Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

This paper supplements a strand of research on sectoral employment responsiveness to changes in sectoral value-added. The methodology is based on the employment version of the first-differenced Okun’s equation, which is further developed to (i) complement limited empirical evidence on gender- and age-specific employment elasticity; (ii) analyse differences across economic sectors; and (iii) examine the non-linear impact of output growth on employment. Empirical estimates are based on EU28 data from 2008 to 2020 for four main economic sectors and their subsectors according to the NACE classification. Results show that the services significantly differ from other sectors – the positive growth of value-added increases the sector’s employment in all labour force groups, except the youth employment, and the output decrease is not followed by a decline in employment. In all other sectors, we observe the jobless growth phenomenon.

Considering the importance of technology for industrial structure upgrading, especially under the impetus of the fourth industrial revolution, the paper examines the impact of technology importation on industrial structure upgrading in 31 Chinese provinces from 2002 to 2020. It also emphasises the moderating role of institutional environment based on two dimensions of industrial upgrading. The findings indicate that technology importation has a positive effect on industrial advancement; however, its impact on industrial rationalisation is not significant. A higher-quality institutional environment can indirectly contribute to the impact of technology importation on industrial upgrading. Finally, the effects of technology importation and institutional environment on industrial upgrading vary with regions, and there are also differences in the moderating effects of different aspects of institutional quality. Therefore, the article suggests that technology should be introduced according to the institutional environment of different regions, and the government should develop personalised industrial upgrading strategies.

Innovation is an important part of a sustainable society and a prerequisite for the long-term competitiveness of organizations. Continuous innovation can support the sustainability of organizations, which represents an important area for every organization and for the entire society. This paper aims to identify the main sources of innovation that support sustainability and competitiveness in the organizations surveyed. The study is based on both quantitative and qualitative research (the questionnaire survey of n1 = 183; the focus groups of n2 = 5), using the tools of descriptive statistics and factor analysis by the method of principal components. The results have shown that the main sources of innovation are stakeholders involved in the sales chain, primary and applied research, innovation programmes focused on employees as well as customers, and benchmarking.

Financial stability has become an important topic, especially in recent years. However, there is no consistent approach for measuring the financial stability of insurance companies. The aim of this paper is to construct the summarized financial stability index for the insurance companies and applied this index on the Czech insurance companies. We construct and applied the financial stability index separately for insurance companies that predominantly provide life insurance and non-life insurance. The financial stability index focuses on five areas. The results show that insurance companies specialised in a particular non-life insurance product are more financially stable. The research suggests that the evolution of insurance companies has been influenced by organisational changes and economic changes. During the period 2004 – 2019, the examined insurance companies did not show any problems in terms of financial stability.