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Tax and health care challenges in economic policy : three essays
Chalupka, Radovan ; Schneider, Ondřej (advisor) ; Dlouhý, Martin (referee) ; NÁHRADNÍ, OPONENT (referee)
The first paper evaluates tax legislation in Slovakia, effected January 2004 and major changes in the period 2005 - 2010, according to principles of optimal taxation and optimal tax systems. The author evaluates the Slovak system with particular regard to taxes on labour, taxes on capital and taxes on consumption. The adoption of a flat personal-income-tax rate and a uniform VAT rate is viewed as in line with the optimal taxation theory, and the projected lessening of administrative costs and degree of tax evasion is positively evaluated. However, it is concluded that there is still room for improving the system by further shifting the burden away from taxes on labour to higher taxation of consumption and capital. The second paper analyses possible options to improve the risk adjustment of the health insurance system in the Czech Republic. Out of possible options it argues for including Pharmaceutical Cost Groups (PCGs) as additional risk factors since it is an improvement that can be implemented almost instantaneously. On real data from an anonymous sickness fund it confirms that predictive performance of PCGs models is consistently better than the performance of the demographic model that is currently used. The study also describes and examines the Czech health insurance market and implications of...
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Efficiency of hospitals in the Czech Republic : DEA & SFA applications
Procházková, Jana ; Gregor, Martin (advisor) ; Chalupka, Radovan (referee)
This rigorous thesis estimates cost efficiency of 99 general hospitals in the Czech Republic during 2001-2008 using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). It tests comparability of their results finding out a certain qualitative similarity. Next, determinants were added into SFA and efficiency of Czech hospitals examined. The presence of inefficiency is group specific even having accounted for various determinants. Effects of determinants were tested. Inefficiency increases with teaching status, more than 20,000 treated patients a year, not-for-profit status, larger share of the elderly in the municipality and average salary in the district. Inefficiency de- creases with less than 10,000 patients treated a year, larger population, higher unemployment rate and more hospitals in the region. The IES WP enclosed incorporates comments raised previously against the master thesis, i.e. excludes the effect of unemployment as a determinant from the SFA model; it furhter uses wages direcly in the the cost function. Considerable similarity between the two SFA models has been found both in terms of coefficients and signs of the remaining variables, as well as, in terms of resulting efficiency scores. The effect of the labor market is thus dual in the former case but it is accounted for...
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Informational cascades in economics
Hrachovec, Martin ; Koubek, Ivo (advisor) ; Chalupka, Radovan (referee)
Herd behavior is one of the fields that has not been explored much yet. Some approaches exist in sociology and psychology as well as in economy. One of the economical approaches is the one of informational cascades, building on the framework of Bayesian economics. This thesis first introduces Bayesian framework and then the basic models of informational cascades. Main aim of the thesis is to provide introduction to the topic and point out connections to the everyday life; therefore generalizations to the basic models are introduced and three practical cases of possible application of informational cascades elaborated.
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Integration of Financial Markets
Horáková, Tereza ; Horváth, Roman (advisor) ; Chalupka, Radovan (referee)
In our thesis we offer an empirical analysis of relations between financial markets of the Czech Republic and the Euro area countries in the period between 1999 and 2008. We use the theoretical background of financial integration and existing research findings on it as groundwork for our analysis. In our empirical analysis we examine the similarities in volatility behavior and possible volatility transmissions to offer an additional perspective on the financial market interdependencies. Our methodology is based on the GARCH family of models that we use to assess the pattern and relationships between the conditional volatilities in the foreign exchange, equities and bond markets. Results of our empirical analysis did not allow us in most cases to conclude on significant volatility spillovers and therefore to confirm our hypothesis, which we formulated as existence of significant relationships between the Czech and Euro area financial markets in terms of their volatilities. However we believe that the indications that we have presented bring some additional insights on the interdependencies between the Czech and Euro area financial markets and their evolution over the past years. The correlations between the fluctuations indicate the strongest degree of interrelatedness in the foreign exchange market.
