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Price Level Convergence and Real Exchange Rate Determinants in the New Member States of the European Union
Pospíšilová, Andrea ; Holub, Tomáš (advisor) ; Princ, Michael (referee)
Differences in price levels as well as inflation rates among countries have been subject of discussion for a long time. More than the actual levels, however, the question of determinants of price levels in time and a possible convergence is key for the new member states with respect to the Maastricht criteria. The dynamics of price levels is crucial, and many suggestions have been put forward to explain the observed trends and changes. This thesis focuses on the determinants of relative price level, and hence real exchange rate, developments in the new member states of the EU and employs a regression analysis to examine their change in time. As most of the countries in focus are transition economies, structural variables are also included among the independent variables. We find that the Balassa- Samuelson effect is key to explaining real exchange rate developments as the effect of productivity differential has been significant over the whole period examined. However, in the recent years, marked by the onset of the crisis, other factors, such as the structure of trade and Euro area membership, have become more prominent.
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Informed Trading on the Prague Stock Exchange
Doležal, Tomáš ; Parrák, Radovan (advisor) ; Princ, Michael (referee)
Subject matter of this thesis is the problem of informed trading on the Prague Stock Exchange. This topic is developed in two directions. First one is empirical analysis of informed trading, which makes use of unique dataset which includes trading in XETRA and SPAD. This dataset enabled the author to compare change in measures of informed trading in respective trading systems. For this comparison models PIN and VPIN are used, the latter for the first time in Czech academic research. Model PIN brings the result that the probability of informed trading has significantly decreased following the transition to XETRA. On the contrary, results of VPIN metric suggest that measure of toxic liquidity has slightly increased. Second one is economic analysis of law. On the basis of economic insight two regulatory issues are identified - the problem of inside information and conflict of interest in case of market makers. Legal analysis has brought two key findings - problem of inside information is the result of incomplete implementation of european legislature and the conflict of interest is attributed to its improper treatment, based on the concept of fiduciary duties, which are hard to enforce in this particular case. Proposal how to fix these problems suggests "chinese wall" as the solution which would...
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Relationships between Corporate Governance and Firm Performance: Effects on Czech Export Oriented and Financial Industries
Habiňák, Ladislav ; Princ, Michael (advisor) ; Jašová, Martina (referee)
The thesis describes effects of corporate governance on firm performance and managerial income of firms from sectors important for Czech GDP: financial sector and export-oriented manufacturing industries. Added value of the work comes mostly from the fact that it concerns Czech firms and especially that it studies the two sectors using econometric method as well as it compares them on graphs and tables. There are two main topics for hypotheses testing. Firstly, the thesis investigates effects on firm performance, measured by proxy variable return on equity, by sizes of executive boards and firms. Secondly, the effects of performance as well as companies and boards sizes on managerial income are studied.
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Analysis of the Natural Gas Market during the Period of Deregulation - A Comparison of Selected European Countries
Mirková, Barbora ; Mikolášek, Jakub (advisor) ; Princ, Michael (referee)
The liberalization of gas markets is in the European Union and especially in its new Member States a current topic. This thesis is devoted to a comparison of the liberalization processes in three Central European countries - the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. The thesis first introduces the concepts of public and natural monopolies, the specific characteristics of gas markets and the legislation of the European Union that underlies the liberalization. Further, the thesis takes a close look at the developments in the gas markets of the three countries. The focus lies mainly on the national legislation, opening of demand side and changes in the market structure, including unbundling, new entrants and supplier switching. The final chapter of the thesis analyzes and compares the progress in liberalization of the individual markets by calculating the market concentrations using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index.
