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Measuring the Index of Constructive External Engagement: ICEE for the Czech Republic
Svitáková, Lucie ; Janský, Petr (advisor) ; Votápková, Jana (referee)
In this thesis we compute the Index of Constructive External Engagement (ICEE) for the Czech Republic. First, we introduce the theory of the index and discuss its differences with Commitment to Development Index from which ICEE originates. Second, we find the necessary data and compute the score of ICEE for the Czech Republic. Third, we discuss the overall result and subsequently the score of each component separately. Finally, we create an original comparison of ICEE with other related works to ascertain its current data validity. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Global Imbalances Reflected in the Eurozone's Accounting
Pleticha, Petr ; Janský, Petr (advisor) ; Paulus, Michal (referee)
In this study I investigate the discrepancies between net investment income and development of net international investment position of the Eurozone. To examine these discrepancies, I use the concept of dark matter which enables quantification of such discrepancies. This study has two goals: to present an alternative view on the development of net international investment position in the Eurozone, and to test validity of the dark matter concept by inspecting its interaction with main economic driving forces such as exchange rate or energy prices. Previous research was mainly focused on the United States and did not study dark matter in broader economic context. To date, no systematic analysis has considered the origins of dark matter behavior. The results indeed present the stocks of dark matter behaving in predictable manner, although, contrary to my expectations, they seem not to be connected with exchange rate. The Eurozone's international investment position adjusted for the stocks of dark matter looks also more optimistically, pushing the concerns about global imbalances aside. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Sophistication of European Union's Exports
Benešová, Šárka ; Janský, Petr (advisor) ; Semerák, Vilém (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to provide the assessment of trade-quality relationship for European Union. This thesis is beneficial as it answers the question if quality substantively affects traded volume and economic development in EU. Further, it should be helpful to decision making procedure concerning international trade as it identifies exported product characteristics which can lead to faster economic growth. This thesis verifies whether export sophistication positively influences traded volume in 27 members of the EU (Luxembourg is excluded due to limits in data) in year 2013. The most recent innovations in quality measurement and estimation technique, the quality index and two stages of gravity model of international trade are applied in this thesis to be the most accurate and up-to-date as possible. This thesis confirms that sophistication in EU presents significant factor of products and the rise in quality helps to more intensive trade and can result in faster economic growth. The result was checked for possible biases in two specifications, in single country and industry level estimations. The importance of quality for trade was supported in all these concretizations.
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Distributional Effects of Inflation in the Czech Republic
Linhartová, Petra ; Janský, Petr (advisor) ; Křehlík, Tomáš (referee)
Consumer price index captures the changing costs of the consumer basket of a typical household. Despite differences in spending patterns, change in con- sumer price index is used as a measure of inflation for the whole population. The aim of this thesis is to assess how close to the official inflation rate house- holds are and determine which groups have significantly different inflation. Using the Czech data from the Household Budget Survey over the 1990-2012 period we calculated specific inflation for each household in our sample. We first found out that on average only two thirds of households are close to the official inflation rate, which led us to the construction of subgroup price indices. In the empirical part, we examined the effect of household characteristics on inflation by applying the fixed effects estimation. We found that low-income households, pensioners, households in urban areas and households with few members have higher than average inflation.
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Growing Role of Switzerland in Commodity Trade
Sláma, Ondřej ; Janský, Petr (advisor) ; Fišerová, Tereza (referee)
Growing Role of Switzerland in Commodity Trade Ondřej Sláma Abstract This thesis assesses causes and consequences of Switzerland becoming the world's leading commodity hub. In both the replication and the extension of existing esti- mates, I find support for the hypothesis that Switzerland declares unusually higher (re-)export prices for commodities which are also on average under-priced as devel- oping country exports to Switzerland. The transfer pricing manipulation process implies a potential capital loss for commodity exporting countries along with other movement of either illicit or illegal financial flows. The highest annual estimate of $117 billion loss for developing countries trading with Switzerland suggests substan- tial issue in times of development aid turmoil. I attribute such grievous matters to Switzerland's low effort to meet international norms of international trade and trade transparency. The transfer pricing manipulation might also serve as a vehicle for money laundering, terrorist financing, corruption, or tax and tariff evasion and avoidance, as the data imply. JEL Classificiation F14, F23, F39, F62, F63, O24 Keywords illicit financial flows, transfer pricing manipulation, transparency, commodities Author's email slama.ondrej@gmail.com Supervisor's email jansky.peta@gmail.com 1
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The Effect of Taxation on Education in Poor Countries
Vraná, Veronika ; Janský, Petr (advisor) ; Břízová, Pavla (referee)
Primary education raises not only the welfare of individuals, but society as a whole. Most of the primary education is financed by state, whose main source of revenues is taxes. Therefore, I aim to capture in this thesis the relationship between taxation and primary education outcomes. I expect that with higher taxes, education expenditure will increase, which should improve the outcomes of primary education. I study this relationship using panel data on low- income and middle-income countries. I try to find the best model and I analyse the changes of outcomes caused by different specification or different indicator for education or taxation. The research finds a moderate effect of taxation (especially income taxes) on education. However, the results are not robust to changes of indicator or specification.
