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Fiscal rules in selected EU countries between 2004-2015: sensible method for consolidation of public finances or fad of politicians?
Veselý, Lukáš ; Strejček, Ivo (advisor) ; Chmelová, Pavla (referee)
The subject of fiscal rules is very topical issue. The rise of public debt in certain developed countries resulted in what is sometimes called "debt crisis". Debt of those countries which is higher than their annual gross domestic product is viewed as unpayable by some economists. The main objective of this thesis has been to prove or disprove hypothesis that the fiscal rules studied in this paper are an effective solution for public finance consolidation. This verification was based on the analysis of fiscal rules functioning in selected countries between 2004 and 2015. As per results of analysis the paper aims to give recommendations for the Czech financial constitution proposal. The actual results of inquiry proved the hypothesis. Well-chosen fiscal rules are the right way towards fiscal consolidation, provided they are observed. Fiscal rules making thus requires an emphasis to be placed on the well-formulated exit clauses altogether with prospective sanctions. The current Czech financial constitution proposal is built on the correctly picked fiscal rule type, although the reference value lacks economic sense and it would not lead, with a high degree of probability, towards fiscal consolidation.
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Products with Protected Designations of the European Union and Their Position in Regional Tourism
Licková, Kamila ; Kalábová, Markéta (advisor) ; Abrhám, Josef (referee)
The master thesis deals with products with protected designations of the European Union. The main objective of the master thesis is to evaluate the importance of the chosen product with protected designation of the EU in regional tourism and analyse the perception of the product by a producer and by tourists. The sub-objective is the description of the European system of food labelling. The thesis is divided into five main chapters. The first part explains basic concepts which are related to the thesis. The second chapter introduces the best known food quality labels. Greater attention is devoted to the description of the food protection system of the EU. The third chapter deals with the characteristics of the chosen region Beskydy-Wallachia. The second part of this chapter is focused on the chosen protected product Štramberské uši. The forth chapter includes a structured interview with the chosen producer of Štramberské uši and a survey research, which was conducted in two phases. The last chapter contains the evaluation of the implemented survey. The main finding of this thesis is the fact that a relatively high percentage of respondents know the product Štramberské uši. An interesting finding is the fact that only a small portion of them know that the product Štramberské uši is the holder of the protected designation of the European Union. The chosen producer of Štramberské uši sees the main benefit of the label in greater publicity. Among problems he ranks the enforceability of the label and lack of general promotion of Štramberské uši.
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Use of Interest Rate Models for Interest Rate Risk Management in the Czech Financial Market Environment
Cíchová Králová, Dana ; Arlt, Josef (advisor) ; Cipra, Tomáš (referee) ; Witzany, Jiří (referee)
The main goal of this thesis is to suggest an appropriate approach to interest rate risk modeling in the Czech financial market environment in various situations. Three distinct periods are analyzed. These periods, which are the period before the global financial crisis, period during the financial crisis and in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and calming subsequent debt crisis in the eurozone, are characterized by different evaluation of liquidity and credit risk, different relationship between financial variables and market participants and different degree of market regulations. Within this goal, an application of the BGM model in the Czech financial market environment is crucial. Use of the BGM model for the purpose of predicting a dynamics of a yield curve is not very common. This is firstly due to the fact that primary use of this model is a valuation of interest rate derivatives while ensuring the absence of arbitrage and secondly its application is relatively difficult. Nevertheless, I apply the BGM model to obtain predictions of the probability distributions of interest rates in the Czech and eurozone market environment, because its complexity, direct modeling of a yield curve based on market rates and especially a possibility of parameter estimation based on current swaptions volatilities quotations may lead to a significant improvement of predictions. This improvement was also confirmed in this thesis. Use of swaptions volatilities market quotations is especially useful in the period of unprecedented mone- tary easing and increased number of central banks and other regulators interventions into financial markets that occur after the financial crisis, because it reflects current market expectations which also include future interventions. As a consequence of underdevelopment of the Czech financial market there are no market quotations of Czech koruna denominated swaptions volatilities. I suggest their approximations based on quotations of euro denominated swaptions volatilities and also using volatilities of koruna and euro forward rates. Use of this approach ensures that predictions of the Czech yield curve dynamics contain current market expectations. To my knowledge, any other author has not presented similar application of the BGM model in the Czech financial market environment. In this thesis I further predict a Czech and Euro area money market yield curve dynamics using the CIR and the GP models as representatives