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Comparison of Stock Market Volatilities in Central Eastern Europe and South Eastern Europe
Petrovski, Dragan ; Horváth, Roman (advisor) ; Princ, Michael (referee)
The thesis offers a study on the stock market volatility in the countries of Central Eastern Europe and South Eastern Europe. We provide a univariate GARCH modeling of the stock market indices PX, BUX, and WIG from the CEE region and CROBEX, BELEX-15, and MBI from the SEE region. Additionally, we present a bivariate GARCH models in order to examine the volatility transmissions and spillovers from the European equity market to the equity markets in CEE and SEE. Our results suggest higher persistence of volatility in the CEE countries than in SEE countries, significant leverage effect more evident in the CEE region than in the SEE region, and high synchronization in the volatility between the CEE equity markets and the European equity market. The multivariate GARCH results reveal certain statistically significant but small volatility spillovers from the European equity market to the equity market in Hungary, Poland, Serbia and Republic of Macedonia. The CEE equity markets record higher conditional correlation coefficient than the SEE countries towards the European equity market. In general, the CEE equity markets are a relatively homogenous group in terms of volatility, while the SEE equity markets are a diversified group in terms of volatility with low synchronization and correlation with the...
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Econometric test of euro adoption impact on German and Czech exports: the costs and benefits of Eurozone membership in the trade sector
Hyžíková, Mirka ; Benáček, Vladimír (advisor) ; Princ, Michael (referee)
The purpose of this study is to find the influence of common currency on the international trade development. The study deals with the Rose effect, which says, that the currency unions increase trade by more than 200%. This thesis designes an extended gravity model of international trade where the economic characteristics of countries are combined with institutional and policy factors of trade, such as the EU common policies, impacts of the Euro or trade agreements and other factors, which lowers the transaction costs of trade, such as the quality of infrastructure. The thesis also deals with the data structure influence on the results of the estimation of gravity models and shows the problem which is not in common literature noted. Compared to the common research, this thesis focus in detail only on Czech and German exports.
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Analysis of Interdependencies among Central European Stock Markets
Mašková, Jana ; Baruník, Jozef (advisor) ; Princ, Michael (referee)
The objective of the thesis is to examine interdependencies among the stock markets of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Germany in the period 2008-2010. Two main methods are applied in the analysis. The first method is based on the use of high-frequency data and consists in the computation of realized correlations, which are then modeled using the heterogeneous autoregressive (HAR) model. In addition, we employ realized bipower correlations, which should be robust to the presence of jumps in prices. The second method involves modeling of correlations by means of the Dynamic Conditional Correlation GARCH (DCC-GARCH) model, which is applied to daily data. The results indicate that when high-frequency data are used, the correlations are biased towards zero (the so-called "Epps effect"). We also find quite significant differences between the dynamics of the correlations from the DCC-GARCH models and those of the realized correlations. Finally, we show that accuracy of the forecasts of correlations can be improved by combining results obtained from different models (HAR models for realized correlations, HAR models for realized bipower correlations, DCC-GARCH models).
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Influence of sports on smoking and consumption of alcohol
Michlian, Štefan ; Princ, Michael (advisor) ; Hrbek, Pavel (referee)
This paper focuses on the meaning of sport for present people. All motivations which lead them to practise sport are stated. We consider the trend of decreasing volume of physical activity in population especially in developed countries and the total social costs because of this trend. We analyse the investments opportunities of health system in promoting physical activity and how much these methods are cost-effective. Furthemore the meaning of sport as prevention before socially undesirable phenomena is examined, particularly smoking of cigarettes and consumption of alcohol We present the previous studies which were done in this topic. The methodology of survey, questionnaire survey in theory and in practice is described. In the last chapter gained data are analysed with OLS method, Tobit model, probit model and interval regression. Pros and cons of these models and results are commented.
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Austrian Business Cycle Theory and Its Application to Modern Economic Crises
Skala, Jakub ; Janotík, Tomáš (advisor) ; Princ, Michael (referee)
Business cycle that appeared in the US between 2002 and 2009 caused serious economic turmoil which affects the economic development until today. This paper examines the ability of Austrian business cycle theory to explain the cycle. The theory claims that disequilibrium on market for loanable funds appears after monetary expansion. As a result, interest rate does not correspond to individuals' preferences, which induces distortion in relative prices, capital misallocation, and unsuitable structure of production. The inevitable market correction then incurs economic recession. First, the paper describes the methodological origins of the theory and then summarizes its main principles. The description of the US economy during the examined period follows. At the end, the theory is confronted with reality. Although there are some minor differences between predictions of the theory and the actual development of the US economy, it can be concluded that Austrian business cycle theory can help us explain the recent business cycle.
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