has come to characterize specificity of interactions between authorities at different levels of government and businessmen. We look at the current situation through the theoretical framework provided by the neoinstitutional theory which allows us to consider data and facts collected on the problem through the perspective of institutional change. By employing analytical tools of the neoinstitutionalism we consider tax evasion as a part of evolving institutional environment. Persistence and prevalence of the schemes used by small businesses to avoid payment of full tax liabilities leads us to qualify the current situation as an institutional dead-lock or in other words inefficient socio economic equilibrium: tax-evasion is seen as an illegal activity by the state and development-hampering by businesses, nonetheless the practice persists for decades. We consider that institutions are promoted and supported by different groups united by common socio-economic interest, therefore to describe and analyse this situation we identify...
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Assessing language value in the EU: a new approach to a lingering barrier
McFarlin, David ; Cahlík, Tomáš (advisor) ; Hlaváček, Jiří (referee)
The European Union has a significant task in managing the issues which arise from having 23 official languages. Preferences for language are diverse as are abilities. Further despite EU efforts in promoting multilingualism some criticism still prevails. The European Monetary Union is seen through the barriers present to mobility and the realization of a optimum currency area. Data on over 130 countries is presented as well for an index and model of language value. Finally I propose a policy which works within the trilingual intentions of the EU while geared towards the economic incentives language can provide. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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