Fulltext search in archive

This paper aims to theoretically derive and afterwards econometrically assess the impact of intellectual property protection (IPP) on national economies. The authors’ main hypothesis is that by creating a form of non-market protection, IPP limits free competition and has no positive effects on national economies and the world economy in general. The hypothesis is tested through estimation of relationship between charges for the use of intellectual property and 1) gross domestic product, 2) GDP growth, 3) unemployment, 4) exports of high-tech products, 5) FDI outflow, and 6) expenses on research and development in a panel dataset of 146 countries in years 2005–2014 based Arellano-Bond estimator for dynamic panel models. The data tells us that changes in these charges have not a significant impact on the studied indicators, which counts against claims of positive impact of IPP on economies and growth.

This paper investigates the short and long-run relationship between credit risk and two bank profitability indicators ROA and ROE in Central and Eastern European countries during the period from 2000 to 2010. Results from previous research mostly confirm the negative relationship between profitability and credit risk by considering the current or one year lagged value of profitability. Certain crisis indicates that more profitable banks before the crisis became more risky during the time of crisis. These results motivate us to upgrade the model of credit risk by including earlier values of profitability. Results indicate that two or three years are necessary for growth of profitability to increase credit risk. However, the long-run relationship between foreign banks' profitability and credit risk is positive, for both indicators. For the domestic bank, the long-run effect of ROA on credit risk is positive, while for ROE this relationship is negative.

This paper aims to identify the impact of a "deep" (economic union) and "shallow" (Common Commercial Policy) integration on 4 Visegrad countries' trade with the EU and non-EU industrialized countries. Trade flows are analysed on the basis of sectors over the period of 1995-2011: the gravity model also utilizes sectoral value-added and sectoral output as proxies for the market size. The impact of regional trade agreements (RTAs) is evaluated for 17 WIOD sectors based on the research methodology developed by Baldwin (2006), Flam and Nordstrom (2003) and Fernandes (2006). Contrary to the mentioned research studies, this paper uses a more advanced econometric technique - the Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood method displayed in Silva and Tenreyro (2006). This paper concludes that both "deep" and "shallow" trade arrangements have a more pronounced effect on Visegrad high value-added product exports than on Visegrad low value-added product exports. Common Commercial Policy's trade effects on RTAs, for instance in the case of Mexico and Turkey, are comparable to its trade effects with EU countries. The Common Commercial Policy's effect on RTAs is almost absent in low-value-added product sectors of Visegrad countries. Thus, we conclude that integration with the EU influenced Visegrad countries' trade of higher value-added goods with both the EU and non-EU industrialized countries.

One of the major limitations of the supply-driven input-output (I-O) Ghosh model concerns its linear production function. Using the I-O table, this paper replaces the linear production function with the Cobb-Douglas (CD) production function within the supply-driven model. The two models are compared both theoretically and empirically. Nonlinear production function, relative substitutability of primary factors, and variability of the proportion of intermediate inputs over product levels are the characteristics of the proposed model. The consideration of sectors' Solow residual as Total Factor Productivity (TFP) of sectors is yet another characteristics of the proposed model. The model is also plausible in value added and supply shock computations.

This article investigates the employment development in Czech-based firms in German ownership in the years around the Great Recession of 2008/2009. The intense involvement of German firms in the economy of the neighbouring country via foreign direct investment (FDI) raises a question whether under the conditions of a historically deep global downturn, the Czech employees in multinational companies were confronted with an increased volatility of their jobs. Using a unique firm-level dataset, we contrast the affiliates of German investors with purely Czech-owned enterprises. Our findings indicate that in the years before the crisis, firms with German capital exhibited a noticeably more positive employment development. The results from the year 2008 onwards give reason to the conclusion that the German-owned firms played a stabilizing role for the Czech labour market during the recession.

