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The Housing Sector over Business Cycles: Empirical Analysis and DSGE Modelling
Brůha, Jan ; Polanský, Jiří
In this paper, we analyse the dynamics of the housing sector over business cycles. First, we provide an empirical analysis of the relationships between housing sector data and the main macroeconomic variables both on Czech data and on a sample of advanced economies. We document that in most countries the housing sector co-moves with the rest of the economy. In the past, the Czech housing market showed temporary episodes during which the housing sector was seemingly disconnected, but since 2005 the housing sector has become more cyclical. Second, we develop a cascade of increasingly complex DSGE models to assess the relative merits of each additional mechanism. Contrary to the popular framework with collateral constraints, we concentrate on the housing sector as an additional production sector via the standard supply and demand mechanisms. Our results confirm that these standard mechanisms are sufficient to replicate the observed comovements of housing market variables.
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Analysis of the EU regulations in the field of Information and Telecommunication technologies and their effect on the single market
Hart, Ludvík ; Procházka, Pavel (advisor) ; Strejček, Ivo (referee)
The bachelor thesis describes the EU regulations in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly the Digital agenda for Europe strategy. These regulations are then tested for their influence on the European single market. The major question answered here is whether the EU regulations in field of ICT have a positive impact on the EUs single market. Answer to this question helps us evaluate the ongoing Digital agenda strategy. The impact of the regulations is analysed by induction of the following indicators, international trade, ratio of population buying online, DESI index and NRI index. With this method it is possible to tackle the wide range of fields the Digital agenda covers. I conclude this work with the statement, that European ICT regulations do have a positive impact on the single market, although are problematic due to the slow legislative process and low efficiency in addressing the regulated issue.
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The impact of the economic cycle to finance the defense of the Czech republic in years 2004-2014
Heres, Ondřej ; Chmelová, Pavla (advisor) ; Strejček, Ivo (referee)
This bachelor work examines the impact of economic performance on financing the defense sector in the Czech Republic in the years 2004-2014. The main questions are whether this influence is clear and the extent to which is essential for funding this sector. The work also provides a basic overview about development and structure of the Ministry of Defence budget in these years. The theoretical part contains theories of business cycle and public sector and briefly introduces the basic institutions that are tasked to provide a defense. The analytic part analyzes the expenditures and revenues of the Ministry of Defence and assesses their mutual influence and simultaneously the influence of GDP on these indicators. To compare with previous findings, the GPD growth rate and the growth rate of defense expenditures in selected countries of NATO are analyzed in brief in the last chapter. While findings based on data from the Ministry of Defence have rather anticyclical development of defense expenditures, in selected countries of NATO, the development is more procyclical. It highlights the very ambiguous impact of the economic cycle on expenditures in the defense sector.
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Clustering and regression analysis of micro panel data
Sobíšek, Lukáš ; Pecáková, Iva (advisor) ; Komárek, Arnošt (referee) ; Brabec, Marek (referee)
The main purpose of panel studies is to analyze changes in values of studied variables over time. In micro panel research, a large number of elements are periodically observed within the relatively short time period of just a few years. Moreover, the number of repeated measurements is small. This dissertation deals with contemporary approaches to the regression and the clustering analysis of micro panel data. One of the approaches to the micro panel analysis is to use multivariate statistical models originally designed for crosssectional data and modify them in order to take into account the within-subject correlation. The thesis summarizes available tools for the regression analysis of micro panel data. The known and currently used linear mixed effects models for a normally distributed dependent variable are recapitulated. Besides that, new approaches for analysis of a response variable with other than normal distribution are presented. These approaches include the generalized marginal linear model, the generalized linear mixed effects model and the Bayesian modelling approach. In addition to describing the aforementioned models, the paper also includes a brief overview of their implementation in the R software. The difficulty with the regression models adjusted for micro panel data is the ambiguity of their parameters estimation. This thesis proposes a way to improve the estimations through the cluster analysis. For this reason, the thesis also contains a description of methods of the cluster analysis of micro panel data. Because supply of the methods is limited, the main goal of this paper is to devise its own two-step approach for clustering micro panel data. In the first step, the panel data are transformed into a static form using a set of proposed characteristics of dynamics. These characteristics represent different features of time course of the observed variables. In the second step, the elements are clustered by conventional spatial clustering techniques (agglomerative clustering and the C-means partitioning). The clustering is based on a dissimilarity matrix of the values of clustering variables calculated in the first step. Another goal of this paper is to find out whether the suggested procedure leads to an improvement in quality of the regression models for this type of data. By means of a simulation study, the procedure drafted herein is compared to the procedure applied in the kml package of the R software, as well as to the clustering characteristics proposed by Urso (2004). The simulation study demonstrated better results of the proposed combination of clustering variables as compared to the other combinations currently used. A corresponding script written in the R-language represents another benefit of this paper. It is available on the attached CD and it can be used for analyses of readers own micro panel data.