of various types of interest rates models to compare these predictions with BGM predictions. I suggest a comprehensive system of three criteria, based on comparison of predicti- ons with reality, to describe a predictive power of selected models and an appropria- teness of their use in the Czech market environment during different situations in the market. This analysis shows that predictions of the Czech money market yield curve dynamics based on the BGM model demonstrate high predictive power and the best 8 quality in comparison with other models. GP model also produces relatively good qua- lity predictions. Conversely, predictions based on the CIR model as a representative of short rate model family completely failed when describing reality. In a situation when the economy allows negative rates and there is simultaneously a significant likelihood of their implementation, I recommend to obtain predictions of Czech money market yield curve dynamics using GP model which allows existence of negative interest rates. This analysis also contains a statistical test for validating the predictive power of each model and information on other tests. Berkowitz test rejects a hypothesis of accurate predictions for each model. However, this fact is common in real data testing even when using relatively good model. This fact is especially caused by difficult fulfilment of test conditions in real world. To my knowledge, such an analysis of the predictive power of selected interest rate models moreover in the Czech financial market environment has not been published yet. The last goal of this thesis is to suggest an appropriate approach to obtaining pre- dictions of Czech government bonds risk premium dynamics. I define this risk premium as a difference between government bond yields and fixed rate of CZK IRS with the same length. I apply the GP model to describe the dynamics of this indicator of the Czech Republic credit risk. In order to obtain a time series of the risk premium which are necessary for estimation of GP model parameters I firstly estimate yield curves of Czech government bonds using Svensson model for each trading day since 2005. Resulting si- mulations of risk premium show that the GP model predicts the real development of risk premiums of all maturities relatively well. Hence, the proposed approach is suitable for modeling of Czech Republic credit risk based on the use of information extracted from financial markets. I have not registered proposed approach to risk premium modeling moreover in the Czech financial market environment in other publications.
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Impact of low oil and natural gas prices on the economy of Qatar since 2014
Šamánek, Ondřej ; Stuchlíková, Zuzana (advisor) ; Hasík, Gabriel (referee)
The bachelor thesis examines the impact of the oil and gas prices slump, which befell the world in 2014, on the economy of Qatar. The main objective of the thesis is to evaluate if and to what extend the price collapse influenced the relevant economic indicators and behaviour of the state and companies active in the affected field. The selected objective is examined using the method of data comparison, namely before and after the price slump, and with the help of the case study, in which the qatari company operating in the oil and gas is examined. From the conducted analysis it is possible to conclude that Qatar was directly influenced by the oil and gas prices collapse: its GDP slumped, fiscal deficit increased. The analysed company also experienced troubles caused by low prices: one year after the price slump, total amount of assigned tenders to company decreased substantially and historically high number of tenders was cancelled. Conclusions deriving from the thesis might be applied to other oil and gas export economies in the Persian Gulf, for fundamental traits of such economies are shared with the economy of Qatar.
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STRAIN ENGINEERING OF THE ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF 2D MATERIALS
del Corro, Elena ; Peňa-Alvarez, M. ; Morales-García, A. ; Bouša, Milan ; Řáhová, Jaroslava ; Kavan, Ladislav ; Kalbáč, Martin ; Frank, Otakar
The research on graphene has attracted much attention since its first successful preparation in 2004. It possesses many unique properties, such as an extreme stiffness and strength, high electron mobility, ballistic transport even at room temperature, superior thermal conductivity and many others. The affection for graphene was followed swiftly by a keen interest in other two dimensional materials like transition metal dichalcogenides. As has been predicted and in part proven experimentally, the electronic properties of these materials can be modified by various means. The most common ones include covalent or non-covalent chemistry, electrochemical, gate or atomic doping, or quantum confinement. None of these methods has proven universal enough in terms of the devices' characteristics or scalability. However, another approach is known mechanical strain/stress, but experiments in that direction are scarce, in spite of their high promises.\nThe primary challenge consists in the understanding of the mechanical properties of 2D materials and in the ability to quantify the lattice deformation. Several techniques can be then used to apply strain to the specimens and thus to induce changes in their electronic structure. We will review their basic concepts and some of the examples so far documented experimentally and/or theoretically.
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San Minn (or) An Artist who prefer creating and paintings than his life
Zeya, Pyin Nyar ; JANEČEK, Vít (advisor) ; VOJTĚCHOVSKÝ, Miloš (referee)
No one can control a painter artist’s freely thoughts and ideas and although his paintings were under the high pressure and banned by force, the artistic value of his materials never go down. So that I am writing this paper.