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Tax and health care challenges in economic policy : three essays
Chalupka, Radovan ; Schneider, Ondřej (advisor) ; Dlouhý, Martin (referee) ; NÁHRADNÍ, OPONENT (referee)
The first paper evaluates tax legislation in Slovakia, effected January 2004 and major changes in the period 2005 - 2010, according to principles of optimal taxation and optimal tax systems. The author evaluates the Slovak system with particular regard to taxes on labour, taxes on capital and taxes on consumption. The adoption of a flat personal-income-tax rate and a uniform VAT rate is viewed as in line with the optimal taxation theory, and the projected lessening of administrative costs and degree of tax evasion is positively evaluated. However, it is concluded that there is still room for improving the system by further shifting the burden away from taxes on labour to higher taxation of consumption and capital. The second paper analyses possible options to improve the risk adjustment of the health insurance system in the Czech Republic. Out of possible options it argues for including Pharmaceutical Cost Groups (PCGs) as additional risk factors since it is an improvement that can be implemented almost instantaneously. On real data from an anonymous sickness fund it confirms that predictive performance of PCGs models is consistently better than the performance of the demographic model that is currently used. The study also describes and examines the Czech health insurance market and implications of...
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Determinants of pharmaceutical expenditures on cardiovascular diseases
Gogilashvili, Nino ; Chalupka, Radovan (advisor) ; Votápková, Jana (referee)
The thesis analyzes the determinants of pharmaceutical expenditures on cardiovascular diseases with particular focus on Central Europe. We show how the pharmaceutical expenditure varies across the countries. We try to empirically verify that factors such as age, GDP, total health expenditure, education and prevalence of a particular disease cause the variation. Applying the fixed effect model on selected countries in the period 2000-2009, we find that the increase in pharmaceutical expenditures on cardiovascular diseases is explained mainly by aging population and prevalence of the diseases. Additionally, countries with higher GDP tend to also have somewhat higher pharmaceutical expenditures on cardiovascular diseases. Key words Pharmaceutical expenditures, cardiovascular diseases, GDP, health expenditure, fixed effect model, prevalence of a disease, aging of population.
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Efficiency of hospitals in the Czech Republic : DEA & SFA applications
Procházková, Jana ; Gregor, Martin (advisor) ; Chalupka, Radovan (referee)
This rigorous thesis estimates cost efficiency of 99 general hospitals in the Czech Republic during 2001-2008 using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). It tests comparability of their results finding out a certain qualitative similarity. Next, determinants were added into SFA and efficiency of Czech hospitals examined. The presence of inefficiency is group specific even having accounted for various determinants. Effects of determinants were tested. Inefficiency increases with teaching status, more than 20,000 treated patients a year, not-for-profit status, larger share of the elderly in the municipality and average salary in the district. Inefficiency de- creases with less than 10,000 patients treated a year, larger population, higher unemployment rate and more hospitals in the region. The IES WP enclosed incorporates comments raised previously against the master thesis, i.e. excludes the effect of unemployment as a determinant from the SFA model; it furhter uses wages direcly in the the cost function. Considerable similarity between the two SFA models has been found both in terms of coefficients and signs of the remaining variables, as well as, in terms of resulting efficiency scores. The effect of the labor market is thus dual in the former case but it is accounted for...
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Measuring efficiency of hospitals in the Czech Republic
Procházková, Jana ; Chalupka, Radovan (referee) ; Gregor, Martin (advisor)
This thesis estimates cost efficiency of 99 general hospitals in the Czech Republic during 2001-2008 using Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Frontier Analysis. It tests comparability of their results finding out a certain qualitative similarity. Next, determinants were added into SFA and efficiency of Czech hospitals examined. The presence of inefficiency is group specific even having accounted for various determinants. The effects of determinants were tested. Inefficiency increases with teaching status, more than 20,000 treated patients a year, not-for-profit status, larger share of the elderly in the municipality and average salary in the district. Inefficiency decreases with less than 10,000 patients treated a year, larger population, higher unemployment rate and more hospitals in the region.
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Informational cascades in economics
Hrachovec, Martin ; Chalupka, Radovan (referee) ; Koubek, Ivo (advisor)
Herd behavior is one of the fields that has not been explored much yet. Some approaches exist in sociology and psychology as well as in economy. One of the economical approaches is the one of informational cascades, building on the framework of Bayesian economics. This thesis first introduces Bayesian framework and then the basic models of informational cascades. Main aim of the thesis is to provide introduction to the topic and point out connections to the everyday life; therefore generalizations to the basic models are introduced and three practical cases of possible application of informational cascades elaborated.
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