Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

The paper analyses impact of institutional density on networking and com-petitiveness of six selected EU countries. Based on empirical data on European highly-innovative research projects NEST 2004 and 2005 and ERA-Net Series 2 we study to what extent the countries participate at these projects..The results show that participation of some countries in such programs is insufficient. Our model shows that despite the fact that country size has a certain impact on pro-ject participation rate in the analyzed types of projects, such relationship is only partial. The paper also shows that transformation rate of knowledge-related inputs into knowledge-related outputs is in the case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia much lower compared to the most developed countries with compara-ble size (Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Finland). Keywords: knowledge economy, European research programs, competitiveness, innovation, EU countries JEL Classification: O19, O31, O32, O38, O43

This paper is aimed at critically summarizing the recent performance of the world economy. The global figures seem to suggest that, by historical context, the past four years on average may be considered as the most successful for the world economy since the 1960s. The good news about the world’s recent eco-nomic performance is attributed not only to the success of the traditionally high performers but also the enormous growth that was recorded in wide-ranging group of industrialized, transition and developing economies. Nevertheless, de-spite the high average global growth, this growth rate has not been evenly dis-tributed among countries; rather, there has been a substantial disparity both across countries in the same regions as well as across regional economies. However, the growth prospect of the world economy in 2008 is a bit gloomy in response to policy tightening and the Euro’s appreciation against the US dollar, and skyrocketing oil prices, which might slowdown global growth. Keywords: world economy, economic growth, global imbalance, labor markets JEL Classifications: E52, E66, E42

This article analyses the sources of economic growth of the GDP in the Slovak Republic during 1995 – 2006 period. The analysis is based on growth ac-counting. The methodology and historical background of modern growth theory and growth accounting are also explained. The analysis in the article includes the computations of capital stock data, which were not published yet officially as well as the calculations of total factor productivity in the Slovak Republic. These computations are rarely used in the Slovak Republic and their aim is to lay down the fundamentals for another development of the economic analysis in Slovakia. Keywords: growth accounting, total factor productivity, economic growth JEL Classification: B41, D24, E23, O47

This paper is focused on the issue of changes in the tendencies of regional economic development during the phases of business cycle. Firstly we discuss various theoretical approaches to this issue predicting either pro-cyclical or anti-cyclical development of regional disparities. Then is performed a basic empirical analysis for five selected EU countries on NUTS II level. We use the coef-ficient of variation of per capita GVA and the Hodric-Prescott time-series filter. In most cases regional disparities tend to increase mainly in the onset of economic expansion. Observed divergence became slow during the running expansion as the result of spatial diffusion of economic growth. On the other hand there is no clear pattern during the recession. Nevertheless, we find rather stabilization or decline of disparities. Therefore our findings support rather pro-cyclical development of regional disparities but with non-linear and irregular pattern affected by strong industry-specific shocks. Keywords: regional development theory, regional disparities, regional economics, business cycle, EU countries, GVA JEL Classification: E32, O47, R10, R11

The transformation of the economies of the Central and Eastern European states was on the Regional level, very significantly connected with differential tenden-cies. In all new EU Member states there has been from the beginning of the 90s to date a continuous deepening of Regional disparities on the economic level. Regional disparities result from a number of economic, social and geographical factors. This article is a contribution to the studies of regional differentiation in the New EU Member States. The goal of this study is to clear up the actual trends and major factors of regional growth and differentiation of the new EU Member States. Keywords: new EU member states, regional disparities, regional development JEL Classification: R19