Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

This paper analyses development of regional disparities in Slovakia and examines neoclassical, polarisation and new growth theoretical approaches. Developments in regional disparities were analysed via econometric model, based on date for Slovak districts in period 1985-2002. As data on regional GDP were not available, average wage was used as a proxy for regional income. The model identified unemployment rates, urbanisation rates, shares of population with University degree and share of foreign investors in total enterprises as major factors behind regional divergence. This research rejected neoclassical assumptions and indicated that polarisation approaches on rapid regional convergence were more realistic. Keywords: regions, regional disparities, economic theory JEL:R11

This paper empirically looks at the conditional convergence debate by focussing on the impact of the debt crisis on disparities in income per capita across countries and over time. Using the recent Penn World Table’s database, version 6.1 (PWT 6.1), the results seem to suggest that countries have experienced conditional convergence in income per capita, hence poorer countries growing faster than richer ones, controlling for the longrun determinants of growth. The results also suggest that once we control for decadespecific and country-specific factors and the traditional variables that always appear in the augmented Solow growth framework, the regressions generate more plausible and robust results. Moreover, the regression results seem to suggest that there is a conditional convergence across heavily indebted poor countries (HIPCs), which may mean convergence towards a poverty trap rather than a standard steady state. Keywords: econometric models, debt crisis, income per capita, determinants of growth, convergence JEL: B23, C31, C33, E64, O47

The main aspiration of the submitted paper is to offer a view on impact of industrial and regional differentiation on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in SR. In spite of it SMEs have entire development their regional differentiation depends not only on regional, but also on industrial policy and differentiation. One of the new possibilities how to improve the new entrepreneurial environment in Slovak republic are different kinds of cooperation strategies, but it is rather questionable if those strategies bring positive results without simultaneous influence of other important factors as is for instance structural changes of Slovak industry. Keywords: cooperation strategy, industrial differentiation, labour productivity, regional differentiation, SMEs JEL: L50, R12, L25

The aim of this article is to describe the possibilities of the rural development in Bratislava region in 2004 – 2006. The theories of the regional polarisation are major theoretical base to identify the Slovak regional differences and differrences inside Bratislava region at hole. The article deals with the development potential in industry, market services, tourism and agriculture. It contents the results of SWOT analyse and the short-term activities to support rural development. The rural region is represented by 71 municipalities in districts Malacky, Pezinok, Senec and by parts of city Bratislava – Záhorská Bystrica, Vajnory, Jarovce, Rusovce and Čuňovo. Keywords: rural region, regional potential, SWOT analyse of region, industry, agriculture, tourism, market services, short-term activities to support regional development JEL: R11, R23, R58, Q1, L6, L8

The paper addressed issue of regional convergence of Slovak NUTS II regions in the context of the enlargement and sustainable regional development. The concept of multidimensional sustainability based on capital theory, consisting of production, human, social and natural capital is introduced as major methodological approach. Based on this, Slovak NUTS II regions were compared using selected indicators of four above mentioned types of capital. Results demonstrates that regional disparities measured as multidimensional variables can be considered as vital contribution to real convergence among EU regions and that the principle of sustainable development has potential significantly influence transformation to the knowledge based society and the formation of adequate partnerships in the regions. Keywords: regional sustainability, cohesion policy JEL: Q01

The accession funds assistance of European Union presented aid for the candidate countries to solve the environmental issues on national and regional level, too. The article evaluates the absorption capacity of particular regions especially on NUTS II and NUTS III level of Slovak republic and Czech Republic in SAPARD, ISPA and partly PHARE programs. Absorption capacity of particular regions is influenced by complex of economical-social and institutional factors, that significantly decreasing with rising regional disparities. The obtained results are valuable resource of information to assess the potential of evaluated countries with a view to Structural funds and Cohesion Fund assistance of European Union. Keywords: ISPA programme, SAPARD programme, structural funds, cohesion fund, ability of regions JEL: R11, R58

Regional problems of Slovakia have resulted from the deep transition of national economy. They have influenced the level of production and employment that have been decreased. They are connected with disharmony of institutional and organizational arrangements of economy and society. The paper is based on analysis of basic macroeconomic indicators development, economic activities and educational structure of Košice region. We can point out that the structure of industry is diversified but not in all districts. The town Košice is assumed to keep dominant position in the region. Special attention will be devoted to development of new districts: Gelnica and Sobrance. Gelnica district suffers from conversion of armaments industry and Sobrance districts has the least developed industrial basis. The inevitable sup-port should be given to SMEs to create diversified structure of economy in these districts. Keywords: regional problems, industry, macroeconomic indicators JEL: R11, R12

The system of the regional development also includes the marketing approach to the cities and towns management and development. Marketing uses the traditional methods and tools, which reflects specific environment and conditions of the concrete city or town. Cities or towns must being to do what business organisations have been doing for years, namely strategic marketing planning. The most used method in this process is called SWOT analysis, that is to identify place’s major strengths and weaknesses, as well as its opportunities and threats. One of the kinds of the regional marketing strategy is the city marketing strategy, that defines the vision, goals, mission, city marketing mix etc. Keywords: regional development, city, town, management, marketing, strategic marketing planning, strategy JEL: M31

The basic objective of this paper is to bring an overview on some research potentialities of entropy maximizing models in regional analysis, the discipline analysing spatial organisation of society on the regional level. The first part of the paper brings basic information on entropy as a concept of science: in classical (phenomenological) thermodynamics, in statistical mechanics (thermodynamics) and in information theory. In the second part the concept of maximum entropy and its relevance is discussed, particularly in statistical mechanics and information theory. A special attention (in the second part of the paper) is paid to maximizing entropy in the derivation of the distribution models in statistical mechanics using Boltzmann’s entropy and to Jayne’s „maximum entropy principle“ enabling the derivation of these models by maximizing Shannon’s entropy. The third part of the paper demonstrates how the entropy maximizing models can be used in regional analysis. Keywords: entropy maximizing models, regional analysis, information theory, distribution models JEL: C15, R15, R58