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Energy profile of the Republic of Azerbaijan: recent developments and their impact on the European Union's energy security
Hajiyev, Shahmar ; Horák, Slavomír (advisor) ; Žídková, Markéta (referee)
This thesis will focus on Azerbaijan's oil and gas industry; how the country uses its energy revenues within its economy; how it avoids economic pathologies such as the "Dutch Disease"; Azerbaijan's role within the Caspian Basin, and finally, the European Union's energy security and how Azerbaijan's energy resources can impact it. The Republic of Azerbaijan is a natural resource-rich country, and uses its energy resources as a means of socio-economic advancement and stability. Recent developments within the country's natural gas sector have allowed Azerbaijan to become a net gas exporter. The EU's growing demand for energy resources illustrates how important it is for states to have access to secure, stable, and diverse sources of energy. Energy resource exploration and the subsequent export of these products to international markets play a crucial role for the Republic of Azerbaijan's economy. Therefore, this thesis will first provide a brief evaluation of the history of Azerbaijan's energy sector; an overview of the current situation and recent developments; and explore how energy revenues are being distributed in the economy. It will define the interests of other important actors such as Russia, Turkey and the USA; and finally, it will assess the EU energy security, the role of Azerbaijan as the...
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Diversification in Data Envelopment Analysis in finance
Macková, Simona ; Branda, Martin (advisor) ; Hurt, Jan (referee)
Title: Diversification in Data Envelopment Analysis in Finance Author: Simona Macková Department: Department of Probability and Mathematical Statistics Supervisor: RNDr. Martin Branda, Ph.D., Department of Probability and Ma- thematical Statistics Abstract: This thesis deals with an extension of data envelopment analysis and its application in finance. This method enables to evaluate the efficiency of cho- sen production units based on several inputs and outputs. Administrative fees or risk measures can be used as inputs and expected incomes of observed assets as outputs in financial application. We show basic traditional models in a form of a primary problem of linear programming and a dual problem as well and later compare with diversification models. It is suitable to deal with diversification which enables to consider dependencies between assets in case of finance and in- vestments. Than we get to nonlinear programming problem hence we introduce appropriate risk and return measures to make the problem solvable. Especially, we focus on the conditional value at risk. Next we introduce the model which deals with diversification. We use this on real data of chosen mutual funds. Keywords: Data envelopment analysis, Efficiency, Diversification, Conditional value at risk
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Diversity dynamics across scales
Macháč, Antonín ; Storch, David (advisor) ; Remeš, Vladimír (referee) ; Ricklefs, Robert (referee)
Charles University, Prague Diversity dynamics across scales Antonin Machac 2018 Abstract Diversity dynamics remain controversial. It has been suggested that the dynamics are expansionary, such that the number of species across regions and clades increases constantly. However, the opposite has also been suggested, namely that species numbers are relatively stable, following equilibrial dynamics. Both views (expansionary and equilibrial) have been supported by compelling phylogenetic, biogeographic, and fossil evidence and, currently, it remains largely unclear how the two seemingly conflicting views could be reconciled. My dissertation addresses this question, based on the premise that diversity dynamics change systematically with scale. Specifically, I hypothesize that expansionary dynamics typify regionally distributed, small, and young clades whose diversity tends to expand, driven by a variety of regionally relevant factors (e.g. habitat-level adaptation, biotic interactions, or montane shifts leading to ecological divergence and speciation). Conversely, equilibrial dynamics typify large, ancient, and globally distributed clades, whose diversity is environmentally limited (e.g. by the total amount of resources that can sustain only a limited number of populations and species). Consequently, it seems...
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Current diversification scenarios of the Russian Federation on one side and the V4 countries on the other with respect to the interdependence theory
Záhradníková, Lea ; Holubcová, Jitka (advisor) ; Kučerová, Irah (referee)
The thesis focuses on current diversification scenarios in the field of gas supply the Visegrad Group (V4) and the Russian Federation relying on the model of asymmetrical interdependence. Russian Federation, the main supplier of natural gas to this region, has lost its status of a reliable partner due to the gas wars with Ukraine in 2006 and 2009, which have negatively affected the supply of natural gas to the EU countries. The research focuses on the current diversification options of V4 countries related to their suppliers and supply routes with respect to their relationship with the Russian Federation; the diversification options for the purchasing markets of the Russian Federation are also analyzed. The author validates the hypothesis that energy relations among the Visegrad countries and the Russian Federation in the field of gas supply are largely controlled by the asymmetric interdependence that is currently exacerbating tensions among the set actors. Current diversification scenarios are presented and evaluated, with the aim of assessing the importance of the projects with regard to actors' energy security. Keywords: interdependence, energy security, diversification, gas supply, gas interconnector, V4, Energy Union, Russian Federation, Nord Stream II, LNG
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Bird diversity and diversification: Different processes converging to the same pattern?
