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Irrationality in the perception of money
Juhásová, Zuzana ; Chytilová, Julie (advisor) ; Želinský, Tomáš (referee)
Irrationality is a phenomenon that can be seen in every aspect of human life. In many cases people do not behave rationally in terms of economic theory and they often do not even realise it. This thesis aims at problem of irrationality in the perception of money and describes anomalies in rational decision-making. First, it introduces the topics that behavioural economics is concerned with and its place among other sciences. It brings the overview of history of behavioural economics and the most influential people that are responsible for its evolution. Next, it briefly summarizes the most common research methods used. After that, the concept of rationality is described, both from classical economics and behavioural points of view. The core of the thesis is the experiment that is an example of irrationality in the perception of money. Studies that examined this problem are presented. Finally, a conducted survey is presented, which detects the presence of irrational behaviour.
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Reexports and indirect exports of Visegrad countries to China via Germany
Wlazel, Marek ; Semerák, Vilém (advisor) ; Želinský, Tomáš (referee)
Export of Visegrad countries to China is not only direct but is often realized via third countries. Sometimes this export is simply reexported, sometimes it enters the domestic economy as an input in production of exports of the third country and then we speak about indirect export. Due to data availability, however, it is very difficult to accurately track these flows for every single product and therefore they must be estimated from national input-output tables. This paper calculates the reexports and indirect exports of Visegrad goods led through Germany, as it is the most dominant export destination of all the Visegrad countries and also the main exporter to China in the whole EU. The results show that the V4 exports to China in fact more than suggested by the official statistics. Attributing reexports and indirect exports via Germany increases total exports by 68%. Measured values also show that 55% of Visegrad exports to Germany are not intended to cover domestic consumption but for further exports. Keywords Export, reexport, indirect export, Visegrad countries, Germany, China, statistical discrepancies, Rotterdam effect, input-output analysis
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Estimating the elasticities of labour supply for SMEs in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Šabić, Ada ; Strielkowski, Wadim (advisor) ; Želinský, Tomáš (referee)
This Master thesis aims at testing the intertemporal substitution hypothesis (ISH) for small and medium enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We predicted a positive relationship between the hours worked and the transitory changes in wages, and tested the hypothesis using the data collected via surveys of small entrepreneurs in North-Western Bosnia and Herzegovina; collecting data on daily income and the hours worked. The estimated wage elasticities are positive and different from zero, according to which it appears that the hypothesis of negative wage elasticities has no empirical evidence in the case of Bosnian and Herzegovinian entrepreneurs. This result implies that the intertemporal labour substitution hypothesis found supportive evidence and that we can reject the daily targeting hypothesis. We also argue that entrepreneurs tend to pursue profits across working days because their main motive for running a business is the accumulation of capital and wealth, so that they follow the pattern of intertemporal labour substitution. The findings can be explained by an unfavourable business climate in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is a result of a long-lasting transition process the country is still undergoing. Keywords: labour supply, elasticity, intertemporal substitution, daily targeting, SMEs,...
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How do people perceive income inequality? A Czech case
Havelková, Kateřina ; Korbel, Václav (advisor) ; Želinský, Tomáš (referee)
The widespread concern that the gap between the rich and the poor is continuously ex- panding prompts the stimulus for further examination. Standard theory suggests that the level of income inequality has a significant effect on policies with redistributive elements. However, empirical studies propose that rather than the actual shape of income distri- bution, individual perceptions of income distribution define the public finance models. Individuals tend to misperceive income inequality, yet there is little evidence regarding the origins of these perception biases. The bachelor thesis examines one of the possible theories that attempt to explain roots of misperceptions. The geographic reference group theory suggests that people project their local findings onto their estimates of overall income inequality. To test this hypothesis, we used the Gini coefficient with respect to country's districts as an explanatory variable and the subjective inequality index (Per- ceived inequality index) as a dependent variable. The empirical findings, nevertheless, provide little support for the geographic reference group theory as all regressions showed a highly insignificant relationship between district inequality and perceived inequality. The evidence suggests that respondents, who live in districts with high...
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Local Development and Policies of Protectionism
Bělohradský, Aleš ; Benáček, Vladimír (advisor) ; Želinský, Tomáš (referee)
Economic situation in the Central Europe is to a big extent influenced by the disparities between core regions (mostly the capitals) and the rest. If the gap between cores and peripheries is still widening, local governments of peripheral regions must come up with policies to protect their economies from the globalised world. This basic statement is examined in this work using two different methods: regionalised input-output analysis (for Czech regions) trying to discover structural differences between regions and its implications, and NEG equilibrium simulation method examining agglomeration forces in the Central Europe and evaluating possible outcomes of protective policies in terms of NTBs (limiting the openness). The results confirm the agglomeration tendencies and suggest mainly two ways of effective policies: regional specialisation and investments into infrastructure, which would lower the transaction costs within the peripheral regions. NEG simulation method has serious limits due to the problematic calibration. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Shifting punishment on minorities: experimental evidence of scapegoating
Bauer, Michal ; Cahlíková, J. ; Chytilová, Julie ; Roland, G. ; Želinský, T.