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Microeconomic Analysis for Evidence-Based Policy
Janský, Petr ; Bauer, Michal (advisor) ; Blundell, Richard (referee) ; Galuščák, Kamil (referee) ; Schneider, Ondřej (referee)
This dissertation thesis is focused on the microeconomic analysis of public policy in the Czech Republic. It consists of three parts, the first two parts deal with the analysis of tax policy; the third part of this thesis is focused on inflation differentials. The first chapter deals with the analysis of value added tax. The rates of value added tax (VAT) have recently changed in the Czech Republic, and I simulate the impact of these reforms. They are an example of changes in indirect taxes that change the prices of goods and services, to which households can respond by adjusting their expenditures. I first estimate the behavioural response of consumers to price changes in the Czech Republic by applying a consumer demand model of the quadratic almost ideal system (QUAIDS) on the basis of the Czech Statistical Office household expenditure and price data for the period from 2001 to 2011. I derive estimates of own- and cross-price and income elasticities for individual households. I then use these elasticities to estimate the impact of the changes in VAT rates that were proposed or implemented between 2011 and 2013, on households' quantity demanded and government revenues. One of the main findings is that the estimated increases in government revenues that take the consumer responses into account are...
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Social learning among Ghanaian cocoa farmers: Choosing the optimal amounts of inputs
Švenka, David ; Janský, Petr (advisor) ; Havránek, Tomáš (referee)
In this thesis I inspect learning about adoption of technologies among cocoa farmers in Ghana, which are represented by non-labor inputs, particularly by fertilizer and hybrid seeds. Earlier research focused mainly on learning about returns associated with adoption of such innovative inputs. However, it is not clear whether the adopters learn about these returns or rather about what are the optimal amounts of these inputs. Therefore the focus of this thesis is to examine how do the farmers choose and learn about optimal amounts of inputs. Cocoa farming is very labor intensive, and thus this thesis concentrates on learning about both non-labor and labor inputs, which are closely connected. Similar research carried out in India suggests that heterogeneous returns among farmers might cause that the farmers rely rather on their own considerations than on observation of behavior of their village neighbors, i.e. social learning. The heterogeneous returns are also present among the Ghanaian cocoa farmers, which suggest that these farmers should similarly prefer individual learning over the social one. Using a model developed for estimation of the prevailing type of learning about the optimal amount of inputs, I show that the farmers do tend to prefer individual learning in case of the non-labor inputs but rather...
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Effective and Nominal Corporate Tax Rates
Kučerová, Jana ; Janský, Petr (advisor) ; Čornanič, Aleš (referee)
i Abstract The main objective of this thesis is to provide the reader a basic knowledge about the issue of effective and nominal corporate tax rates. The theoretical part is concerned with the different approaches to the effective tax rates and with the corresponding methods of their calculation. The main contribution of the thesis presents the empirical part, which tries to assess the real corporate tax burden of Czech companies. The data required for the computation were collected according to PX stock-index and we applied the methods of backward- looking micro approach. The obtained results were subjected to a thorough analysis. In fact, the companies taking part in the research pay on average the income tax 17,07% in the period 2008-2012, which is significantly lower than the nominal tax rate 19%. Although the current academic literature reports about steadily declining effective tax rates, it does not correspond to our results. The reason for this might be caused by the nature of micro method used, that reflects the sensitivity of the economic cycle's development. The observed period in the research coincides with the time of the world economic crisis, that may inflict an undesirable bias. JEL Classification F15, F23, F43, H25 Keywords statutory corporate tax rate, effective corporate tax rate, micro approach,...
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Inflation targeting and inflation perceptions: an empirical analysis
Klubíčková, Kateřina ; Horváth, Roman (advisor) ; Janský, Petr (referee)
In this thesis we examine the effect of introduction of inflation targeting as a monetary policy regime on the difference between actual inflation and perceived inflation. Perceived inflation is used in the analysis in contrast with previous research, because inflation perceptions are extracted from consumer surveys conducted in individual European Union countries on the whole population sample and thereby enable us to examine the effect that the introduction of inflation targeting has across the whole population. A panel data set of 19 European Union members and 1 candidate, including 7 inflation targeters, is used in the analysis, with monthly information from the period beginning in January 1990 and ending in December 2012. Based on the analysis using fixed-effects model with specific dummy variables to capture the difference-in-differences element, we find that inflation targeters experience lower differences between actual and perceived inflation and that the difference between actual and perceived inflation decreases after the introduction of inflation targeting. Furthermore, various groups divided according to socio-economic characteristics of the consumer survey respondents tend to be affected in a different way by the introduction of inflation targeting, although to a limited extent. JEL...
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