Černá, Vladimíra ; Storch, David (advisor) ; Hulva, Pavel (referee)
Latitudinal diversity gradient is one of the oldest known trends in the distribution of life on the Earth. Scientists have been trying to find causes of its formation for more than two hundred years. There are several hypotheses suggested to explain this gradient. Recently, it is one of the main themes of discussion among ecologists and evolutionary biologists. By this Thesis, I will try to contribute to understanding of processes that generate the latitudinal diversity gradient. Particularly, I study if there is a relationship between ambient temperature and diversification rate. Is this relationship different for individual groups of animals? I choose birds as a model group. Specifically, these six families of birds: Accipitridae, Columbidae, Furnariidae, Picidae, Psittacidae and Strigidae. These groups include more than 1500 species. Each of them has the same universal gradient of diversity, with the highest diversity concentrated in the tropics. My objective was to find out, whether the universal gradients of bird's diversity had been shaped by the same historical processes. Or alternatively, whether different evolutionary trajectories had converged to the same gradients. The main outcome of my work is a discovery that some of the selected families diversified faster in warmer climates...
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European Real Estate Investment Trusts: Analyzing Correlation with a DCC-GARCH Model
Jílek, Jiří ; Jandík, Tomáš (advisor) ; Vácha, Lukáš (referee)
Bibliographic Record JÍLEK, Jiří. European Real Estate Investment Trusts: Analyzing Correlation with a DCC- GARCH Model. Prague, 2012. 50 p. Master thesis (Mgr.) Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies. Supervisor: Tomáš Jandík MA MSc MRICS. Abstract The main goal of this thesis is to study the interdependencies between returns of European real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other investment asset classes such as European equities, government bonds and commodities. The thesis is divided into two parts: in the first part, we describe the necessary background that led to the emergence of first REIT structures and also provide an overview of the European REITs market. In the second part, we apply the Dynamic Conditional Correlation GARCH (DCC-GARCH) model to examine correlations between the above mentioned asset classes. The general understanding of real estate is that it provides diversification benefits to a diversified portfolio. However, our results suggest that returns of European REITs and stocks show a relatively high correlation and more importantly, the correlation increases in time. These findings have significant implications for investors and portfolio managers who seek protection for their portfolios in time of market downturns. Our results...
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International assessment of higher education systems and institutions
Bartušek, Aleš ; Koucký, Jan (advisor) ; Ryška, Radim (referee) ; Šťastná, Věra (referee)
International assessment of higher education systems and institutions DISSERTATION (2022) Ing. Aleš Bartušek ABSTRACT The dissertation responds to a relatively new phenomenon related to significant transformations of higher education systems in recent decades. The gradual globalization, massification and diversification of higher education have undoubtedly led to a shift from the traditional concept and increased the global need for the availability of understandable and comparable information. That is why the first international assessments of higher education institutions began to appear. The aim of the dissertation was to analyse these newly emerging initiatives and contribute to the correct understanding and interpretation of published data. This has been achieved by monitoring major trends in broader context and by analysing the methodologies and results of the most significant global initiatives led by Academic Ranking od World Universities (ARWU), QS World University Ranking (QS) and THE World University Ranking (THE). Despite many limitations and criticisms, published international assessments of higher education institutions are the first efforts to identify and measure quality at a global level. They are also valuable in that they stimulate discussion on this issue. By discussing the significance,...
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Investment Optimization
Bujnovský, Daniel ; Bednář, Josef (referee) ; Popela, Pavel (advisor)
This work is focused on description of two models of mathematical programming - the network model and the Markowitz portfolio model, their connection and application in transportation problems. The goal of the practical section is to approach the description of these problems to the real situations and look for their efficient solutions at the same time. All of that is accompanied by examples on real data from capital market or own model data. The theoretical considerations and thoughts are implemented in programming language Matlab. All results are explained in context to both models. The thesis also includes the introduction to economical and statistical theory which is necessary to understand the problem.
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Portfolio Diversification through Investment in Stock Indices
Křižka, Adam ; Ryndová, Jitka (referee) ; Rejnuš, Oldřich (advisor)
The diploma thesis focuses on the design of suitable stock exchange indices for portfolio diversification. The essence and principle of functioning of financial markets and investment funds is presented. According to suitable indicators, stock exchange indices are analyzed and compared with the market. Suitable indices are verified by means of correlation analysis and subsequently recommended to diversify the portfolios of investment funds managed through the investment company.
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Risk aversion in portfolio efficiency
Puček, Samuel ; Branda, Martin (advisor) ; Kopa, Miloš (referee)
This thesis deals with selecting the optimal portfolio for a risk averse investor. Firstly, we present the risk measures, specifically spectral risk me- asures which consider an individual risk aversion of the investor. Then we propose a diversification-consistent data envelopment analysis model. The model is searching for an efficient portfolio with respect to second-order sto- chastic dominance. The crux of the thesis is a model based on the theory of multi-criteria optimization and spectral risk measures. The presented mo- del is searching for an optimal portfolio suitable for the investor with a given risk aversion. In addition, the optimal portfolio is also consistent with second- order stochastic dominance efficiency. The topic of the practical part is a nu- merical study in which both models are implemented in MATLAB. Models are applied to a dataset from real financial markets. Personal contribution lies in comparing the diversification-consistent data envelopment analysis model and model based on multi-criteria optimization, both with respect to second order stochastic dominance efficiency.
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