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Who saves or does not saves the Energy - uncovering the Reasons for Practising Energy - saving Activities in Households
Holá, Veronika ; Ščasný, Milan (advisor) ; Jeřábek, Hynek (referee)
The thesis "Who saves or does not save the energy: Uncovering the reasons for practicing energy-saving activities in households" identifies the segments which tend to (not) perform selected household energy saving activities and discover the reasons behind the (non) practicing these activities. The author uses both quantitative and qualitative approach. By quantitative approach, the author analyzes data from pilot project PURGE in order to identify segments which are more likely to do selected activities. Emphasis is placed on class position. The author's own qualitative survey by semi-structured interviews identifies the reasons behind this activities. Generally, the author discovered that the upper classes practice energy- saving activities more often than the lower classes which is consistent with findings that lower classes tend to perform habitual behavior and rely on technology and upper classes tend to calculate and study the effect of these activities. Among lowest educational category are (compared with other educational groups) more people who leave always or often turned on the television or radio, even when no one is watching. Women state more likely than men that they never turn down heating when leaving home for more than four hours, what corresponds to findings that arise from...
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Somewhat cloudy with a chance of sunshine: Analysis of renewable energy generation support schemes
Bízek, Jan ; Ščasný, Milan (advisor) ; Kracík, Jiří (referee)
Support for electricity generation from renewable energy sources is one of measures aimed at switch of European economies from fossil fuels to renewables. In the past a lot of attention was paid to the theoretical assessment of different support schemes, however, analysis of the empirical data on those schemes is somewhat lacking. This thesis analyses assessment of two types of support schemes in three countries on empirical data. The main contribution of this work is (i) expansion of previously used methodology that analyses relationship between investments into electricity generation from renewable energy and the net present value of such investments, and (ii) inclusion of the Czech Republic into the list of observed countries. JEL Classification E61, O31, O33, O38, Q28, Q42 Keywords renewables, RES-E, photovoltaics Author's e-mail jbizek@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail milan.scasny@czp.cuni.cz
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Analysis of Milk Consumption in Czech Households
Smutná, Šarlota ; Ščasný, Milan (advisor) ; Parrák, Radovan (referee)
Analysis of Milk Consumption in Czech Households Abstract: Food is the one of the basic human needs. Its place in human life cannot be substituted and it also constitutes a significant part of daily expenditures. The goal of this thesis is to analyse the consumption behaviour of Czech households with respect to food, especially milk. The assessment was carried out using budget survey data from 1993 to 2011 which were collected by the Czech Statistical Office and include approximately 3,000 households for each year. First, the food is analyzed. The development of income of Czech households and their expenses on food are described and the Engel law is verified. The second part focuses on the liquid milk only. The object of analysis is to determine the characteristics of households which influence the probability of milk purchase through a probit model with socio-demographic variables. The consumption of milk is described and then the main topic follows. It is the estimation of milk demand elasticities. Brief results are the income elasticity 0.3 and own price elasticity -1.1. Keywords: food, demand, consumption, households, milk
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The Distribution and Utilization of Health Services in Ghana before and after the Introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme.
Ankomah, Kwadwo ; Ščasný, Milan (advisor) ; Chytilová, Julie (referee)
The introduction of Hospital Fees Regulations (LI 1313) in popularly called "cash and carry" in 1985 made it mandatory for fees to be charged at the point of service delivery. This almost made health care in Ghana beyond the reach of the poor. Realizing the effect of the "cash and carry" on the poor, the then government in 2003 came out with the National Health Insurance Policy to make health care services accessible and equitable to all Ghanaians especially the poor and the vulnerable in the society. The government has invested a lot of money in the NHIS in an effect to make more accessible to the poor. The general perception of the Ghanaian populist is that NHIS is more accessible to those are well to do because they live in cities and towns closer to the NHIS offices and health facilities to the detriment of the poor who are mostly found in the rural areas. This study is focused on the level of involvement of the poor in the National Health Insurance scheme to ascertain if the desired aim of making health care equitable and accessible to the poor is being achieved.
