|
|
Long-term Unemployment . The Burden of the Czech Labour Market
Hněvkovský, Jan ; Mertlík, Pavel (advisor) ; Lešanovská, Jitka (referee)
This thesis focuses on the long-term unemployment in the Czech Republic. The first part is devoted to methodology of measuring the unemployment. In particular, it focuses on differences between rate of unemployment published by ČSÚ (Eurostat) and rate of registered unemployment which is published by MPSV. The content of the second part is demography of the Czech Republic, especially features which are relevant to structural restrictions on labor market. Hence, the educational and age structures of the Czech Republic are analysed. The third part is divided into two sections. The first section deals with the long-term unemployment at the aggregate level. At first, evolution on the labor market in the last two decades is outlined. Then the structural and cyclical unemployment are separated from the overall unemployment. At last, flexibility of the labor market is examined. The logic of the microeconomic section lies in analysing strategies of long-term unemployed. The thesis ends with the conclusion offering the summary of the gained results. 1
|
|
|
The Institutional Analysis of Banking Reforms in Vietnam
Nguyen Quang, Dung ; Mertlík, Pavel (advisor) ; Levely, Ian Vandemark (referee)
The main goals of the bachelor thesis is an institutional analysis of the banking reform in Vietnam. The author analyzes how the banking reform influences the institutional development. Modern institutions require flexible and efficient rules, both formal and informal. Hence, a legal framework is analyzed as well especially as to whether the de jure banking legal framework corresponds with the de facto one. Liberalization and internationalization of Vietnamese economy has a big impact on the development of the banking sector. Albeit institutions are de jure well developed they are not sufficiently efficient due to the inability of enforcement of laws, lack of confidence, and corruption in the banking sec- tor. Vietnam has chosen the right direction but the establishment of efficient institutions has to go hand-in-hand with the change of informal rules. Since the diffusion of information is limited due to lack of codification of laws, connections relationship and informal rules play a crucial role in the banking sector. Infor- mal rules are deeply entrenched and tenacious, and hence difficult to change in the short time. 1
|
|
|
Modeling of government spending and endogenous tax rates in New Keynesian models : the case of Czech Republic
Zelený, Tomáš ; Stráský, Josef (advisor) ; Mertlík, Pavel (referee)
The topic of fiscal policy has been long neglected in terms of fiscal policy's interdependence with other main macroeconomic variables. Presented thesis therefore analyses the validity of different fiscal policy models for the case of Czech Republic. Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) framework is used throughout the thesis. Different fiscal policy rules are put into otherwise identical - benchmark - model and the models are compared to each other and to the benchmark model. The analysed fiscal policy models are an acyclical, counter- cyclical, two pro-cyclical and dichotomous spending models. We find that the most plausible fiscal policy rule is of pro-cyclical type and closely follows the model of Alesina et al. (2008). The model assumes that interest groups can steal part of government income through corruption and voters cannot observe it, so they demand maximum fiscal spending in the good times. The logic of this model is in accordance with the current state of fiscal and economic behaviour in Czech Republic.
|
|
|
Institutional Factors affecting Investment Inflows in Transitional Countries
Donu, Victoria ; Mertlík, Pavel (advisor) ; Mlčoch, Lubomír (referee)
This thesis investigates the relationship between institutional quality and the level of investment inflows in transitional countries from Central and Eastern Europe. We try to empirically verify the argument that institutional determinants are important in explaining the behavior of investment inflows in transition economies after 1990's. The role of institutions is being assessed using Worldwide Governance Indicators developed by Kaufmann. Consequently, in order to investigate the institutional quality progress specific for transition economies, we employ indicators developed by European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Applying a panel-data set for ten countries in a period between 1996 and 2010, we conclude that there is a significant impact of institutional quality on investment inflows. In the regression benchmark performed with Kaufmann indicators, we managed to observe an indirect effect due to the fact that the information available on institutions is already incorporated in the macroeconomic variables. In the regression benchmark considering EBRD indicators, we managed to report a clear significance of the institutional determinants on the level of foreign investments. Keywords Foreign Direct Investment, Institutions, Institutional Determinants, Central and Eastern Europe,...
|
|
|
Financial stability and the impact of instability on the real economy
Havránek, Štěpán ; Hlaváček, Michal (advisor) ; Mertlík, Pavel (referee)
This thesis focuses on the problematic of financial stability - its maintenance and the detection of possible sources of instability. In the first theoretical part, a summary of the role of financial stability for properly working financial system is followed by identification of threats to stability and historical examples of instability. The thesis continues with an analysis of the recent subprime crisis. In the second empirical part, vector autoregression is used to estimate interconnections between financial instability indicators. This is followed by impulse response analysis. Although some assumed relationships are affirmed, their scop does not answer the fundamental question: why do values of these indicators change so vigorously during the time of distress.