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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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Differences between men and women in the Czech labour market
Stroukal, Dominik ; Kadeřábková, Božena (advisor) ; Pavelka, Tomáš (referee) ; Němec, Otakar (referee)
This thesis consists of five articles that apply current world research on labor economics at the Czech Republic and confirms the significant differences between men and women in this market. It shows that gender has a significant influence on the preference on the labor market and, consequently, on employment and health. First, the thesis shows that preferences are relevant determinant of career and then we study the difference in preference of salary for men and women. Subsequently it shows that gender plays a significant role in explaining the relationship between homeownership, and unemployment, as well as unemployment and health. The first chapter was able to demonstrate that the preference for a career has a positive influence on the choice of career. The influence of higher education on prioritizing career proved to be positive and significant. Probability of a career choice is reduced by the presence of children, however, is not dependent on their number, which is contrary to the theory of preferences. The second chapter shows that Czech women prefer more non-monetary rewards than men. It has also been shown that people with university education are same in the preferences of non-monetary rewards regardless of the gender of the respondents, however, compared to the world's research, the Czech higher education increases this preference. It turned out that women prefer risk less than men. The third chapter demonstrates that although the housing market undermines labor mobility and employment in the Czech Republic at the regional level, therefore, that in regions with a higher rate of home ownership is higher unemployment, at the individual level, the owners of housing are unemployed are less likely. The estimates are significantly different for men and women. Men living in owner-occupied housing have a higher likelihood of employment than women. At regional level, however, this thesis shows that the high rate of home ownership increases unemployment for both men and women, in the long run only to women. The fourth chapter showed that men transition to homeownership reduces the likelihood of unemployment next year. For women, this relationship has proved to be insignificant. In addition, as insignificant showed the opposite relationship, the transition from unemployment to the newly acquired home ownership. The last chapter shows that the change in the working status to unemployment will increase in the future probability of worse health. Influence in less than two years, however, proved to be significant. An important conclusion is that men have a significantly stronger relationship between health and unemployment than women.
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The role of nurse in the care of child patient with hemangiom.
ŠESTÁKOVÁ, Růžena
One of the most important areas of society-wide tasks influencing the health of the whole population is child care. It includes care of children with a hemangioma. Hemangiomas are the most common benign (not malignant) vascular tumours of a child age. This benign tumour may be present as early as at birth or appear in the first weeks of life. It is usually located on or under the skin surface but may also affect internal organs. Although a hemangioma may affect any body part, it is mostly located on the head and neck. A hemangioma is diagnosed in a tenth of new-born children. Hemangiomas typically appear at neonatal age or infancy. The objectives of the diploma thesis "Nurse's Roles in Care of a Child Patient with a Hemangioma" are to examine the roles of nurses in care of a child patient with a hemangioma, as seen by parents (mothers) of the children, and to identify which of the roles is the most important for the parents (mothers). It has also been ascertained whether nurses deal with any problems while providing this care and whether occurrence of a hemangioma in a child has any influence on the child's family. It has also been ascertained whether any complications are encountered in the treatment of children with a hemangioma. A qualitative research was used for data processing. Several methods of data collection were used. The researcher used a case history according to the model of Virginia Henderson, semi-structured interview with mothers of patients, data content analysis and secret participant observation during outpatient checks. The last method used was a survey aimed at nurses who took care of children with a hemangioma, asking them whether they dealt with any problems and complications in such children. The first research set consisted of ten child patients who were selected on purpose on the basis of pre-set criteria. The first criterion was presence of a hemangioma; five patients were hospitalised with a hemangioma and underwent a treatment with propranolol, while the other five patients with a hemangioma underwent only a conservative treatment. Last but the most important criterion was that mothers of patients with a hemangioma granted their consent to the research. These mothers formed the second research set and underwent a semi-structured interview focused on their personal experience with a hemangioma and on the work of nurses as seen by mothers. The last research set consisted of ten nurses who were also selected on purpose on the basis of a very important criterion, which was care of child patients with a hemangioma. This thesis may be of a benefit not only for professionals who are in contact with children with a hemangioma but may also serve to deepen general knowledge of other healthcare professionals who may encounter this disease either in their professional or private life. Based on the information acquired for the diploma thesis, was prepared for nurses and will be presented at professional workshops.