This study examines the influence of financial distress on top management turnover in the Republic of Serbia over the period January 2009-June 2015. Using a sample of 86 large and medium-sized privately owned companies that adopted a reorganisation plan in bankruptcy, we found out that top management was changed in 33 companies. A logistic regression provides evidence that probability of top management turnover is significantly correlated with the company's size (positive correlation) and the ownership concentration (negative correlation). The influence of the company's financial performance, applied bankruptcy proceedings and debt monitoring of top management turnover was deemed to be statistically insignificant (at 5% and 10% significance level). Obtained results provide the proof that corporate governance mechanisms in distressed Serbian companies are not efficient.

Most of the studies regarding control premium are focussed on the case in which it is positive. We considered the case when it is negative, investigating the determinants of the discount for control, having as study case the Romanian listed companies. Comparative to the general case of control premium, discounts for control are also determined by some other specific factors, like the number of non-trading days and the cash ratio. Some determinant factors of control premium have an opposite influence when this is negative: the percentage of shares purchased in the transaction, the ownership concentration, the fact the buyer or the seller is domestic, and the existence of a major shareholder owning more than 50% of shares. Consequently, some factors usually used in explaining the control premium cannot be suitably used for the case of the discount for control. Moreover, the negative impact of the undiversified portfolio is validated.

We estimate a financial stress index for the Czech Republic and examine its development during the 2002-2014 period. We find a marked increase in financial stress at the beginning of the global financial crisis with a decrease to nearly pre-crisis levels by the end of our study period. Next, we estimate vector autoregression models of the Czech economy and find that financial stress has systematic effects on output, prices and interest rates, with the maximum response occurring approximately one and a half years after the shock. Specifically, an increase in financial stress is associated with higher unemployment, lower prices and lower interest rates, indicating its detrimental effects on the real economy.

Granovetter, M.: Society and Economy. Framework and Principles
Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2017.
ISBN 9780674975217

This paper analyses income and charitable giving from the perspective of perception bias. We show that perception bias affects charitable giving through its effects on warm glow, while inequality aversion counteracts these effects. Donors' perception bias regarding a recipient's situation does not necessarily decrease their charitable giving. Specifically, perception bias regarding the recipients' effort and life shock decreases donors' charitable giving. Perception bias regarding the recipients' ability decreases donors' giving to charities designed to help low-ability recipients but increases their giving to charities designed to help high-ability recipients. We also show that perception bias increases with donors' income. Fundraising professionals shall allocate more efforts to those who do not care about inequality that much when correcting the donors' perception bias; focus their efforts on correcting the donors' perception bias, especially for rich donors, when raising money for charities with low-ability recipients; but increase donors' perception bias regarding the recipients' ability when raising money for charities with high-ability recipients.

This study investigates whether firm size moderates the relationship between cash conversion cycle and profitability over 8-year period for 285 German non-financial firms. The moderated regression results reveal that the relationship between cash conversion cycle and profitability is moderated by firm size. As the firm size gets smaller and the cash conversion cycle gets longer, the returns on assets decreases. When the firm size gets bigger and the cash conversion cycle gets longer, on the other hand, the returns on assets increases. In this context, reducing the length of cash conversion cycle has a positive impact on profitability for only small and medium-sized firms. Accordingly, this study concludes that small and also medium-sized firms, contrary to big firms, should reduce the length of cash conversion cycle in order to increase profitability.

The Lithuanian agricultural sector still features the processes of land reform, farm structure development, and modernisation. Accordingly, there is a need to utilise the benchmarking techniques in order to fathom the underlying trends and sources of efficiency and productivity. This paper therefore aims at analysing the productive efficiency and the total factor productivity in the Lithuanian family farms. The research is based on the Farm Accountancy Network Data covering the period of 2004-2009. The Färe-Primont Indices were employed to estimate and decompose the total factor productivity changes. Furthermore, the stochastic kernels were applied to analyse the distributions of the efficiency scores along with the econometric analysis which aimed at revealing the relationships of the environmental variables and the efficiency scores. The results do indicate that the technical efficiency was a decisive factor causing decrease in TFP efficiency for crop and mixed farms. Meanwhile, the scale efficiency constituted a serious problem for mixed farms. Indeed, these farms were the smallest ones if compared to the remaining farming types. Finally, the mix efficiency was low for all farming types indicating the need for implementation of certain farming practices allowing for optimisation of the input-mix.

