Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

This paper analyses the performance of active labour market policies (ALMP) in Slovakia. We found limited evidence of the economic efficiency of the ALMP in Slovakia. We quantify the relative importance of the ALMP compared to other factors for the employability of job seekers. ALMP performance relates to a host of external factors, such as business cycles, the number of local job vacancies, discrimination towards some ethnic minorities, and levels of regional development. Furthermore, we quantify policy effectiveness of the most important ALMP instruments. The concluding part of the paper points towards the importance of the ongoing demographic transition for revamping the current structure of ALMP. Keywords: active labour market policies, demographic transition, employability; JEL Classification: J08, J11, J21

The severe material deprivation rate indicates the proportion of the population that cannot fulfil at least four of the nine needs identified as basic ones in the European conditions. Due to being an absolute measure, it is very useful for cross-country comparison. This study attempts to identify country-level factors affecting severe material deprivation rate by the use of the GEE methodology which enables to analyse correlated fractional outcome data. It is found that severe material deprivation rate is affected by such factors as: median equivalised disposable income, relative median at-risk-of-poverty gap, long-term unemployment rate, GDP per capita and share of social protection expenditure in GDP. Results reveal that GEE models with cloglog link function exhibit the best goodness of fit. Due to these models imposing non-constant marginal effects, therefore, changes of the severe material deprivation rates depend on levels of country-level factors. Keywords: material deprivation, the EU, panel data, fractional output model, GEE; JEL Classification: C25, I32

The taxation of labour affects labour supply and demand, influencing the decisions of both employees and employers. As the effects of labour taxation are often contradictory, final relationships between the labour tax and other variables are not always transparent. In order to describe (reveal) the relationship between effective taxation of labour and the number of employees as well as between effective taxation of labour and the ratio of employment costs to total company costs, both adjusted for the company size and a country’s economic level, we conducted the empirical analysis of 19 EU countries using the Amadeus dataset of firms for the years 2010 – 2013. We emphasize the data-oriented discussion about the correct specification of a regression model. Over the whole research period, the results show a negative relationship for the two dependent variables analysed. Keywords: labour taxation, employment costs, number of employees, Amadeus dataset, European Union; JEL Classification: H24, J21

In the linear regression, heteroscedasticity and multicollinearity can be characterized as intertwined problems, which often simultaneously appear in econometric models. The aim of this paper is to discuss various approaches to regression modelling for heteroscedastic multicollinear data. A real economic dataset from the World Economic Forum serves as an illustration of various individual methods and the paper provides a practical motivation for quantile regression and particularly for regularized regression quantiles. In the dataset, tourist service infrastructure across 141 countries is modeled as a response of 12 characteristics of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI). Regression quantiles and their lasso estimates turn out to be more suitable for the dataset compared to more traditional econometric tools. Keywords: linear regression, model selection, robustness, regression quantiles, lasso, tourism; JEL Classification: C21, C13, C14, Z32

Within the context of reverse logistics (RL), only a few studies have focused on the management characteristics that lead to effectively implementing RL. From the myriad of potential factors of effective RL, the paper focuses on the role of knowledge management, 1st-tier integration and the extent of RL planning, as these factors and their mutual relations have been neglected by empirical research to date. The paper develops a theoretical model to fill this gap and tests it using structural equation modelling on primary data. The findings based on 146 cases support that knowledge management, the extent of RL planning and the level of integration with the 1st-tier supply chain members are the factors related to the effectiveness of RL. The study underpins the importance of long-term RL planning and deeper integration and collaboration with customers and suppliers for effective RL and so to reduce the negative impact of product returns. Keywords: reverse logistics, effectiveness, knowledge management, supply chain integration, planning, product returns; JEL Classification: M10