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Shadow Price of Air Pollution Emissions in the Czech energy sector - Estimation from Distance Function
Rečka, Lukáš ; Ščasný, Milan (advisor) ; Klimešová, Andrea (referee)
This thesis employs a parametric input distance function that incorporates both desirable and undesirable outputs to provide a more complete representation of the production technology. Based on the Shephard (1970) theory of duality, we derive the shadow prices of undesirable outputs in the Czech energy sector on the data over the period 2002 - 2007. The medians of our shadow prices estimates are 8374, 1198, 2805, 6051 and 8549 € per ton of PM, SO2, NOx, CO and VOC, respectively. We decompose shadow prices estimates and test the hypotheses that the marginal abatement cost decline over time; that marginal abatement cost rice with the declining emission level; and that marginal abatement cost rice with declining emission rate. Key Words: shadow prices, distance function, undesirable outputs, marginal abatement cost JEL classification: C61, D24, Q53
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Energy Efficiency of Appliances in Households in Central and Eastern Europe
Titizov, Marko ; Ščasný, Milan (advisor) ; Vyležík, Tomáš (referee)
This paper examines factors associated with awareness of the EU energy labels of household appliances and the factors associated with the choice of appliance energy class using a dataset of 2136 households in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania. The results for five major appliances indicate that household knowledge of energy use increases label awareness, while households with a large share of elderly decrease label awareness. Factors that influence awareness of energy labels have a limited impact on appliance energy class choice. Significant country differences also exist. Romania shows higher household propensities to be aware of the energy class of appliances than Czech Republic, while Bulgaria shows lower propensities of label awareness compared to the benchmark of Czech Republic.
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Gross domestic product as a welfare index : beyond GDP
Baletka, Martin ; Cahlík, Tomáš (advisor) ; Ščasný, Milan (referee)
This thesis demonstrates that the gross domestic product, invented to measure market economic activity is often wrongly re-interpreted as welfare of well-being index. Further, it describes the on-going discussion about possible replacement of the gross domestic product as it does not reflect future needs. The thesis is not intended to invent new measure, but rather to describe and sum up the most interesting ideas and think-tanks around the world to provoke further discussion on the topic. Additionally, selected alternative indices are introduced and compared to the gross domestic product. And last but not least, selected alternative approaches like subjective well-being and gross national happiness are present.
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Water quality valuation (case study of Máchovo jezero)
Škopková, Hana ; Ščasný, Milan (advisor) ; Kameníček, Jiří (referee)
This thesis estimates the benefits of water quality improvement on Macha Lake using the contingent valuation method. The aim of this thesis is to show the main problems related to the application of the contingent valuation method in general and in the Czech Republic. First, the methodology of contingent valuation is described in detail. Since the case study on Macha Lake deals with the valuation of improvement of eutrophicated water body, the main issues regarding the water quality are discussed with a special focus on the problem of euthrophication. Following part summarizes selected attitudes towards the application of contingent valuation method on freshwater quality in foreign countries. It focuses on studies that value similar hypothetical product as the survey on Macha Lake. Main differences are identified in the attitudes towards the definition of the good to be valued. Based on this summary the survey on Macha Lake is assessed critically. The aim of this survey is to estimate the benefits that the improvement of water quality on Macha Lake presents for the local households. This change is defined as an improvement in water quality by one and by two classes on five-class water quality scale. The structure and organisation of the survey is introduced as well as its parts, outlining the solution of...
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Reaction of household energy demand to improvements in energy efficiency : What about the rebound effect?
Rubínová, Stela ; Mikolášek, Jakub (referee) ; Ščasný, Milan (advisor)
Energy efficiency improvements have become a major hope for decoupling the energy demand from economic growth and for achieving environmental goals. Nevertheless, effectiveness of policies based on promoting energy efficiency may be undermined by behavioral responses. More efficiently produced energy service becomes cheaper and economic theory then suggests that consumers should demand more of it, which will cause a loss of the potential technological saving. The phenomenon is called the rebound effect and it has become a focus of energy economists since early 80s. However, even today there is no clear consensus on its importance. Quantification of the rebound effect is mainly hampered by poor data availability and the comparison of results is not straightforward due to methodological differences. Our thesis concentrates right on the economic theory of the demand for energy services, definitions and methodology of its estimation. It provides a comprehensive overview of what was done in the domain and suggests which methodological approaches correspond the most to the economic theory.
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Combining carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation : possible way to protect rain forests
Baďura, Tomáš ; Ščasný, Milan (referee) ; Melichar, Jan (advisor)
Despite the fact that forests and rain forests in particular are known for being a source of various goods and services tropical deforestation, mostly happening in developing countries, is still way over the sustainable rate. Nevertheless, due to the massive potential in reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and its importance in biodiversity conservation, rain forest are increasingly expected to play an important role in both conservation and climate change mitigation activities. Moreover, it might be possible to combine both these ecosystems services together in a synergistic way which would benefit each other. This paper will examine these issues, especially from the biodiversity conservation perspective.
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