Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

The object of this article is to study the consumer perception of Yield Management (YM) with an example in the hotel sector. Hotels use these practices in order to increase their incomes. However, the economic literature suggests that if YM practices are considered to be unfair, they are likely to influence customers’ purchasing intentions negatively, in particular for loyal customers. Our empirical analysis shows that the assumption that the YM induces dissatisfaction in all circumstances is rejected. But when a practice of YM is perceived as unfair, it causes a loss of customers. However, the manner of presenting the YM practices to consumers (positive or negative frame) has a considerable influence on their perception. Lastly, the price changes induced by the YM are not perceived more unfavourably by the loyal customers. From this point of view, there are several managerial levers in the communication of tariff practices and the management of loyalty programs to avoid or reduce the conflicts with customers. Keywords: yield management, revenue management, perception, unfair, customer behaviour JEL Classification: M31, L83, L11

The European banking industry has experienced profound change in regulation, technology and market structure over the last two decades. Since the late 1990s, a strong wave of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and market consolidation process have been induced by changing external environment. The aim of this paper is to find out whether M&A transactions in the European banking sector can be justified by creating value for involved banks’ shareholders. For this purpose we conduct an event study examining value implications of 59 M&A transactions of listed European banks carried out between 1998 and 2007. Our findings suggest large value creation for the targets’ shareholders. On contrary, significant value destruction is found for shareholders of the bidding banks. The net wealth effect for combined entities of targets and bidders is still significantly positive; therefore, we conclude that banking M&As have been successful in the observed period. Moreover, we present results for several sub-samples analysing differences in terms of value creation between domestic and cross-border deals, cash and equity-financed deals and transactions of different sizes. Keywords: mergers and acquisitions, bank, abnormal return, shareholder value JEL Classification: G34, G21, C12

The article deals with business cycles of selected European countries for the long period of time – since 1960. The group of analyzed countries is represented by the member states of the Economic and Monetary Union. The analyzed group of countries contains both members sharing the single common currency euro and selected countries that decided to keep their national currency. The article examines development of business cycles during a long period of time. This will be done by the Hodrick-Prescott approach to a detrending of time series. Symmetries in business cycles are finally analysed by comparing the business cycles of the EMU member states. Then its possible to analyze whether there is any core and periphery within the EMU according to the business cycles or not. Keywords: business cycle, correlation, European economics and monetary Union, Eurozone, Hodrick-Prescott filter JEL Classification: E00, E32, E42

The neoclassical production function stands for a corner-stone of majority of neoclassical schools of macroeconomics. Its history has been bound with such well-known names as A. Marshall, K. Wicksell, C. Cobb, P. Douglas, P. Samuelson, R. Solow, etc. On the other hand, the neoclassical concept of production function has also faced some criticism during second half of the 20th century coming especially from Europe (J. Robinson, P. Sraffa, L. Pasinetti, P. Sylos Labini, etc.). No matter how rigorous and robust their reproaches were, their critical opinions have never really been reflected in the mainstream economics. The article reopens the debate on validity of presumptions of the neoclassical concept of production function and theory of distribution. Its authors bring objective and unbiased view of the centennial history of various production functions, they show their relations to theories of distribution, and by doing so they hope to attract attention of contemporary economists to the old and yet unsettled issues. Keywords: Cobb-Douglas production function, theory of distribution, capital, labor, neoclassical economics, postkeynesian economics, technological progress JEL Classification: E25, O40

The aim of the study is to present and describe a possible interaction between current trendy economic spheres – project management and marketing. On the basis of the research performed, the authors identify key elements of new specific marketing instrumentary which might be applied by project presentation for publics, and project implementation within a developing region of the Slovak republic. The method was analysed in praxis for a chosen type of a project re-lated to the long-life education which was implemented in the developing region. Keywords: marketing mix; project management; region JEL Classification: M31

Paul Samuelson was one of the greatest economists of the second half of the 20th century; his works helped to lay the foundations of current economic theory. The aim of the paper is to show Samuelson’s contribution to development of economic sciences which relates to wide range of various areas of economics, mainly economic analysis, economic dynamics and general balance, stability analysis, theory of consumption, capital theory, macroeconomics, multiplier accelerator model, elaboration of Phillips curve, creation and promotion of neo-classical synthesis etc. Samuelson was also a significant popularizer of economic knowledge, in particular by means of the world-famous Economics text-book which became the real Bible of economic sciences for numerous students. Keywords: Paul Samuelson, Economics textbook, neoclassical synthesis, economic dynamics, theory of consumption, capital theory, multiplier accelerator model, Phillips curve, economic analysis JEL Classification: A11, A2, B41, C1, C6, E12, E13, E21, E31, E63, F1