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Adolescents substance use : identifying factors influencing alcohol consumption among high school students in the Czech Republic
Mandelíková, Martina ; Strecker, Ondřej (referee) ; Pertold, Filip (advisor)
This bachelor thesis focuses on indicating the factors, which influence the participation in adolescent substance use. Possibly important factors are identified based on the previous researches dealing with the same topic. The effect of these factors is then tested with the empirical model. This thesis deals with a dataset from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs done at the Czech high schools among freshmen and juniors. Since the results in dependence on sex and class year are expected to be different, the regression is run separately. The most significant factors are for all cases: the smoking experience, the age of the first intoxication, and the share of friends who already consume alcohol.
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Children left behind: self-confidence of pupils in competitive environments
Federičová, Miroslava ; Pertold, Filip ; Smith, Michael
Early-tracking systems naturally divide many classes of 11 years old students into two groups:\nstudents preparing for exams to enter better schools and everyone else, who decide not to compete for selective schools. Utilizing TIMSS data and a follow-up study in the Czech Republic, which has an early-tracking system similar to other European states following the German model, we show that this environment has a detrimental effect on the self-confidence of pupils in mathematics who do not apply for selective schools but have peers in their classroom who do apply. In particular, we show that girls who do not apply for selective schools experience a 11% drop in confidence in mathematics if they have four applicants among classmates and this effect is even larger if the applicants are successful in the admission process. We focus on self-confidence in mathematics as an outcome variable because the literature suggests it is directly linked to pupils' motivation to study STEM fields as well as subsequent educational achievement. Our results suggest that the decrease in selfconfidence among girls is long lasting and implies that gender gaps in self-confidence can be a result of the competitive environment of the educational system.
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Divorces and women's income: initial findings for the Czech Republic based on individual data
Janský, Petr ; Pertold, Filip ; Šatava, Jiří
In most cases, divorce leads to a radical change in life situation with many consequences for both divorcees. Nowadays nearly half of all marriages in the Czech Republic end in divorce and so this has been and will continue to be part of life for a significant proportion of the country's population. The consequences of divorce are highly influenced by the division of labour within the couple prior to their separation. There is a high level of division in most Czech families. Women spend much more time caring for children, relatives and the home, while men are largely focused on paid employment. We estimate that married women aged 20 to 70 who are neither studying nor in receipt of an old-age pension would see their net incomes fall by 20 % if they ceased to share income within their household (e.g. as a result of divorce and separation). Households led by divorced women report some of the lowest incomes per household member. The average income in a female-led divorced household is one fifth lower than in married households and a quarter lower than in households led by divorced men. Divorced women are, however, more economically active than married women; this is probably a reaction to their loss of income following divorce. Nevertheless this difference could also suggest that women who are economically active are less attractive as partners (Bertrand, 2016).
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Self-confidence of a class and competition of the classmates for eight-year gymnasium
Federičová, Miroslava ; Pertold, Filip ; Smith, Michael
The Czech Republic belongs to a small group of European countries with an educational system that leads to a very early differentiation of pupils in schools according to their academic performance and socio-economic background. In the Czech Republic, 18% of pupils in the 5th grade apply for 8-year grammar schools (gymnasia in Czech) and go through the challenging process of preparing for entrance exams. Thus, on average 3 pupils in each classroom apply to these gymnasia, of which almost 2 pupils are admitted. Our analysis on data from a unique survey of schools shows that a presence of an extra classmate who is applying for gymnasia affects one’s self-confidence. The biggest negative impact we noted was in case of self-confidence of girls in mathematics. Decline in confidence (from the level in the fourth grade, that is before preparing for entrance exams) is about 7% of the student with at least two classmates who applied. As a control group, we use the class where no one has applied.
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What does (a lack of) transparency in public procurement lead to?
Palguta, Ján ; Pertold, Filip
In 2006 a simplified regime for awarding public contracts was introduced, by means of a special procedure for "below threshold" contracts. Its aim was to enable smaller contracts to be awarded in a simpler and more flexible way. However, this change began to reduce competition and transparency, and gave contract awarders freedoms they could easily abuse. For this reason, the original maximum threshold for contracts that could be awarded via the simplified procedure (20 million CZK) was reduced to half that amount in 2012. Introducing these thresholds led, among other things, to contracts' estimated values being manipulated, and to prices being artificially "inflated" towards the threshold. These behaviours were most frequently observed in the building sector. As the number of public tenders rises and their estimated values cluster more and more closely to the legal threshold for the simplified procedure, inefficiency increases, i.e. the difference between the estimated and actual price of the tenders increases. This difference is up to 15 percentage points greater than in open competitions.
