Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

The article summarizes results of the research performed in the field of educational level of population in the context of technology development. The analysis is based on data of the latest population census from 2001. The educational level of population is investigated from the view of educational degrees (primary, secondary, non-tertiary and tertiary), as well as from the regional view. The results are compared with the EU countries. The analysis is focused also on dependence between education and the technological level of manufacturing industry and its comparison with the EU and V4 countries. Attention is drawn also to the educational expenses according to the individual degrees and the results are compared with those in the EU countries. The concluding part deals with the latest trends in education typical for the global society. Keywords: education, qualification intensity, technology intensity, educational expenses, globalisation of education JEL Classification: O31, O57, I21, I22

One of the goals of this paper is to give a view of convergence of Slovakia to EU average with comparison to other new EU member countries. This is important to determine further possibilities of changes in households' income and expenditure structure and height. Past changes in consumption are studied, in connection to development of income distribution as well as structure of income and expenditures of Slovak households. Study is made in connection to period from year 1993. Since this time, several articles with similar subjects were published. Keywords: households income and expenditures, consumption, households behavior, family economics, consumer choice, saving, regional income of households JEL Classification: D10, D12, D31, D91, E21, E31, H31, R19, R21

The paper characterizes briefly the results of the European surveys for 2004 on innovation performance and innovation policy with a special view on the position of Slovakia. Slovakia ranks among the five EU 25 countries with the lowest innovation performance. It lags behind mainly in the size of R&D expenditures, in the share of tertiary educated population, in the innovation activity of SMEs and the patenting activity is also minimal. The essential reason of insufficient innovativeness of the Slovak economy results from the weak support for innovation activities on the side of economic policy. Since 2005 an eminent public interest in the given area has been declared, therefore a gradual improvement in innovation performance can be expected. Keywords: innovation performance, innovation policy JEL Classification: O31, O57

In recent years the largest and most important manufacturing sector in Slovak Republic has been the transport equipment industry. Its share is expected to grow in next years too above all due to an expanding automotive industry as well. This industrial branch has been the engine of positive changes and has contributed to improved performance of supplier branches as well. At the same time there are several risks resulting from this excessive dependency of Slovak economy from one dominating sector. The main objective of the submitted article, is to provide an analysis of the development of Slovak automotive industry during recent years. Keywords: manufacturing, automotive industry, labour productivity, employment, regional development JEL Classification: D24, L62, O14, R11

Corporate reengineering with its philosophy of “process management” qualitatively evaluates effectiveness and efficiency of recent business structure processes. It is valid not only for the company itself but also for its particular outlets (plants, subsidiaries, workshops, operating units, etc.). The article gives reasons for the use of particular methodology, application of methodology of well-known consulting firms such as Andersen Consulting, Bain, BCG (Boston Consultancy Group) and McKinsey & Company. The aim of this paper is to compare reengineering methodologies of selected consulting companies and institutions from abroad and Slovakia and to stress advantages of their methodology and possibilities of its application in Slovak firms in order to increase their competitiveness. Keywords: reengineering, method, process management, competitiveness JEL Classification: D23, D24, L22, L23, L25

The present article aims to show that price agreements are more unstable if their companies use debt as a financing instrument. Moreover, the higher the number of companies (that use debt) in a price agreement, the more instable the price agreement will be. Even when companies compete à la Bertrand and if debt financing is high, the duopoly of price agreement will be instable. When debt financing is present, we found there is a higher number of sub-game perfect Equilibria, in an a posteriori à la Cournot competition, then when debt financing is not present and that this (possible) existence of sub-game perfect Equilibria increases as the debt level of financing increases. Keywords: price agreement; debt financing; sub-game perfect equilibrium JEL Classification: G32, L13