This paper investigates effects of the real exchange rate and its volatility on trade balance and real GDP using a set of eighteen countries, mainly the OECD developed countries. The paper reports econometric procedures and empirical estimates for major currency-owned large economies and non-major currency- owned countries. One task, for which the elasticities of international trade and real GDP are needed, is developing exchange rate assessments. The study finds that real currency depreciation leads to improvement of trade balance in most of the examined developed countries. But the trade balances after real depreciation of currency do not follow J-curve patterns. With regard to the real exchange rate variability, the evidence is mixed. Similarly, effects of the real currency devaluation on real GDP differ across countries. Also, we observe that major currency-owned countries could have different value-and-volume-effects with non-major currency countries.

The mutual fund industry has grown considerably in many countries since the 1990s. Its evolution has been explained primarily in terms of its economic and financial determinants. We draw on a dynamic set of measures for socio-cultural values to explain the differential development of mutual funds across the world. Using a sample of 38 countries for the period 1996-2009, we find a positive relation between the perception of happiness and the size of the mutual fund industry. Freedom of choice, a feature of countries that are dominated by individualistic behaviours and values, has a positive impact on the development of the industry. We also explain the positive relation between individuals' preference for private ownership and the development of mutual funds. Moreover, we prove that the industry is larger in developed countries with greater stock market liquidity, with low ratios of remittance inflows to GDP, and in which the industry is older.

The macroeconomic announcements and their effects on stock markets are considered to be a measure of stock market integration. Earlier studies show that integrated stock markets exhibit immediate reaction to international macroeconomic news, whereas partially integrated or segmented markets mostly do not react to such announcements. This paper investigates the effect of surprises disguised in the macroeconomic announcements made by the European Monetary Union on CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and South Africa) stock markets. Daily stock market data starting from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2012 is analysed. The impact of macroeconomic announcements is estimated by using EGARCH model. The results show that the returns of four out of six CIVETS stock markets significantly react on the day of macroeconomic announcements, whereas the market volatility of all markets is affected due to the EMU's announcements. The results also show that not all types of announcements have significant impact on returns and volatilities in CIVETS, highlighting the importance of the contents of macroeconomic surprises.

The article describes approach proposed for the house price equilibrium assessment in the Czech Republic. It first explains why it is necessary to use multiple models simultaneously to correctly assess house price sustainability. It goes on to describe individual models proposed to estimate house price misalignment in the Czech Republic. Results given by these individual models are consonant in identifying periods of over- and undervaluation of house prices but slightly differ in the amplitude of the gaps. A method for aggregating the estimates produced by those approaches is then presented. It works on the premise that more correlated estimates may be evidence of a strong signal, while less correlated estimates may, on the other hand, bring additional information to the house price assessment. By using two sets of weights, it presents an interval of supposed under- or overvaluation of house prices. This method indicates that Czech house prices were roughly at their equilibrium level in mid-2014 following an extended period of slight undervaluation since the mid-2009. It also proves robust to the length of the sample used.

We examine the relationship between the government size and economic growth by using threshold regression model and quarterly data over the period 1998:1-2015:1 for Turkey. Our results provide a strong evidence for the existence of a non-linear relationship. The estimated threshold levels, as a percentage of GDP, are 16.5 for the government total expenditures, 12.6 for consumption expenditures and 3.9 for investment expenditures. We find that an increase in the government size leads to a significant rise (decline) in economic growth rate when the government size is below (above) the threshold level, confirming the predictions of Armey curve. Our findings have a clear policy implication: since the realized government consumption and total expenditures are well above the estimated threshold levels, a reduction in the government size would boost the growth rate.

