Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

The economic crisis, which began in 2008, is over. The Czech economy experienced strong GDP growth in 2015 and predictions for further years are also positive. Now, it is the time to assess impacts of the crisis period 2008 – 2014 on wage determination. Therefore, this paper focuses on a) identification of wage determinants, whose remuneration changed significantly during the examined period; b) assessment of sensitivity of wage returns to GDP development. The analysis was performed on individual data on ca 36% of all employees in the Czech Republic. The results showed significant increase of returns to white-collar occupation and a decrease of returns to education during the years 2008 – 2014. Also remuneration of many company characteristics was affected significantly. Further analysis revealed that returns to particular wage determinants are only rarely influenced by GDP development. Keywords: wage, human capital, education, business cycle, economic crisis, Czech Republic JEL Classification: J24, J31

This article examines the impact of selected factors of public contracts on the efficiency of public procurement with an emphasis on decentralization. We analyzed the influence of these factors using an econometric model applied to data on public procurement, specifically on pubic construction contracts for 2013 – 2014. To achieve a higher degree of assurance we have verified these results by analyzing public contracts for the purchase of gas for the years 2013 – 2014. In the context of the available data, this public contract procedure has a relatively homogeneous subject of performance. The research conclusions which have been reached are significant, partly for the considerations regarding the centralization vs. decentralization of purchases, but they also represent a valuable contribution to the empirical investigation of the decentralized production of public goods and services. Keywords: public procurement, decentralization, efficiency JEL Classification: H57, H72, H77

The contribution is aimed at detecting how changes in oil prices influenced the development of assets of the oil sovereign funds, which countries possessing sovereign funds have been most affected, and whether and how changes in oil prices affected the foreign direct investments made by countries with the sovereign wealth funds. Analytical apparatus use the officially available data for oil prices, import, export, FDI and assets and investments of sovereign funds from SWF Institute.The causality between oil prices and annual growth of sovereign funds wealth in Kazakhstan, Norway and Russia has been confirmed. Shock in oil prices had the greatest impact on the value of assets in Russian sovereign wealth funds, then the SWF of Kazakhstan and the least impact had been obsereved upon Norwegian SWF. In the case of Russia, the shock in oil prices has had a long lasting effect. Saudi Arabia does not suffer from the low oil prices and it does not affect the principles of its investment decisions. Keywords: Sovereign Wealth Funds, assets of SWF, oil prices, foreign direct investment JEL Classification: G34, M12

The paper describes practical aspects of the compilation of regional input- -output tables of the Czech Republic. Regional input-output tables (RIOTs) are not compiled by the official statistics. RIOTs represent a supplement of published indicators of regional accounts. The compilation of RIOTs is based on the combination of different data sources. The matrix of technical coefficients derived from national input-output tables represents the fundamental base of the tables. With respect to users, the results are consistent with macroeconomic aggregates and therefore they are directly suitable for economic modelling. Moreover, RIOTs comprise the examination of elementary relationships between regions and advanced structural analysis. The paper outlines how to develop the methodology of the regional input-output tables’ compilation and illustrates the possibility of regional structural analysis. Keywords: regionalization, input-output tables, gross domestic product JEL Classification: C67, R15

The paper elaborates a methodology how to include weights of subjective significance into a pyramid decomposition of a financial indicator accounting for additive and multiplicative relationships possible amongst partial factors making up the decomposition. The proposed methodology also encompasses a Monte Carlo simulation based procedure for stochastic assessment of uncertainty associated with a particular choice of weights. The paper comments as to how this procedure may be applied in practice of financial corporate analysis and demonstrates its usability in a case study which considers a pyramid decomposition of the Economic Value Added financial indicator. Keywords: pyramid decomposition, weights of subjective significance, quantification of influence, uncertainty assessment, Economic Value Added JEL Classification: C65, M21