Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

Economic growth is frequently presented as the source and direct bridge to the overall welfare development. The GDP per capita is frequently referred in this connection as a measure of economic and social development. However this argument is not sufficiently supported by data covering the welfare situation of the country. According the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) project, in 2010 there are around 17% of the EU citizens living under the at-risk-of poverty threshold. To address the missing links between economic growth and the broader social development dynamics, the income situation of the households in selected EU member countries over the last years is investigated using the EU-SILC data. The empirical results confirm that losers from economic growth and recession are unequally distributed towards female, young, elderly, unemployed, retired and less educated. Gains are pertaining to more educated persons implying a greater focus on opportunities to education and on labour market. Keywords: income and living conditions, economic and social development, at- -risk-of poverty threshold, households' income inequalities, Central European countries JEL Classification: I30, I32, A12, D31, D63

The article investigates risks of building societies in the Czech Republic, both theoretically and practically, focusing on the liquidity and interest rate risk. We show that these two risks are more theoretical and are not threatening the sector in an extensive manner recently. Nevertheless, the stability of this sector can be undermined by hasty government reforms. In addition, we use the vector autoregression model to examine the interest rate pass-through into bank and building society interest rates in 2004 – 2011. The results indicate that the building society interest rates are more stable and less responsive to interbank market rates as well as to government bond yields. This conclusion follows from the institutional setting of building societies. Keywords: Basel III, liquidity risk, building societies, credit risk, monetary policy transmission mechanism JEL Classification: G18, G21, G28

In this article we introduce microfinance investment funds as financially viable socially responsible investment. We provide a brief overview of the microfinance investment funds that are the most relevant to a commercially oriented investor who is besides the socially responsible aspect of this type of investment interested in the financial benefits of the inclusion of these funds into his personal investment portfolio. In regard to the dependence of returns of microfinance funds on the performance of stock and fixed income markets in developed and emerging economies we find slightly negative correlation. We also show that microfinance investment funds provide modest but in time stable returns compared to benchmark market indices. Keywords: microfinance, investment, funds, risk, return JEL Classification: G11, G21

In this article, we study the possible explanatory power of macroeconomic factors that may drive the stock market integration between the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary (CEE-3) and developed countries, using Germany as a benchmark. Our findings suggest that the recent global financial crisis has affected time-varying correlations between certain stock markets more substantially than the entry of the CEE-3 into the EU. The results of our analysis of the effects of these macroeconomic factors were inconclusive. Only our proxy of exchange rate risk was significant in all cases, with positive effects on integration, thus supporting the presence of contagion among different markets. Keywords: stock market integration, CEE-3, time-varying correlations, DCC MV-GARCH model, macroeconomic factors JEL Classification: G01, G15, C32

The paper describes results of the research focused on the role of a gender perspective from the point of view of deciding in the life insurance. Life insurance, as a form of the future security, represents an important area of the interest in the current “risk society”. However, the determinants influencing the decision-making are vague in this area. Therefore, main goal is to analyze the influence of the gender, as one of the determinants, to decision-making process on the sample of 342 respondents in the Slovak Republic. More precisely, this study examines the attitudes of men and women to demand and consumption of the life insurance as well as the influence of the gender on individual decision-making factors. The results prove that gender does not play a role in decision-making process in the insurance industry, while in other spheres of the financial decisions does. Keywords: decision-making, gender perspective, life insurance JEL Classification: G22, D12, J16, D81