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Public financing for pre-school places pays off: a cost and benefit analysis
Kalíšková, Klára ; Münich, Daniel ; Pertold, Filip
Countrywide statistics suggest that the long-term shortage of places in state preschool institutions (kindergartens) has become gradually less severe over the past few years thanks to population decline, and that in future there will be sufficient places available at pre-schools. Nevertheless at a local level demand is still far outstripping supply in many places, and this is unlikely to change as internal migration and other demographic changes continue. Our analysis of financial costs and benefits reveals that the shortage of places in preschools in the past decade has led to an undeniable net loss for the public budget. Our analysis demonstrates that the net gain to the public budget from every additional place in pre-school is on average 10,000 crowns per year. Public financial support for pre-schools would not result in a loss even under very conservative estimates. On the contrary, the net gains are in fact far higher if the indirect and long-term consequences of supporting further places in pre-schools are taken into account.
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The effects of transition to secondary school, alcohol consumption and peer pressure on youth smoking
Pertold, Filip
This study provides further evidence for the debate on a possible smoking ban in restaurants and investigates the influence of peer pressure on smoking habits and alcohol consumption among young people. Teenagers often start smoking on a daily basis after moving from primary to secondary school. The results of the pan-European survey ESPAD indicate that more than 40% of\nyoung people in the Czech Republic smoke, which is one of the highest rates in the EU. This study looks at pupils' transition from primary to secondary school in order to identify the role peers play in young peoples' decisions to start smoking. The results of this study show that new classmates play a key role in influencing male secondary school students, but not their female counterparts. If half the students in a class smoke, a student entering that class is 10% more likely to become addicted to smoking. Classmates' influence is greatest among secondary school students who regularly visit bars and restaurants and drink alcohol. This means that youth smoking is to a certain extent encouraged by drinking alcohol in bars and restaurants. In other words, a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, such as currently discussed, or stricter controls on the sale of alcohol to minors, could effectively reduce smoking among teenagers. The results also demonstrate that pupils' choice of secondary school has a significant knock-on effect not only on the skills and knowledge they gain, but also on smoking habits and their consumption of alcohol, which in turn affect their life expectancy and other health indicators.
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Economics of terorrism: Empirical analysis of the behavior of terrorist groups
Chovítek, Šimon ; Komrska, Martin (advisor) ; Pertold, Filip (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to empirically analyze the behavior of terrorist groups. In this work we tested the assumption of the model of rational choice in terms of terrorism. The empirical section combines theoretical predictions with observed facts and shows the terrorists as rational actors acting under uncertainty. The data used in the analysis orginate from databases GTD and RDWTI. Mean-variance analysis of portfolios of real attack of terrorist organizations suggests their ability to effectively optimize their activity and to reduce the risks to which they are exposed. Terrorists thus appears as rational agents able to react quickly to external influences. This largely affects the resulting impact of counter-terrorism measures taken when selectively targeted measures may lead to a mere transfer of terrorist activity to another destination.
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Analysis of the influence of selected qualitative characteristics on price apartments in Prague in the period 2007 -2012
Vinterová, Michaela ; Koubek, Ivo (advisor) ; Pertold, Filip (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to examine the influence of selected characteristics of sold flats (2007-2012) in Prague on the selling price. The analysis is made on group of similar flats of size 3+1 and 3+kk. Data consist of 1185 observations. I am using the hedonic price method to investigate the influence of selected variables. The results indicate that with rise in availability by 1% the price of flat decrease by 0, 13%, with rise of its size the price rise by 0,92%. The price of flats rise by 13% when the cooperative ownership change to personal ownership The change of construction materials from panel to bricks rise the price of flat by 23%, the reconstruction of bathroom rise the price by 5,7%. Other finding is that overall reconstruction rises the price by 11%. Garage increase the price by 24%. Finally the hypothesis that flat in the ground floor is negatively viewed and the price of flat decrease by 2, 5%.
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The Analysis of Impact of Regulations: A Dynamic Input-Output Model Approach
Šafr, Karel ; Sixta, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Pertold, Filip (referee)
This diploma thesis discusses utilization of dynamic Input-Output models as a basis for decision-making for policy makers. The first part is focused on theoretical derivation of the basic dynamic models. This part is followed by a practical application of the presented models, which proposes a method of deriving the matrix of capital and it facilitates the construction of data sources. The results show that the dynamic models are usable, but it is necessary to take into consideration their structural constraints and data limits. Data applied for 2009 show that the economic crisis has led to a 6% decline in GVA growth rates.
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