He, San Minn has broken out the mainstream of Burmese painting field, he never made business paintings as well. He keeps his belief on the art of paints and he is always finding for the new way to make his paintings. His materials are very different from other Burmese painter artists’ materials. His style is unique in Burmese paintings. So I can get a chance to study of his style, ideas, ways of thinking and his determination on the art works.
My paper can show a painter artist’s life who grew up under the military rule for 50 years and the situation and history of Burmese painting field. Then not only people who are studying the painting subject, but also other people can know about the subject of Burmese painting and field of artists. I dare say that my paper must be colorful and fruitful.
As a painter artist, it seems that he wants his audience to feel his materials but he rare to show his real life behind the pictures. For me, I can get a chance to know about his real life for my thesis paper.
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Thesis Statement
My thesis can be useful for everybody who is interested in Burmese contemporary art field.
This is the biggest chance to read about one of the most famous, important and significant artists and art movements of Burma. His paintings are reflecting his journey through over 40 years of censorship, but he was not afraid to tackle political and social issues.
Many of San Minn's art works are based on autobiographical, making sharp social commentary on the popular culture, social values and scenario circumstances where he has lived in.
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Nutrition and other factors, which have influence on the formation and prevention of colorectal cancer
BENEŠOVÁ, Lucie
The full title of my bachelor thesis is Nutrition and Other Factors Influencing the Development and Prevention of Colorectal Cancer. In the theory section of the paper I have concentrated on clarifying the term "colorectal cancer", its epidemiology, and furthermore, on diet and other risk factors concerning the development and prevention of this disease. In this theory section I have included information about screening tests for occult bleeding. I have addressed the key objectives in the practical section of the thesis. I had set two key objectives. The first was to research how well respondents were informed concerning diets beneficial in the prevention of colorectal cancer, and the second objective concentrated on assessing the respondents' behaviour in relation to the information they had acquired. The research questions were formulated thus: "How well are people informed about diets aimed at preventing colorectal cancer?" and "Do people behave according to information thus gained?" The qualitative research method a semi-structured interview was used for the research section. Ten male respondents over the age of 45 took part in the interview. Five of these males were Dr Ilona Paseková's outpatients all with a genetic disposition to colorectal cancer, with most experiencing problems related to this disease. The other five respondents were without any predispositions. After receiving answers to the questions posed to the respondents, I wanted to compare both groups in order to ascertain whether those with a genetic predisposition showed a greater interest in this disease. Furthermore, I wanted to find out whether those respondents were actively seeking information concerning the prevention or treatment of colorectal and anal cancer. All those interviewed were very open and willing to answer questions. Collection of data was carried out from January 2014 to March 2014. The conclusions of this thesis show that public awareness of colorectal cancer and its prevention is inadequate. Public awareness of diets beneficial in the prevention of colorectal cancer is markedly poor, even among high-risk respondents. Having observed this lack of awareness, I proceeded to question respondents as to their dietary and lifestyle habits. Furthermore, the respondents were asked if they were aware that colorectal cancer screening was available in the Czech Republic. The results showed that some respondents, however unaware of diets beneficial in the prevention of colorectal cancer, follow a healthy diet, thus fulfilling dieticians' recommendations concerning the prevention of this disease. When asked about preventive foods, respondents most often mentioned brassicas broccoli and cabbage, etc. Conversely, the most often mentioned foods said to increase the risk of disease were smoked meat and red meat. One respondent mentioned the preventive affects of shark cartilage. I was very surprised by this assertion and subsequently searched the internet for information relating to shark cartilage. To my surprise, I found that the respondent was indeed not mistaken, and that statements to that effect can be found on websites promoting dietary supplements containing shark cartilage extract. According to these sources sharks do not suffer from cancer and therefore, their cartilage is closely studied and dietary supplements containing its extracts are produced. Furthermore, I intended to compare two groups of respondents those with genetic dispositions and those without. After carrying out the respective interviews, their comparison appeared to be futile. In both groups I identified respondents who followed a healthy diet and lifestyle as well as those who did not. I found that there is no relation between high-risk habits and predisposition to colorectal cancer. Whether a respondent with such a predisposition decided to follow a healthy diet or change his dietary habits and lifestyle or not was purely a question of his personal preferences.
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