Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

Financial institutions have a special role in the economy. Monetary financial institutions take part on realizing monetary policy and provide economic subjects with necessary finances. Majority of credits are granted to households from banking institutions. Therefore the objective of this paper is to identify determinants of household credits in Slovakia. Credits to households are positively influenced by disposable income and negatively by unemployment rate, real interest rate and earnings from property. Keywords: financial institutions, banks, household credit, unemployment rate, interest rate JEL Classification: E41, E44

The article deal with optimum currency area (OCA) theory and examines which of the new EU member states are suitable candidates for the euro extended by EU-10 countries membership. The OCA index which is based on predicted value of nominal exchange rate variability is used to consider the suitability of monetary union membership. The index is estimated in two steps. First, relationship between the volatility of the nominal exchange rate and the fulfilment of the OCA criteria is estimated on a sample of 11 countries (EU-10 and the euro area) over the period 1999 – 2009. Subsequently, OCA index is calculated as the predicted value of the nominal exchange rate variability EU-10 countries to the euro. The lowest index values achieved the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary and Estonia. Those countries seem most appropriate candidates for adopting the single currency euro as compared with other EU-10 countries. Keywords: European Union, European Monetary Union, optimum currency area, euro, optimum currency area index, exchange rates JEL Classification: F15, F31

The subject of this paper is comparative advantage and specialization level analysis in international trade of primary and industrial products of countries from the Danube region. Export structures, together with comparative advantages and specialization level of countries from the Danube region have been dynamically observed. The research utilizes the Balassa (RCA) and Lafay (LFI) indexes of comparative advantage and Grubel-Lloyd’s index of intra-industrial exchange. This research has been found that the positive value of comparative advantage in the export of primary products is present in the cases of Romania and Bulgaria, and as regards the export of industrial products the same applies for: Austria, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. Keywords: international trade structure, export expansion, Danube region, Balassa index, Lafay index, intra-industrial exchange JEL Classification: P51, F14

Composite leading indicators serve to the purpose of early identification of the stage of business cycle and its turning points. The indicators are constructed on the basis of statistical analysis for predicting the phase of business cycle via the VARX model approach. The model of Slovakia is composed of three variables: gross domestic product as reference series (endogenous variable), composite leading indicator for the domestic economy (endogenous variable) and composite leading indicator of external environment (exogenous variable). The quality of the model is verified using statistical tests of stationarity and causality of variables and tests of residuals. The VARX model exhibits some ability to adapt to changes of the business cycle, but the quantitative projections are rather unable to predict accurately the turning points. Keywords: business cycle, VARX model, leading indicators, small and open economy JEL Classification: C32, C52, C53, E32, E37

The paper deals with the findings of a survey conducted in the Czech private equity and venture capital market. The major issue considered by the project included: How the venture capital investors can contribute to the success of investee companies in ways other than financing, i.e. via non-financial value-added inputs? The nature of this study is explorative. It relies on primary data that were collected using semi-structured questionnaires. The questionnaire-collected data was treated by descriptive statistical methods reflecting its nature and quantity and by content analysis. This empirical survey has been the first descriptive analyses of non-financial value-added inputs in the Czech venture capital market. Keywords: private equity, venture capital, non-financial value-added, strategic management, networking, mentoring, couching JEL Classification: G24

The aim of the paper is to outline the interests of the European Union and Russia in the area of energy. The paper is focused on measures leading to strengthening the EU energy safety, clarification of the energy vector of foreign policy of Russian Federation determined by the ambition of Russia to become an energy superpower and on highlighting different understanding of diversification of supplies of energy carriers by both parties. However, such different understanding should not lead to significant weakening of their interdependence in the future. Relations EU – Russia are supplemented with problems of source securing in their energy dialogue; in this context special attention is paid to the Caspian region and Central Asia. Examples of concurrence in the interests of the EU and Russia are mentioned as well as examples of collisions in the interests in the area of energy. Keywords: energy safety, EU energy strategy, Europe 2020, European Union, Russia, diversification of energy sources, oil, gas, Caspian region and Central Asia JEL Classification: D40, F02, F10, F23, L12, O13, Q30