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Hemodynamic monitoring in the intensive care - preparation of educational materials for newly hired nurses
MELICHAROVÁ, Jaroslava
This diploma thesis focuses on the monitoring of hemodynamics in intensive care units; the main objective was to create an educational material for newly employed nurses. This educational material should facilitate the adaptation process of nurses at Anaesthesiology-Resuscitation Units (AR) or Intensive Care Units (ICU).The diploma thesis is divided in two parts: theoretical and empirical. The topics covered by the theoretical part include the concept of intensive care, the technical equipment, the scope of work of intensive care nurses, anatomy and physiology of the cardiovascular system, cardiovascular system monitoring, hemodynamic monitoring, adaptation of new nurses at the workplace, and the possibilities of educational methods aimed at newly employed nurses. The empirical part was conducted as qualitative inquiry in the form of interview. The interviews were semi-standardised and they were held at the AR unit in the České Budějovice Hospital. The subjects were the nurses from the RES 1 and RES 2 stations. The first part of the research inquiry consisted in interviews with the nurses at the Anaesthesiology-Resuscitation unit. The interviews were not taped, due to the respondents' request. All the answers were carefully recorded and immediately transcribed and processed to prevent any inaccuracy of information. The results were organised in charts according to the categorisations, in a well-arranged manner. The second phase consisted in creating the educational material for the newly employed nurses and the third phase concluded the project by distributing the educational materials at the hospital unit where the interviews were conducted. The nurses could therefore assess whether the educational material meets their requirements and will be useful in practice. The respondents were interviewed again and the results were subsequently also organised in charts.The results of the research inquiry show that the nurses at the Anaesthesiology-Resuscitation Unit in the České Budějovice Hospital perceive the correct hemodynamic monitoring as important, that they know what hemodynamic monitoring is and are aware of the monitoring possibilities. The nurses of this unit perform both invasive and non-invasive monitoring of hemodynamic parameters. The basic task is measuring the central venous pressure and arterial pressure. Other parameters are monitored by the doctors with the application of the Swan-Ganz catheter. The most frequently used monitors are PICCO, Lidco, Vigileo and Vigilance. All interviewed respondents agreed that their only help during the adaptation process was the manufacturers' materials and the advice from the nurse-trainers. A small part of the respondents was trained directly by the company distributing the monitors. The final phase of the research inquiry revealed that the nurses like the new educational material but they are afraid that it will end up collecting dust as the other materials supplied by students. The interviews established that it is easier to directly communicate the necessary information to the new nurses along with practical demonstration than to recommend an educational material for studying of at least the theoretical part.
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A neuroprotective effect of the 3α5β-pregnanolon glutamate in the animal model of ischemic brain injury
Kletečková, Lenka ; Valeš, Karel (advisor) ; Zach, Petr (referee)
The neuroactive steroid 3α5β-pregnanolon glutamate (3α5βP-Glu) is the synthetic analogue of a naturally-occurring 3α5β-pregnanolon sulfate. Both agents inhibit preferentially tonically activated NMDA receptors by a use-dependent mechanism. The aplication of 3α5βP-Glu could reduce the excitotoxic injury of the brain during ischemic conditions, in which plays role the excessive activation of NMDA receptors. The objectives of this study are to determine the effect of systemic aplication of 3α5βP-Glu on an oxygen saturation and a regional cerebral blood flow in the brain of laboratory rat. Subsequently to establish and critically evaluate the animal model of a global ischemic brain injury. Finally to test the neuroprotective potential of 3α5βP-Glu on cognitive funtions in this model. The oxygen saturation and regional cerebral blood flow were measured in the area of dorsal hippocampus. Both observed parametres were significantly increased after the application of3α5βP-Glu. These findings confirm the assumption that 3α5βP-Glu has a neuroprotective effect. The bilateral occlusions of arteriae carotis communis following placement of the rat into a hypoxic box has been utilized as a model of global ischemic brain injury. The aplication of 3α5βP-Glu increased significantly the rats survival. However,...
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The model of adaptive behavior for the development of Czech assessment scales for children
Chadimová, L. ; Urbánek, Tomáš ; Seifert, M. ; Ivanková, K.
We introduce results of cluster analysis conducted during the development of Czech assessment scales of adaptive behavior in children and adolescents. Within the frame of National Institute of Education we organized the group of experts on the topic of adaptive behavior, both from the academical and practical areas. Every member of the expert group obtained 300 items inspired by local or foreign methods of adaptive behavior assessment. The experts were instrued to cathegorize the items, which they found meaningful with regard to the construct of adaptive behavior and its manifestation on the Czech background. Based on results we compiled consequent model of adaptive behavior, that becomes the base structure for newly developed assessment scales. We compare this structure with the model of adaptive behavior used by DSM-V.\n
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