Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

In the globalized world, multinational corporations deepen the market power imbalances in agrifood chains. Markets do not repay the production costs of farm producers. Economic pressures on the growth of harvests and on maximization of returns on investments reduce the sustainability of agricultural lands and their ecosystems. Based on the official monthly statistical data of the Czech Statistical Office in period 1991 – 2008 and on data from other countries, the paper shows the growing inequalities on food markets, identifies their drivers and puts forward suggestions leading to the re-evaluation of the common agricultural policy (CAP) and to the solution of the financial and economic crisis.

The paper deals with the explication of importance of squeeze out institute under conditions of the Slovak Republic, which has transposed the squeeze out regulation into the national legal regulations based on Directive of the Euro-pean Parliament and Council of the European Union 2004/25/ES of April 21, 2004 on takeover bids and is connected with harmonization of our legal regula-tions with the legal system of the European Union. The goal of the paper is to specify the theoretical bases of squeeze out, to describe the methods of determi-nation of an appropriate consideration with buy-out right applied, from the point of view of methods of determination of a general value of property in the Slovak Republic applied, and to propose the conceptual plans of the selected problem spheres of that given legal regulations.

This study contributes to the aid-effectiveness literature by applying a fiscal response model to a panel of 24 transition nations over the periods 1990 – 2005. The study employs various dynamic panel estimation methods in an effort to analyze the impact of foreign aid on governments’ fiscal behaviour; that is, government investment, government consumption, public revenue creation and borrowing activities. The findings shed some light on the aid-growth nexus, indicating that aid promotes government investment while does not influence government consumption behaviour. Further, there appears to be a positive association between aid and public borrowing, which can be detrimental to the growth process in transition economies.

The present study deals with theoretical and practical problems related to program evaluation. Based on contrasting various public program evaluation approaches it analyzes the virtues and setbacks of economic evaluation and offers indigenous criteria for comprehensive assessment of public programs. At the end, a mathematical model to optimize the public program portfolio related to discrete costs is proposed.

Last year Paul Krugman was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity. The paper deals with the significant elements of his scientific works, the basic assumptions incorporated in the models, particularly economy of scale and imperfect competition. The new approach to trade theory is introduced based on the explanation why intra-industry trade occurs between similar countries. The coreperiphery model is considered as a starting point of the new economic geography with far-reaching consequences for further economic research. Other contributions to economic theory are mentioned such as the analysis of international monetary policy, the study of currency crises, target zone of exchange rates etc.