This paper examines contagion in the foreign exchange markets of three Central European countries and the euro area. Contagion is viewed as the occurrence of extreme events taking place in different countries simultaneously and is assessed with a measure of asymptotic tail dependence among the studied distributions. Currency crisis contagion is one strand of this research. However, the main aim of the paper is to examine the potential of bubble contagion. To this end the representative exchange rates are linked to their fundamentals using a cointegration approach. Given the long-time range required by cointegration testing, the variables are first tested for unit roots with structural breaks, whose existence is supported by these tests. In the sequel, the extreme values of the differences between actual daily exchange rates and their monthly equilibrium values determine the episodes associated with large departures from equilibrium. Using tools from Extreme Value Theory, we analyse the transmission of both standard crisis and bubble formation events in the examined currency markets. The results reveal a significant potential for contagion in the currency markets of Central Europe.

This paper analyses temporary work and job satisfaction among salaried workers during the Spanish economic crisis of 2008. Using data from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) 2013 Economically Active Population Survey (EAPS), we find that temporary workers lost their job more than others during this period. However, salaried workers have higher average levels of satisfaction in 2007-2010, possibly due to the lower requirements of workers. We find a positive relationship between the unlikeliness of keeping a job and low job satisfaction levels in data from the Survey of Quality of Life at Work (2010) through a correspondence analysis. A linear model with a level of job satisfaction as a dependent variable shows negative coefficients for a level of job satisfaction if the probability of keeping the job is somewhat unlikely or very unlikely. Finally, an ordinal probit regression finds that the estimated likelihood to reach high job satisfaction is lower in temporary workers.

The question on the inflation expectations management is one of the most important ones from the central bank's point of view. The inflation forecast can be a helpful tool of managing expectations. If it actually is, the interdependences of the inflation forecast and expectations can be observed. The existence of such interdependences opens the field for determining the preconditions that might support expectations formation. The hypothesis assumes that associations of inflation forecasts and inflation expectations depend on the central bank's credibility and consistency in inflation forecast targeting. The research covers the Czech National Bank, the National Bank of Hungary, the National Bank of Poland and Sveriges Riksbank. The research combines qualitative and quantitative methods. The research uses survey-based expectations quantified with probabilistic method. The main finding is that the relatively high level of credibility and consistency in inflation forecast targeting is not sufficient to achieve strong interdependences of inflation forecast and expectations.

Tax evasion can have important consequences for the macroeconomic and social balance of a country, as well as for its monetary and fiscal development. A limited number of studies dealing with the consequences for fiscal imbalance are present, but their objectives vary a lot. This analysis has been conducted with the purpose to empirically assess the impact of the tax evasion changes on the public debt in the 28 EU countries. The research considers the dynamics of public debt during the period of 21 years. The research is based on a probabilistic sensitivity analysis approach that was conducted individually for four clusters using @Risk of Palisade Decision Tools Package. The analysis showed a negative correlation between the tax evasion and the public debt, where the growth of the tax evasion is connected with the decrease of the public debt in a given country. The extent of the effect varies depending on the country, or more precisely on the groups of countries and is conditioned by other macroeconomic variables.

The paper attempts to assess the added value of women in management in the context of the Czech Republic. The wider purpose is to contribute to the debate for the need of gender-balanced top managerial teams. It additionally contributes new inputs to the discussion as to whether quotas or other special measures are relevant to promote or engage more women in higher management positions within both the Czech public and private sectors. According to the results, Czech respondents view women as added value to management given the different characteristics of their approach over that of their male counterparts. However, the research reveals that women who obtain higher managerial positions demonstrate the same set of characteristics as men. In conclusion, the promotion system is designed for candidates that demonstrate typically male characteristics.

This article aims to evaluate the research of the different published opinions on the insurance company valuation, to analyse them and to judge their use in practice. The process of the va-luation of the insurance company is very complicated and there are not many theoretical studies concerning this problem. The valuation of insurance companies should take into account the specifics of insurance activities and should look for the optimal approach. There were different approaches available - the income approach, the market comparison approach, the assets-based approach and the Bond Pricing Model. They can be combined and so there can be created different types of models. The two most important models of Massari, Gianfrate and Zanetti (2014) and Hrdý, Ducháčková (2014) were analysed and compared. Both models are applicable in practice. For the final valuation standards it could be recommended to use minimum of two methods of valuation or one of the two in detailed analysed models. Keyword: valuation, insurance company, standards, models

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the trade integration process of the Visegrad countries from a special point of view, namely by estimating border effects in the countries. The regressional analysis run with two different estimators (OLS vs. PPML) on two different model specifications suggests that between 1995 and 2011 the V4 countries were integrating continuously into the Single Market of the European Union. The results also show that the size of border effect is fairly sensitive to the estimator and particularly to the specification chosen by the researcher. According to the country-level estimation, Hungary seems to be the most integrated country getting the lowest home bias parameters followed by the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, respectively.

