Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

The objective of this paper is to contribute to the explanation of globalization’s impact on decisive changes in the structure of competitiveness relations and based on this, to argue for a need of new understanding of competitiveness. The main issue is to identify basic areas in which processes determining the character of globalization – and thus also character of changes in structure of competitiveness relations and criterions of competitiveness – are formed and progressing. The identification involves multilevel net of global competitiveness, shifts in role of state and multidimensional character of competitiveness. Based on this identification, the framework of global competitiveness strategy is being outlined. Keywords: globalization, structure of competitive relations, competitiveness, strategy of global competitiveness JEL Classification: F15, F21

Shrift towards private ownership in forestry recourses in transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe promotes forest values and their development in diversified ways. In this paper, we provide a general equilibrium model assisting in estimation of forest management practices in the regional level by comparing different ownership structures and public policy measures. The model is applied for the county of Banská Bystrica in Slovakia. The re-sults provide an integrated tool identifying possibilities to address strategic development at the regional level that relates to the improvement of local well-being and sustainability applicable in other regions with diversified forest ownership structure. Keywords: forestry, property rights, ownership, transition countries, Slovakia JEL Classification: C68, Q15, Q23

Planning policy evaluation and verification of assumed policy impact on economic development is the main purpose of HERMIN model construction. Preparation of National Development Plan (NDP) of Slovak republic (NSRR), co financed by European Union funds, was the main cause for construction of HERMIN model of the Slovak Economy. Construction and estimation of this model is discussed in the first half of this paper while the second half consists of evaluation of three variants of the Slovak National Development Plan and policy implications. As previous studies have shown, the main question of NDP is not the magnitude of reallocations but its structure. In this respect, the results of this paper seem to be consistent with other empirical findings. Keywords: econometric model, HERMIN, economic development, planning po-licy evaluation JEL Classification: C32, C51, O11, O21

The important share in employment both in old and new EU member states is represented by the self-employers. The self-employment in the advanced economies has become more and more the demonstration of utilization of business opportunities and has let up to be the demonstration of necessity resulted from the threatened unemployment. The article briefly analyzes development of self-employment in those selected EU countries that simultaneously run the support programmes of self-employment and compares the expenditures on start-up pro-grammes of self-employers in Slovakia and in these selected countries. In addi-tion the article brings the actual knowledge from the EU advanced countries on the programmes and services for beginning entrepreneurs that could be ex-ploited in Slovakia. Keywords: self-employment, start-ups, business support services JEL Classification: J08, J21

One of the most important social problems of nowadays economic development at the world level is the high rate of unemployment, even in the economically most developed countries, with its negative implications in lasting poverty. It becomes evident that the correlation between economic dynamism and the creation of new labour opportunities is not as evident as in the past. The aim of this paper is to draw on controversial results of the efforts to reduce the rate of unemployment and to solve the social problems connected with it, especially in the USA and the EU, and the different results achieved. In the first part, we pay attention to the changing concept of full employment, in the second, we bring some numbers concerning the rates of unemployment and the evolution of the social situation in countries under consideration, and in the third, we discuss the different aspects of welfare state, especially of flex-security type. Keywords: full employment, unemployment, NAIRU, flexibility, flex-security, wellfare state, social cohesion JEL Classification: J08, J01, J60

Fiscal decentralization introduces a complicated and sensitive problems, witch have impact on the function of a civil society. The foundation of fiscal decentralization is coming out of economic, social, political, and juridical conditions with the goal of reaching the increasing affectivity, transparency, and responsibility while granting public goods and services. The substance of fiscal decentralization creates a relative strengthening of fiscal autonomy of lower government levels and an overall improvement of harmonization of tax and expense decisions, which respect the coordination with macroeconomic goals. In advanced, but also developing countries have already many authors come to empiric research and analysing the impact of fiscal decentralization on economic growth, budget equilibrium, macroeconomic stability, development, and the size of public sector. This type of research has never been realized, because of objective causes in conditions of Slovakia so far. Keywords: fiscal decentralization, fiscal unit, fiscal capacity, fiscal autonomy, fiscal unequilibrium, allocative function, macroeconomic indicators JEL Classification: H21, H29, H71, H72, H74, H77

The lack of domestic capital and need to upgrade the infrastructure drove to the effort to solve this problem with mobilising of the private finance. The article presents the role of public-private partnership (PPPs) and experience with it in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Why the PPPs have not been very successful in this region is mainly due to unfavourable institutional environment during the transition period, suboptimal project design and unrealistic demand projections. The article is structured in the following ways: section 1 provides the basic information about PPPs, section 2 provides a survey of PPPs in CEE over the last decade. Section 3 is focused on the highway sector in selected countries of CEE, as a particularly strategic infrastructure sector. Section 4 points out the advantages and disadvantages of the PPPs and gives general conclusions. Keywords: public-private partnership, infrastructure development, highway sector, institutional framework JEL Classification: H54, H87, L32, L33, L78