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Analysis of Youth Smoking Behavior
Horvát, David ; Melzochová, Jitka (advisor) ; Čermáková, Klára (referee)
This thesis focuses on an explanation of youth smoking on the basis of basic demographic indicators and family background. The analysis also includes behavioral economics concepts: discounting and over-optimism. Data were obtained by original survey. For an analysis of smoking of youth and rate of discounting are used logit models. Impact of factors is interpreted by marginal effects at the mean. One of the most important findings is that adding one more year to father´s education decreases probability of offspring´s smoking from 32 % to 27 % and adding one more year to mother´s education increases probability of offspring´s smoking from 32 % to 38 % ceteris paribus. Improving performance in school decreases probability of youth smoking. Variable smoker is not significant in models explaining discount rate of future free time and health. Thesis confirmed connection of over-optimism and discounting.
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Overoptimism - implications for law and economics
Lišková, Adéla ; Vostrovská, Zdenka (advisor) ; Stroukal, Dominik (referee)
The bachelor thesis focuses on one of the behavioral biases - optimism bias or overoptimism - which existence is documented in findings of behavioral economics. The thesis introduces behavioral economics as an economic movement criticizing neoclassical economic theory, put oveoptimism in the broader context of its findings and further demonstrates the consequences of overly optimistic expectations in selected areas of human decision-making which deals with the economic analysis of law in contrast to the conclusions which can be arrived by assuming rational agent. In the context of approach of Chicago Law and Economics, based on neoclassical economic theory, and by assuming a perfectly competitive market, the thesis concludes that while in case of rationality the maximum efficiency is achieved by internalization of externalities, overoptimism cause a deviation from the optimum even if externalities are internalized.
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The influence of the IKEA effect on a value of good
Sedlická, Monika ; Vokoun, Marek (advisor) ; Nikolovová, Pavla (referee)
In 4 experiments in which students assembled IKEA boxes, built LEGO-like construction sets and folded origami I demonstrate and examine the IKEA effect, which is defined as consumers' willingness to pay more for self-created products than for identical products made by others. I show that their increased valuation is led by the feelings of competence associated with self-created products and that affirming consumers sense of self decreases the value one derives from his creations. I found that students value more their labor only when labor results in successful completion of task regardless of whether they are "do-it-yourselfers" or not. I did not observe the IKEA effect in particular case of origami.
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Are Czechs superstitious or the effect of Friday the 13th in accidents on Czech highways
Koucká, Lucie ; Hronza, Martin (advisor) ; Rod, Aleš (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to find out whether Friday the thirteenth as a chosen representative of the superstition has an influence to the number of traffic accidents in the Czech Republic. The hypothesis that is being verified is that on Friday the thirteenth, drivers will be more cautious resulting in less accidents. Based on the five year long time series the model is estimated using the ordinary least squares with robust standard errors where the endogenous variable is daily number of car accidents. The exogenous variables are Friday the thirteenth, the public holidays, the precipitation, the average daily temperatures and the gas prices. The "Friday the thirteenth" variable turned out as statistically non-significant. Based on the results of the econometric analysis we can reject the hypothesis of this thesis. This conclusion was further confirmed by the results of the survey conducted.
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Hledání spojitosti - použití kvantitativní textové analýzy ke zhodnocení vlivu textu na výsledky grantových programů
Valeš, Miroslav ; Bruckner, Tomáš (advisor) ; Ircing, Pavel (referee)
Since software and hardware is well available for automated text analysis and since a large data that describes real projects submitted to grant program is opened up, there is a possibility to follow phenomena of behavioral economics and psycholinguistics which evidence particularities in textual descriptions may be statistically associated with a reader's behavior or with a reader's decision-taking, which, in this case, involves an influence on final allocation of grant funds. The thesis uses forenamed areas as a starting-point and also employs quantitative indicators from the field of forensic linguistics in order to perform a computer-aided quantitative text analysis. The main goal is to evaluate from correlation perspective, if there in real operational programmes were present any associable relationships between the quantitative features of a proposed project's textual description and the amount of grant allocated to a project. The thesis is divided into four chapters, where it introduces basis, describes analyzed data and used methods, comments on made analyses and found relations, and all the performed research is summarized and evaluated in the last chapter.
