Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

We analyse labour market prospects of unemployed Czechs and Slovaks aged 50 – 65. Those aged 55 and over face the most diminished opportunities for re-employment and the strongest incentives to withdraw from the labour force. Women and individuals in poor health also fall into strongly disadvantaged/discouraged subcategories. Education levels or regional economic conditions do not significantly affect the re-employment odds. While these trends are similar in both countries, older Czechs face a lower probability of remaining unemployed, due to more frequent use of labour force withdrawals as an exit from unemployment. More frequent withdrawals occur in all subcategories of older unemployed Czechs, and can be observed after any comparable unemployment duration. The probability of re-employment of older Czechs and Slovaks is equivalent early in an unemployment spell, but becomes higher for older Slovaks after the fifth month of unemployment, even for those aged 60+. We suspect that the higher pensionable age in the Czech Republic is unlikely to function as a strong push factor to return to employment. We also point to the shorter duration of unemployment benefits for older Slovaks, which may encourage more job-finding effort. Keywords: competing-risks models; cumulative incidence functions; older-age unemployment; probabilities of leaving unemployment; survival analysis; JEL Classification: C34, C41, J14, J26, J64

Constant Elasticity of Substitution production function allows us, compared with a Cobb-Douglas function, to model different efficiency trends of labor and capital. In this article, we explore the efficiency trends of labor and capital in supply systems for the private and public sectors in Slovakia independently. If a single exponential trend for technical progress is used, the Cobb-Douglas production function can be used for the private sector and Leontieff production function for the public sector. We, however find a CES function with separate trends based on Box-Cox transformations outperforms capturing technological progress by models with a single exponential trend. Labor and capital efficiency gains in our preferred model are converging downwards to a positive constant for labor and increasing over time for capital in the private sector, whereas they are gradually decreasing for both factors in the public sector. The elasticity of substitution between labor and capital is significantly greater than zero, but also lower than 0.5 in preferred models for both sectors. Keywords: production function, time trend, Box-Cox transformation; JEL Classification: O47, E10

This paper analyses the factors involved in out-migration of the working-age native population from Spain to European countries during and after the Great Recession (2008 – 2016), accounting for the role of spatial spillovers through a spatial panel Durbin model. Furthermore, the study provides a comparative analysis between young and adult out-migrants to explore whether they hold different motivations. The findings reveal that out-migration of natives respond¬ed mainly to labour incentives and social protection expenditure, although the presence of amenities also mattered. Furthermore, they point to the relevance of social networks of former Spanish out-migrants residing in Europe as a pull factor, being this effect higher for young than for adult out-migrants. Finally, results disclose, regardless of the age group, the existence of very remarkable spatial spillovers. Keywords: out-migration, natives, Spain, Great Recession, spatial spillovers; JEL Classification: C23, F22, O15

The main aim of the paper is to highlight the importance of remaining years of life in relation to demographic ageing. We use the V4 countries as our case study and analyse demographic ageing using the concept of prospective age and the relevant indicators to consider whether statutory retirement age should be readdressed given the rise in remaining life expectancy among seniors. The classic indicators show ageing is increasing in the V4 countries. Using prospective indicators we can see that not only is the level of ageing significantly lower but that it is progressing more slowly, and in some cases reversing. The prospective approach could also be important in setting pension age as it reflects changes in life and the principle of equitability. The results also show that the way pension age is fixed in the V4 countries may pose a risk to the sustainability of pension systems. Keywords:prospective ageing, equitable normal pension age, old-age dependency ratio, V4 countries; JEL Classification: J11, J18, J26

The social dimension of sustainable development (SD) and those aspects of it related to human health are crucial for SD. By means of hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) the European Union countries and other three developed countries were assessed using selected indicators reflecting aspects of health related to SD. Five indicators reflecting these aspects at the macroeconomic level were used. These were a pair of objective indicators, a pair of subjective indicators and one indicator reflecting resources for health care. They were applied in order to cluster the 31 countries for each year in the period 2011 – 2015 and also for the whole period. Four clusters were created for the years 2011 – 2014, three clusters for 2015, and five clusters for the overall period. Switzerland was evaluated as the best performing country in the sample, and Lithuania as the worst. Czechia exhibited a significant shift towards higher sustainability. Keywords:health, Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA), Sustainable Development (SD), Principal Component Analysis (PCA); JEL Classification: I15, I18, Q01