C30 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables: GeneralReturn

This study investigates the sensitivity of financing, investment, and distribution decisions to changes in operating cash flow, and whether these sensitivities depend on whether or not firms are financially constrained. Using a sample of 2,650 firm-years of Turkish firms for the period 1996 to 2013, we find that an increase in the short-term cash flows is associated with an increase in cash balances, irrespective of whether or not firms are financially constrained. However, unconstrained firms hold a larger cash balance than constrained firms. Dividends are positively related to the short-term cash flows of both types of firms. Investments are not sensitive to cash flow for either type of firms. An increase in their short-term cash flow induces the financially constrained firms to reduce debt financing, but makes the unconstrained firms increase their debt financing and reduce equity financing. Although firms in general prefer to use part of the saved cash in the long term, they do not deplete their cash savings. Constrained firms resort to debt financing in response to an increase in their long-term cash flow.

This study attempted to evaluate the differences between bachelor and master requirements in the field of tourism regarding sixteen communication as well as sixteen managerial competencies explored in a wide range of employers in the Czech Republic. The questionnaire survey data were processed using a multivariate approach of the Fisher linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and its partial least squares algorithm (plsLDA) considering two-set cases and the functional relation of both methods depending on a parameter. It was revealed that although the differences between bachelor and master requirements in communication competencies are more pronounced considering the results of the classical approach to discriminant analysis, this is not the case in its partial least squares variant. The differences are to a great extent variable, filling the whole set of individual competencies. However, the most significant competencies demanded from master graduates are: providing a complex view - summary, providing feedback, time management, leadership and planning, considering both boundaries of eigenvalues with corresponding eigenvectors analytical (resp. smooth) path. The practical implication of the results can serve as a target for modern educational systems preparing students for success in the current competitive environment.

With respect to instability and structural changes for maintaining effective functioning of economy an important issue is to study the dynamics of processes in the labour market, including labour supply and employment. Considering negative demographic trends and an acute problem of population aging in Ukraine the article presents an empirical research of the dynamics of labour force participation and unemployment rate, as well as the correlation relationship between them in various periods of time. On the basis of threshold-disturbance moving average and threshold-disturbance autoregressive models there are elicited significant asymmetric reactions of labour force participation rate, unemployment rate and productivity to positive and negative macroeconomic shocks. For modelling the asymmetric behaviour of economic activity of population there is developed a nonlinear logistic smooth transition autoregressive model. In the result of econometric analysis there is received large estimated value of slope parameter which characterizes the smoothness of transition. This indicates that the economic activity of the population in Ukraine quickly reacts to the previous changes that took place in the labour market. In times of crisis Ukrainian households increase labour supply and show increased activity in job search in order to prevent the decline of their income.

This paper is an application of the consumption-smoothing current account theory the main principles of which appeared in the 1980s and gradually broadened to describe the intertemporal dynamics of important economic processes. In open economies, the consumption-smoothing current account process is related to the consumption behaviour of households. The effect on consumption choices and the current account is derived from the premise that households adjust their consumption expenditures according to the terms of trade. The process can be treated in an optimizing framework and originally was strictly connected to the permanent income hypothesis (PIH) and no restrictions to capital mobility. Both assumptions were successively relaxed and relationships allowing incorporation of the excess sensitivity hypothesis (ESH) and not perfect capital mobility have been introduced. Transformed into a VAR model with current account and national cash flow increments as endogenous variables, relevant conclusions are drawn on the basis of Granger causality, the equivalence of the current and predicted current account and an analysis of parameters of the model. Basic relationships and solutions are summarized and an application using the economies of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria follows.

The aim of the article is to introduce a complex econometric model of cash-lows for the Czech life insurance market. Namely, technical-actuarial links among insurance variables observed in annually published summary balance sheets of life insurers are described by means of an econometric system of linear simultaneous equations. The suggested model is statistically veri ed and thus it can provide useful economic interpretations. Further, adjusted residual bootstrapping is introduced in this context as a straightforward alternative which can solve possible problems with questionable asymptotic distribution properties of residuals. This technique can be applied e.g. for signi cance testing purposes. Finally, an important practical illustration of scenario analysis is considered. Such an analysis might be really useful, e.g. for internal calculations of the Czech life insurers, nancial planning or stress testing in the framework of Solvency II. Two general approaches are presented: deterministic and stochastic. The second one is capable of delivering various empirical probabilities concerning possible future developments.