|
|
|
Ekonomická sladěnost České republiky s eurozónou ve světle finanční krize
Hájek, Jan ; Mertlík, Pavel (advisor) ; Cingl, Lubomír (referee)
This paper deals with the issue of synchronization of the Czech economy and the economy of the eurozone. The OCA theory which is key theoretical basis for the analysis contained in the paper is briefly described in the first part. In the second part cyclical and structural synchronization is evaluated by the means of correlation coefficients of the development of GDP, industrial production, inflation and interest rates. The obtained results show sufficient level of synchronization, impacts of the financial crisis also rather contributed to the current level of synchronization. Arguments for and against synchronization are discussed in the third part as well as mutual dependency of the both economies. Two quarters time lag of the Czech GDP growth rate behind the eurozone is discovered in the pre-crisis period. At the end OCA- index for the Czech Republic is recalculated, the value of the OCA-index for the Czech Republic is the lowest among tested countries.
|
|
|
Three essays on Joseph Stiglitz, information asymmetry, and credit rationing
Pospíšil, Martin ; Mertlík, Pavel (advisor) ; Čech, Jan (referee)
This thesis contains three essays related to the work of economist Joseph Stiglitz. The first essay describes the contribution of Stiglitz to economic theory by analysing problems of information asymmetry, new Keynesian and institutional economics, rationality, and market theories. Shortcomings of neoclassical economics are described and possible solutions are outlined. The last part of this essay summarizes the main critique of Stiglitz's work. The second essay applies the topic of information asymmetry by discussing whether the current level of economic development leads to convergence or divergence in the technology and information levels. The conclusion is that even though globalisation affects the level of technology and information, we do not see convergence as predicted by several theoretical models and information asymmetry remains an important element in the economy. The last essay links the Stiglitz-Greenwald theory of credit rationing using recent Czech data from years 2007-2009. Data confirm that credit rationing increases, information asymmetry increases, and the transmission mechanism does not function well during economic decline. I conclude that Czech banks increase their screening of clients and consequently credit rationing in the times uncertainty leading to ambiguous development...
|
|
|
Supervision of the Integrated European Banking Market
Trpčevski, Ivan ; Mertlík, Pavel (advisor) ; Vacek, Pavel (referee)
The aim of the thesis is to analyse the Europe-wide banking supervision. The thesis points out the problems and shortcomings of the pre-crisis framework, analyses mutually competitive proposals for change that emerged during the crisis and possibility of their implementation. It incorporates the appraisal of adopted legislative changes prepared by the European Commission and their impact in this context. Therefore, core of the thesis is a pre- crisis fragmented supervision and the European System of Financial Supervisors adopted in November 2010. The thesis points out the need to address fiscal issues along with the supervisory setting. Despite a very narrow focus of the thesis, it is characterized by a holistic approach. The topic of banking supervision at the level of the European Union is considered in a much broader institutional context, in the context of the integration of the banking sector during the past 30 years, and the latest financial crisis, as well. The thesis is evolutionary. It points out that there is no institutional form of efficient banking supervision. The process of institutional change, leading to the achievement of efficient supervision of the banking sector, is perceived rather as a long-run, in-depth process. It follows institutional changes in a much broader context than...
|
|
|
Smoking - impact on the state budget and its fair taxation
Hait, Pavel ; Mikolášek, Jakub (advisor) ; Mertlík, Pavel (referee)
The paper addresses the impact of smoking in the Czech Republic in 2009. The aim is to describe the current facts and trends of tobacco consumption, assess the mortality attributable to smoking, compute its financial impact on the Czech state budget, evaluate the transmission of tax changes into the retail price of cigarettes, assess consumer price elasticity for cigarettes, and compute a fair excise tax on cigarettes for the Czech Republic as well as the tax which would maximise the benefits of smoking for the state budget. For our purposes, we define fairness as a situation in which there is no net redistribution of state budget funds between two groups of citizens: non-smokers and smokers. Smokers create benefits (for example, savings on pensions due to their earlier deaths) and costs (for instance, increased health care costs) for the state budget. We search for a tax rate that would balance smoking-associated costs and benefits. Furthermore, we also compute the tax which would maximise net revenues from smoking to the government. We realised these findings for the Czech Republic, 2009: we observed that there were 22,013 deaths attributable to smoking. About 2.281 billion cigarettes were sold illegally. The costs to the state budget caused by smoking were estimated to 30,547 million CZK,...
|
|
|
Cross-Border Contagion: An Empirical Analysis of the Current Financial Crisis in Central and Eastern Europe
Žáková, Kristýna ; Geršl, Adam (advisor) ; Mertlík, Pavel (referee)
The objective of this thesis is to examine cross-border contagion effects during the 2007-09 crisis in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and from all the possible propagation channels, it chooses to focus on cross-border bank loans. It tries to discover which global and local factors had significant influence on the changes in bank loans from banks in source (lending) countries to banks, as well as households, corporations and government in host (borrowing) countries. The main research method is a panel data regression model. The empirical results suggest that both local and global factors had influence on the changes in cross-border loans, i.e. helped to spread the 2007-09 crisis to CEE. The significant local factors were macroeconomic and financial characteristics of both source and host countries, such as their GDP growth differential, interest rate differential, FDI, or profitability and health of the banking sector. The significant global factors were the expected market volatility and investors' risk appetite/aversion which was an indicator of "pure" contagion. The main contribution of this thesis lies in its focus on CEE and the analysis of investors' behavior based on their changing risk appetite.
|
guest ::
