Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

This article analyses whether there are differences in information and com-munications technology (ICT) adoption among enterprises in European countries (full EU members, candidate and other countries) according to the ranking of countries at the Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) list. According to the results, countries from different innovation level groups differ according to: (1) adoption of the internal processes support within information systems, (2) adoption of e-Commerce and CRM, and (3) adoption of broadband and LAN. Since the Digital Agenda goals are oriented primarily towards closing the digital gap among individuals, the EU should also address active fostering of ICT adoption in enterprises in order to further improve their innovative capacity. Keywords: ICT adoption; innovation; digital divide; European Union; Digital Agenda; Innovation Union Scoreboard JEL Classification: O31, O32, Q55, N74, O14, L86

Formation of a single market is one of the main priorities during the integration process of the European Union. For this purpose it was planned to unify tax rules throughout the entire Community. The main question of this paper is whether the European Union has been meeting the objective of single market. It focuses on a question whether the tax systems are converging in the context of tax burden, tax mixes and implicit tax rates. Beta and Sigma convergences are used for meeting the goal of the paper. The results suggest evidence of a convergence in the field of tax burden and implicit tax rates during the analyzed period. The results also highlight the fact of a possible influence of EU integration as well as of globalization and tax competition issues. Keywords: tax burden, tax mix, implicit tax rates, convergece, Beta convergence, Sigma convergence, the European Union. JEL Clasification: E60

One of the major consequences of the current financial and economic crisis is instability of the labour market. This article focuses on a number of thematic sub-topics defined by the following themes: What trends and policies affecting performance of the labour market prevail over the economic cycle started in 2000. The starting point for reflection on the creation of a suitable economic environment for development of the labour market in the future is identification of weaknesses in the labour market in the Czech Republic. Under discussion is which countries and under what conditions show resistance to high levels of unemployment and vice versa, which countries and under what conditions show considerable vulnerability of labour market developments. Closing question is what setting of the economic policy is suitable for the development of the labour market in the future. Keywords: business cycle, labour market, unemployment, employment, fiscal policy, employment policy, wages, financial stability, economic growth, international comparison JEL Classification: E32, J01, J08, J48

The article focuses on the economic situation of households in the Czech Republic. It discusses the factors of the material deprivation rate and related indicators. These factors are household equipment, other indicators of financial possibilities and inability to pay regular payments on time. This article is based on the Living Conditions Survey in 2011, data are compared with data in 2008 – 2010. Furthermore, the data are compared in the different groups of households. Model of logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship among material deprivation and selected categorical indicators. The best situation in the Czech Republic is in households with high levels of education. Households with unemployed members suffer most from material deprivation. In comparison with pre-vious years the proportion of households that could not afford an annual one-week holiday away from home or unexpected expenses slightly increased. Keywords: material deprivation rate, Czech households, household type, EU-SILC survey JEL Classification: C38, D19, I39

The public expenditure programs create an integral and very important part of public expenditure. Their efficiency is greatly influenced by the value of transaction costs. This issue is currently being widely discussed both on the theoretical and the practical level. The aim of presented paper is to define the position of the transaction costs in methodological framework of 3E and to summarize the results of their measurements in the Czech Republic. The article divides transaction costs into two groups: administrative (expended by the program administrators) and compliance (expended by recipients). Presented results of empirical research clearly show that size of transaction costs is certainly significant. The value of relative administrative costs is between 0.1 and 4%. Significantly higher are, however, relative compliance costs; in some cases even reach 28%. Keywords: Czech Republic, effectiveness, public expenditure programs, transaction costs, JEL Classification: H50, D23