Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

This paper examines the evolution of the Slovak motor vehicles sector during 2005 – 2015, drawing on the latest update (December 2018) of OECD’s Inter-Country Input-Output (ICIO) model database. The review takes a global value chain (GVC) approach and looks at the linkages from the gross production and value-added perspectives. The overall contribution of the motor vehicles sector to Slovakia’s gross production and domestic value added increased twofold during the reference period. There was an ongoing change in the structure of the GVC linkages. The reliance on domestically-sourced inputs increased over the years. The (indirect) value added created in the production of domestically-sourced inputs gradually approached the level of the (direct) value added generated within the motor vehicles sector. Subsequent to the global financial crisis, the share of intermediate goods in exports, the forward linkage of the GVC, and the upstreamness of the production process were all on a rising trend. The sourcing pattern of imports of intermediate inputs and the market for exports steadily shifted away from the euro area towards non-EU countries. It is estimated that a hypothetical 10 percent negative shock to global final demand for motor vehicles would lower Slovak GDP growth by 1 percentage point.

We study supply side factors of the labor market in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The common economic history of these Central European economies suggests that long-run relationships should have similar patterns. While we find that for the Czech Republic and Hungary there exists a long-run relation of equilibrium unemployment rate to real wages, capital stock and terms of trade, such relationship does not hold for Poland and Slovakia. Instead, labor market trends are better described by the relationship of equilibrium real wages. This finding uncovers structural differences within the Visegrad countries. These differences relate to the extent to which labor supply can adapt to shocks. In practice this would suggest that it was more efficient for Slovakia to conduct supply-oriented policies to stabilize labor market conditions. On the contrary, the more efficient tools for the Czech Republic are wage-oriented policies, connected to the demand side.

Interest rate risk measurement and management of non-maturity deposit balances presents a challenge for practitioners and academic researchers as well. The paper provides a review of several methodological approaches focusing on the area of savings accounts rate sensitivity modeling and estimation. The pro-posed interest rate sensitivity models are tested on a Czech banking sector dataset providing mixed results regarding the cointegration type models generally recommended in the literature. On the other hand, the analysis shows that simpler regression models may provide more robust results if the cointegration tests between the saving accounts rate and the market rate series fail. According to the empirical results, the sensitivity of the domestic savings rates is slightly higher for companies compared to rates for individuals, but in both cases well below 50%.

The issue of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy is highly topical at a time of gradual economic recovery. The study presents the results of more than a year and a half of empirical research on changes in consumer behaviour patterns of Slovaks obtained through an analysis of their online interactions with the five main representatives of the e-commerce industry. During both pandemic waves B2C and C2B interactions of a sample of more than half a million customers in the Facebook social network environment were systematically recorded. Subsequently, the data were compared with the reference period one year after the historically first lockdown. The results suggest that during the pandemic, customers switched into completely new patterns of consumer behaviour aimed at maximizing benefits. However, as the pandemic progressed, these patterns combined with the pre-pandemic standard behaviour and created a new, relatively stable evolving trend. This economically significant trend must be considered in business practice.