This article focuses on bank valuation standards as some recommended steps how to evaluate some concrete commercial bank by the market value. Different approaches, methods and models were analysed and the final recomendations were stated. Basic valuation approaches such as the income approach, the market-based approach and the asset-based approach used for traditional entreprises valuation are recommended also for the commercial banks valuation, but it is necessary to adjust them according to some specifics of banks. After the precise analysis it is possible to recommend the application of Market-Based Valuation or in other words Relative Valuation in the combination with Bond Pricing Model. This is the best choice, but only in case there is some comparable bank or comparable transaction available. In the opposite case it is possible to recommend the application of the income approach based on DDM or DCFE in the combination with Bond Pricing Model or with Excess Return Model. Asset-Based Valuation could be used in case of valuation of different type of bank´s asset or in case of the valuation for accounting or tax purposes. The most important problem lies also in the identification of the coefficient beta that oscillates in case of the large maturity banks according to the "magic one".

This paper investigates the determinants of airlines' route presence in the single EU aviation market by estimating two probit models - one for full-service airlines and one for low-cost carriers - which specify the presence (or absence) of an airline's service on the route as a function of its airport presence measures, the competition it faces from other airlines, and general route characteristics. The results point to the existence of dominant-firm advantages, domestic-firm privileges, and substantial airport-facilities-related barriers to entry in the EU airline industry. They further indicate that served routes are characterized by relative time efficiency of air travel (in comparison to car travel), large endpoint cities' populations as well as per capita GDPs; and that competitive effects between full-service and low-cost airlines are asymmetric.

The paper aims to investigate the impact of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) and common commercial policy (CCP) on export performances of Visegrad group of countries (The Visegrad Four, V-4: Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) preceding and following the EU accession. The V-4, before becoming the EU members, have participated actively in regionalism, signing free trade agreements and customs unions which often also resulted in the extended economic integration. But since the EU accession in 2004, all RTAs of the new members were no longer valid as these countries became the parties of the CCP of the EU. To analyse whether CCP was beneficial on the export performances of the V-4 countries, we estimate the augmented gravity model by employing Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood (PPML) estimator for time periods before and after the EU accession, in 1999-2003 and 2004-2013, respectively.

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.

The present paper investigates the use of national wage settings as a mechanism to deter entry via foreign direct investment (FDI) in a unionized monopoly industry. A union which sets centralized wages in a multi-unit firm can both decentralize and change the agenda to prevent the market entry of a non-unionized firm. The adoption of the efficient bargaining agenda is especially effective to deter entry because it lowers the fixed-cost threshold the entrant can bear. Moreover, through side-payments, the incumbent and the union can have common interests in modifying the wage setting to reach outcomes that is Pareto-superior to duopoly. However, if the union cedes "too much power" and becomes "too weak", internal conflicts with the incumbent firm may arise.

In this paper, we contribute to the literature focusing on ethics in banking from both theoretical and empirical point of view. We argue that the recent business of the global banking industry is not sustainable and we believe that ethical banking may represent one of the alternative models. In the empirical section, we investigate how ethics in the banking business models affects their financial performance. We identified 69 ethical banks and compared them with conventional banks using Bankscope data of more than 80,000 bank-year observations for the 2003-2013 period. We apply the Within-Between estimation method to bank financial indicators of Return on Assets, Return on Equity and their respective volatilities. We conclude that ethical banks report significantly lower volatility in Return on Equity than their conventional counterparts. In addition, the hypothesis that ethical banks would have higher profitability than their peers is not rejected.