This paper provides experimental evidence showing that members of a majority group systematically shift punishment on innocent members of an ethnic minority. We develop a new incentivized task, the Punishing the Scapegoat Game, to measure how injustice affecting a member of one’s own group shapes punishment of an unrelated bystander (“a scapegoat”). We manipulate the ethnic identity of the scapegoats and study interactions between the majority group and the Roma minority in Slovakia. We find that when no harm is done, there is no evidence of discrimination against the ethnic minority. In contrast, when a member of one’s own group is harmed, the punishment ”passed” on innocent individuals more than doubles when they are from the minority, as compared to when they are from the dominant group. These results illuminate how individualized tensions can be transformed into a group conflict, dragging minorities into conflicts in a way that is completely unrelated to their behavior.
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Gender Differences in Correlation between Social Relationships and Happiness: Cross-Country Analysis
Pashkina, Anastasia ; Chytilová, Julie (advisor) ; Želinský, Tomáš (referee)
This bachelor thesis examines gender differences in the correlation between social relationships and happiness and how these differences vary according to the Gender Inequality Index. The data from the World Values Survey and the Human Development Report for 48 countries are used. The analysis consists of three sections. The first section examines gender differences in the correlation between social relationships and happiness using two separate datasets for females and males. In the second section, the significance of the studied gender differences is explored using one overall dataset for females and males. In the third section, the countries are divided into groups according to the Gender Inequality Index, and separate datasets of each group are used to investigate whether gender differences in correlation between social relationships and happiness have different significance among the groups. The thesis finds that the gender differences in the correlation between specific determinants of social relationships and happiness exist and that for the countries with various Gender Inequality Index, the gender differences mentioned above have diverse significance.
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Essays on Poverty and the Socio-economic Behaviour of the Poor
Želinský, Tomáš ; Chytilová, Julie (advisor) ; Gangadharan, Lata (referee) ; Servátka, Maroš (referee) ; Reggiani, Tommaso (referee)
Tomáš Želinský: Essays on poverty and the socio-economic behaviour of the poor. Doctoral thesis. Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies. 2020, 134 pages. Advisor: doc. PhDr. Julie Chytilová, Ph.D. This doctoral thesis consists of three essays that address the topic of poverty and the socio- economic behaviour of the poor. In the first essay, we focus on an economic dimension of subjective well-being, studying how closely subjective perceptions of individual economic well-being are related to objective measures of real economic conditions as they change over time. Our results suggest that people react to general economic conditions to a limited extent, and do not immediately update their perceptions according to real conditions. The following two essays primarily focus on the socio-economic behaviour of poor Roma. In the second essay, we first aim to understand the role of parents and peers in the shaping of social norms adopted by children in relatively closed, poor mono-ethnic Roma communities. We show that, on average, children's norms are more correlated with those of their peers than with those of their parents. We also show that children's norms converge to their parents' norms until the age of around twelve-thirteen, which is when many Roma children...
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Population Characteristics of Voters: Evidence from the Czech Parliamentary Election
Černý, Jakub ; Janský, Petr (advisor) ; Želinský, Tomáš (referee)
In 2017, nine political parties were elected into the Czech Parliament, which is the greatest number in the history of the country. This thesis analyses the voter turnout and results of particular parties, using aggregated data on the municipal level. The goal is to find a spectrum of variables that would un- cover connections between the population characteristics of voters and their decisions to vote and to choose a political party. The method of weighted least squares is used for estimation and the results are tested for the presence of spa- tial autocorrelation. Subsequently, a spatial error model is used for the same analysis in order to observe spatial effects in the voting results and provide a comparison between the methods. There is found a significant negative con- nection between the voter turnout and the share of people facing distraints, unemployment, and the share of people with no education. Concerning the election results, the parties ANO, SPD, and KSCM receive greater support in municipalities with greater unemployment and lower shares of businessmen and people with university education. On the other hand, the parties ODS, Pirati, and TOP 09 evince exactly the opposite trends in these explanatory variables. JEL Classification H70, I21, I30, J10, J11 Keywords voting behaviour, voter...
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Anti-social behavior in groups
Bauer, Michal ; Cahlíková, J. ; Celik Katreniak, D. ; Chytilová, Julie ; Cingl, L. ; Želinský, T.
This paper provides strong evidence supporting the long-standing speculation that decisionmaking in groups has a dark side, by magnifying the prevalence of anti-social behavior towards outsiders. A large-scale experiment implemented in Slovakia and Uganda (N=2,309) reveals that deciding in a group with randomly assigned peers increases the prevalence of anti-social behavior that reduces everyone’s payoff but which improves the relative position of own group. The effects are driven by the influence of a group context on individual behavior, rather than by group deliberation. The observed patterns are strikingly similar on both continents.
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