Prague Economic Papers, 2019 (roč. 28), číslo 5
Relative Importance of Country and Firm-specific Determinants of Capital Structure: A Multilevel Approach
Rumeysa Bilgin
Prague Economic Papers 2019, 28(5):499-515 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.700 
This paper evaluates the relative importance of country and firm-specific determinants of capital structure using a multilevel modelling approach. Annual data for 18,201 public and non-financial firms from 66 countries are analysed for the period 2000-2016. Variance decomposition analysis is employed in order to assess the relative importance of country and firm levels. Additionally, random intercept and random coefficient models are used to analyse direct and indirect effects of capital structure determinants. Our results showed that country and firm levels explain approximately 10% and 60% of the total variability in capital structures, respectively....
Spatial Monopoly with Upgrades of Durable Goods
Yong-cong Yang, Pu-yan Nie, Zhao-hui Wang, Zheng-xun Tan
Prague Economic Papers 2019, 28(5):516-531 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.712
This paper establishes a two-stage Hotelling model to identify the implications of the upgrades of durable goods produced by a spatial monopoly. The major findings indicate that, due to the positive effects on profits of the upgrading of products, the monopoly has the motivation to launch upgraded versions with high quality instead of solely producing products with low quality. The monopoly, meanwhile, would not make a commitment to either the high-quality products or the low-quality ones. In addition, the price of the low-quality products decreases as upgraded ones appear on the market in a second stage, since no consumers would store the low-quality...
Unemployment Hysteresis in the Czech Republic
Jakub Bechný
Prague Economic Papers 2019, 28(5):532-546 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.709
This paper analyses the unemployment hysteresis in the Czech Republic on data from 1999 to 2016. The hysteresis is modelled by allowing for the impact of cyclical unemployment on the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment. Models are estimated using the Bayesian approach and provide robust evidence in favour of the hysteresis. The estimates imply that in response to an increase in the cyclical unemployment of 1 percentage point, the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment increases by 0.18 percentage points.
Energy Prices and their Impact on the Competitiveness of the EU Steel Industry
Peter Baláž, Juraj Bayer
Prague Economic Papers 2019, 28(5):547-566 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.715
An essential part of the EU's growth strategy is support to its own international competitiveness. The reason is that the domestic industry is losing its former positions and is being pushed out of both domestic and international markets. Developments on the international steel market over the last year confirm that the market is likely to see significant changes as a result of protective measures. Most of them will jeopardise the international competitiveness of the European steel industry with negative impacts on its overall economic growth. The aim of this paper is to analyse the influence of energy prices and, based on an international comparison...
Does Social Capital Influence Debt Literacy? The Case of Facebook Users in Poland
Kamil Filipek, Andrzej Cwynar, Wiktor Cwynar
Prague Economic Papers 2019, 28(5):567-588 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.721
Debt literacy has been considered to be a critical competence of modern societies since the recent global financial crisis. Debt-literate individuals are less prone to financial abuse and perform better in terms of credit management. Currently, debt-related information and knowledge are widely accessible through social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook. However, not all SNS users have equal access to debt-related resources, and, consequently, they reach different scores in debt literacy tests. This study examines relational factors (resources) behind the debt literacy of Facebook users (N = 1,055) in Poland by applying the Resource Generator...
A General Equilibrium Model of Optimal Alcohol Taxation in the Czech Republic
Karel Janda, Zuzana Lajksnerová, Jakub Mikolášek
Prague Economic Papers 2019, 28(5):589-611 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.706
This paper provides a general equilibrium theoretical model of alcohol taxation and empirically estimates the model. For this purpose, we use a model determined by both externality corrections and fiscal considerations as the tax increase is assumed to immediately change other governmental policies such as labour taxation or medical expenditures. The results of our analysis show that under most parametric scenarios, the current Czech tax rate on beer and wine is below its optimal level and that the fiscal component has a significant impact on the optimal level of tax.
Input-Output DSGE Model for the Czech Republic
Kateřina Gawthorpe
Prague Economic Papers 2019, 28(5):612-630 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.724
This study questions the importance of accounting for sectoral heterogeneity in a DSGE model for the Czech Republic. The benchmark DSGE model originally developed by the Czech Ministry of Finance benefits from features such as wage and price stickiness, habit formation in the utility function and capital adjustment costs. The Input-Output DSGE model extended hereby proves to provide more precise estimates for the evolution of aggregate variables and to supply a more detailed structure of the economy. The set of variables the dynamics of which significantly improve consists of inflation rate and nominal interest rate. The disaggregated model also fits...