Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

This paper analyses the relationships between real and nominal convergence in the new post communist member states and on this basis evaluates the potential benefits and risks connected with joining the euro. The analysis observes both the common problems of catching-up economies and the dissimilarities and peculiarities influenced by the differences in the macroeconomic parameters in individual countries. The regression analysis shows interdependence between the comparative price and wage level and the income per capita level. The benefits connected with elimination of exchange rate risks and reduction of transaction costs are compared with the disadvantages associated with the loss of an independent monetary policy and an adjusting exchange rate mechanism. Attention is paid to a potential impact on real convergence of the observed countries. Keywords: nominal and real convergence, currency area, comparative price and wage level, unit labour costs, exchange rate appreciation and depreciation JEL Classification: E31, F15, F43, J30, O11

It is argued that the analytical framework of Keynes’ General Theory rests on two different and contradictory “prescientific visions” in the Schumpeterian sense. The dominant vision can be identified with its unwillingness to acknowledge the possibility that the market system can undergo periods of prolonged instability or even collapse due to its own functioning. The second, more latent, vision acknowledges the destabilizing consequences of the “coordination prob-lem” in a long run framework. The clash between these visions prevents the book from tracing the long run effects of the coordination problem, due to instabilities introduced by money and investment. This clash causes the book to be confined within a comparative static analysis instead of a dynamic one. Keywords: preanalytical vision, coordination problem, synchronic vs. diachronic, dynamic order, shifting equilibrium, comparative static analysis JEL Classification: B22, B31, E12

This paper offers a two-period small open economy model with publicly provided production inputs. The model confirms that if government’s and consumers’ relative preferences for second period utility coincide, while at the same time the public cost of borrowing and the consumers’ return on saving are identical, lump-sum taxation and public debt are equivalent methods of financing public input provision. However, if the public cost of borrowing and the consumers’ return on saving do not match, debt financing similarly as capital taxation can depending on circumstances lead to under- or over-provision of public inputs in a small open economy. Furthermore, if the government cannot ex ante commit to a certain expenditure level, the difference between the government’s and consumers’ discount rate can also result into under- or over-provision of public inputs. Keywords: capital mobility, public input provision, public debt JEL Classification: F20, H40, E62

This paper describes the approach of the European Union to the competition policy. In the first part of the paper the paper presents the European antitrust law. Then, the work focuses on the antitrust actions, which occurred in the European Union. It means that the legal way-outs from the first part of the work are in the second one applied in the reality by the European administration (respectively by the European judicature). Both parts are divided into three sections – restrictive agreements, dominant position and the mergers. The paper is amended by the description of the present reform and finalized by the evaluation of the European approach to the competition policy. Keywords: antitrust policy, competition, antitrust law, monopoly, cartels JEL Classification: K21, L40, L41

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the key factors that determine economic efficiency for manufacturing firms. This problem is solved, especially for businesses running under the conditions of a “knowledge economy”. After a description of the specific features of a new economy, the authors have specified two main hypotheses: The first key factor which can cause general increase the level of economic efficiency is the management system and incentive scheme based on economic value added concept. The second factor should be a massive implementation and utilization of advanced manufacturing technologies. Both hypotheses have been verified in comparison to relevant opinions found in professional literature and to the results of a survey realized in 132 Czech manufacturing firms. The first hypothesis appears to be completely testified. The second hypothesis, related to advanced manufacturing technologies, has been confirmed only partly. Keywords: economic efficiency of firm, economic value added, advanced manufacturing technologies JEL Classification: M13, M21, L25

Environmental protection is one of the global goals of mankind nowadays. A sustainable development strategy is a new direction of an evolution that has to be used especially at a level in which most of the environmental weight arises – in the companies. A method of marketing audit was used for evaluating a company’s approach to an environmental protection that identifies a level of strategy of sustainable development application in internal and external environment of a company. There were determined the key factors within the application of this method in the environmental area and these key factors influence an implementation of sustainable development strategy. These were also determined the intervals for companies evaluation in three areas of implementation. This method was verified in the complex of selected companies in the Czech Republic. Keywords: a sustainable development strategy, the key factors of evaluation, a verification in entrepreneurial environment JEL Classification: Q56, Q58