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Filosoficko-metodologické problémy ekonomie: projekt ekonomické fenomenologie
Svoboda, Miroslav ; Schwarz, Jiří (advisor) ; Loužek, Marek (referee) ; Klamer, Arjo (referee)
In recent years, the economic approach to human behavior has been challenged by contributions of cognitive science. Thus two methodological strands in economics disagree with each other: the objectivistic approach favors the methods of natural science; the subjectivistic approach takes the teleological structure of human action as its cornerstone. It is argued that the position of the latter has been undermined and often degraded to a mere instrumentalist tool because it builds upon the primitive version of the teleological structure. Its deeper realist analysis is needed, which is the task for economic phenomenology: it identifies invariant pragmatic structures of human action, with various degrees of their anonymity. If the economic approach is founded on those structures adequately, then both rational choice theory and bounded rationality theories become compatible, as they differ in their degrees of anonymity only; they both belong to the body of the (subjectivistic) economic approach to human behavior. Economic phenomenology also offers a solution to the phenomenon of inconsistency of human action which is documented by cognitive sciences as a proof of human irrationality. The thesis shows that once the decision maker's description of the choice is allowed, inconsistency may disappear. Consistency is a matter of thinking, not acting. Therefore, a conceptual analysis of human thinking is needed. An example of the analysis is presented. It concentrates on the phenomenon of Self and works up the concept of the horizontality of Self. With this concept, inconsistency of human action is derived as a natural characteristic of our being-in-the-world. Inconsistency of human action is a pragmatic structure of human action, which even allows the decision maker some intentional control.
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Phenomenology and Economics
Špecián, Petr ; Pavlík, Ján (advisor) ; Loužek, Marek (referee) ; Muller, Karel (referee)
The thesis Phenomenology and Economics is an account of methodological possibilities brought by the phenomenological method into the realm of economic thought. From the starting point of Misesian praxeology the thesis advances to the key contributions of Alfred Schütz whose concept of telescopic ideal type enables us to cross the gap between theory and history. Telescopic ideal type allows us to grasp the specific nature of economics that is, on the one hand, proud of its rigor and precision connected with the formal modelling and on the other hand deals with an interpretation of individual agents in their life-world. Methodological insights developed through this analysis are then applied to the problem of coordination and spontaneous order and to the question of the relationship between behavioral economics and rational choice theory.
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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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A Concept of Man in Economics
Műller, Jan ; Chalupníček, Pavel (advisor) ; Doležalová, Antonie (referee)
This diploma thesis researches model of economic man, its historical background, and also modern critics of this concept and alternative approach to economic man, especially in behavioral economics. Human (im)perfection leads to the discussion about a range of liberty man should get eventually to which extent should a man be led by paternalism. Therefore this thesis introduces and tests concept of libertarian paternalism which is applied to drug issues. The thesis demonstrates that model of economic man is in many ways too simplified and insufficient. Thus, extention of this model with findings of psychology, biology and other sciences seems beneficial. Libertarian paternalism, despite few shortcomings, shows potential to be realisable and viable in certain situations.
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Psychology of pricing
Bimaj, Arjola ; Král, Petr (advisor) ; Olšanová, Květa (referee)
Price is the element of the marketing mix that has direct effect in the profits of a company. The right price can boost the profit and the wrong price can significantly shrink it. Thus, the businesses need to set the right price in order to maximize their revenues. However, the newest factors in the economic field, the continuous changes in the environment and the current financial situation in the world has eroded the pricing power and forces the managers to look in every direction in order to be able and keep up with the changes. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to study the psychology of pricing related to the factors that affect the consumers' psychology and behavior when it comes to purchasing decision. The information will be then useful inputs for the companies in order to understand these factors and use them to set the most suitable pricing method for their product.
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