Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

In this paper, we have verified the convergence process in the EU in the period 2001 – 2013. The methodology of this paper is similar to that of Artis and Zhang (1997), Boreiko (2003), and Crowley (2013), who also focused on the European convergence process. This paper is based on the thesis that the convergence process is proven if the clusters are gathering in shorter squared Euclidean distances during the time, or, alternatively, if the distances between European Union economies and Germany are shorter. First, in order to perform the cluster analysis, the convergence criteria are identified (the choice of the criteria is based on optimum currency area). Second, with regards to the criteria, we conduct thirteen cluster analyses for every year of the period 2001 – 2013. From this perspective, we focus on the differences between the analyses' outputs during the time. According to our results, it is possible to draw the conclusion that the economic convergence process in the EU was not proven. Keywords: convergence, convergence process, cluster analysis, European Union, European Monetary Union, optimum currency areas JEL Classification: F15

A small open economy is highly dependent on foreign environments. This article investigates equilibrium relations between a small open economy and its foreign trade partners. Based on long-run relationships developed by Garratt et al. (2003) a structural model for the Czech Republic (CR) and Slovak Republic (SR) is constructed for period 2002Q1 to 2015Q4. As most of the macroeconomic variables are nonstationary, the Cointegrated Vector Autoregressive Approach (CVAR) is used for empirical analysis. The following five long-run equilibrium relations are examined: relative purchasing power parity, uncovered interest rate parity, Fisher inflation parity, money market equilibrium, and output relation. The estimation results of the long-run relations confirmed similarities between these economies. Keywords: cointegrated VAR, long-run relationships, small open economy JEL Classification: C32, F41, F42

This paper investigates the relationship between tax structures and eco-nomic growth in selected CEE countries in the period from 1990 to 2010. The research basis on the data for 20 selected countries (EU-13 and selected former Soviet Union countries and Albania). We obtain empirical results by using the Pooled Mean Group estimator (PMG). The analysis focuses on the impact of structure of taxes on economic growth. All regressions contain the overall tax burden represented as a share of total tax revenues in GDP. The results show that all tax forms have a negative impact on economic growth. Personal income taxes proved to have the highest negative impact on economic growth, followed by corporate income taxes and property taxes, which had the least negative impact. Consumption taxes showed to be statistically insignificant. Furthermore, the results indicate a significantly different impact observed countries’ tax structures had on economic growth to that of previous research on the dataset of OECD developed industrial countries. Keywords: tax structure, economic growth, Central and Eastern Europe, Pooled Mean Group Estimator JEL Classification: H10, H21, O47, O52

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of public spending on economic growth and examine the sources of economic growth in developed countries since the 1990s. This paper analyses whether public spending effect on economic growth based on Cobb-Douglas Production Function with the two econometric models with Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Dynamic Fixed Effect (DFE) for 21 developed countries (high-income OECD countries), over the period 1990 – 2013. In comparison to similar empirical studies, our paper will add to the existing literature by extending the sample of developed countries and providing the latest empirical evidence for non-linear and structural breaks. Our model results are parallel to each other and the models support that public spending has an important role for economic growth. This result is accurate with theories and previous empirical studies. Keywords: public spending, economic growth, panel data, ARDL models JEL Classification: O47, H50, C33, H11

The paper contributes to the existing literature by incorporating the Keynesian principle of weak aggregate demand into the basic search-matching model of unemployment in a simple and novel way. Multiple equilibrium unemployment rates emerge as a result of this modification. It is shown that output demand not only plays short-term role but might be essential in the long-run as well. This is because the initial fall in aggregate demand may cause unemployment rate to converge to a higher (long-run) equilibrium. All these aspects are illustrated for the Spanish labour market and it is shown that the model with multiple equilibrium unemployment rates outperforms the baseline standard search and matching model in its forecasting performance as well as in its ability to describe huge persistent swings in unemployment. Keywords: search-matching model, unemployment rate, output demand, multiple equilibria JEL Classification: E24, J23, J64