Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

Efforts to decentralize financially democratically elected local governments is a common theme across Europe because the particularities of each country determine a certain type of fiscal decentralization based on multiple criteria, including fiscal capacity. Over the last 20 years, some Western European countries have succeeded in establishing a form of balanced central government decision and fiscal decentralization that can help to reduce disparities between their own regions. Furthermore, European policies are geared towards reducing disparities both between countries and within the country, especially in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which face major disparities, as is the case of Romania. In this paper, we analyse regional-level fiscal disparities in Romania with fiscal and economic data over the period 2004 – 2015, by using Gini index to measure the dispersion of local fiscal capacity and a panel data approach to determine the extent to which decentralization involves inequality and the impact of fiscal decentralization on income inequality. The results of the analyses show that fiscal policy does very little to reduce inequality and poverty overall, finding a certain inequality in the distribution of revenues and an alarm signal regarding the "healing" nature of transfers from the state budget. Keywords: fiscal decentralization, regional inequality, intergovernmental transfers; JEL Classification: D63, H10, H70, H71

The article presents an attempt to combine some of the links between migra-tion and development into a model to evaluate the influence of migration on economy of sending and receiving countries and then define the factors of this kind of an influence. Developed model describes the migration influence on GDP, consumption, budget revenues and expenses, current account balance receipts and expenditures, labor force, unemployment rate. Calculation methodology with limitation for use is provided. The end of the article presents the results of calculations for Ukraine as the sending country according to the proposed model during 2010 – 2015. Keywords: migration and development, migration impact, migration effect, modelling; JEL Classification: F22, F63, O15

This paper examines the relationship between the global oil prices and current account balances in Czechia, Hungary, and Poland by using ARDL and causality analysis. Our estimates indicate that there is a co-integrating relationship among the global oil price, current account balance, GDP growth rate, and real exchange rate in the sample countries. We find that a change in oil price has a significant effect on the current account balance in Poland and Czechia. Additionally, our results suggest that a change in the growth rate exerts a significant effect on the current account in these two countries. Moreover, there is a causal relationship running from the oil prices to current account balances in all sample countries in the short run. Furthermore, it seems that the growth rates Granger cause the current account in Czechia and Hungary in the short run. Finally, we also detect a long run and strong causality between variables in some cases. Keywords: current accounts, oil prices, causality, VECM, ARDL; JEL Classification: F32, F31, Q41

For a number of decades, the European Union has witnessed an intense global competition to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). This competition has led to significant inflows and outflows in the member states, with positive implications for economic growth, employment and productivity for the host and sending countries. The paper uses data from 2005 – 2017 to identify the main drivers of FDI in the EU separately for sending and receiving, Euro area and Non-Euro countries. Analysis focuses on finding the levers that promote the Union in its entirety as a major competitor for FDI. An empirical analysis is conducted for selected variables (economic development, taxation, unit labour costs, trade openness, interest rate differential, macroeconomic stability, infrastructure and competitiveness) using the two-step System Generalised Method of Moments (GMM). The results are robust and consistent with the supporting literature. Keywords: FDI, EU, determinants, panel data, GMM; JEL Classification: F21, C14, C23

The paper relies on the newest set of quality of life dimensions defined by the European Commission, in order to achieve a two-fold purpose: to obtain a detailed image of European Union countries’ synchronization in terms of each quality of life dimension and to create a new, comprehensive metric of a country’s overall quality of life by aggregating the information provided by each specific dimension. Thus, our complementary research approach relies on: i) an in-depth exploratory analysis to assess European Union countries’ resemblance in terms of quality of life dimensions; ii) the development of a novel rating system, which serves as a barometer for the quality of life status and allows countries’ ranking. The findings revealed that increased resemblance between countries appeared for governance and basic rights indicators, productive activity and education indicators, while the highest dissimilarity was present for the living environment indicators and material living conditions indicators. Keywords: quality of life, well-being index, rating system, cluster analysis; JEL Classification: C38, O10