Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

This article deals with the mechanisms of satisfying creditors’ claims in the Czech economy and macroeconomic determinants of the corporate failure. The paper briefly characterize the development of the insolvency in the Czech Republic during 1997 – 2005 and tests macroeconomic determinants of the corporate failure on the time series of the number of bankruptcy petitions filed. Empirical analysis suggest the causal link between the annual GDP growth rate, interest rates, inflation rate and aggregate debt of the corporate sector on one side and the bank-ruptcy rate in the Czech Republic on the other side. Estimated model indicates procyclicality in the bankruptcy rate and implies structural changes between 2003 and 2004, which corresponds to the privatization of the banking sector. Keywords: failure, bankruptcy, execution, macroeconomic determinants JEL Classification: G33, C51, E32

Results of field research and experience from economic praxes demonstrate failures of many investment projects and inability of many firms to learn from mistakes and successes. The article is oriented on the one important tool supporting this learning, which is Post Project Appraisal. First possible causes of failures of investment project are discussed and further content. Post Project Appraisal and experience from its implementation in companies British Petroleum and Česká rafinérská is characterised. Attention is further paid to results of field research regarding approaches used by Czech enterprises for evaluation of investment project after their completion (brief evaluation of costs, brief evaluation of economic effects, detail Post Project Appraisal) and testing hypotheses of statistical dependencies of these approaches on selected factors (size of enterprise, ownership, existence of strategy, implementation of controlling). Keywords: investment project, post project appraisals, hypotheses testing JEL Classification: G 31

There has been a discussion on simplification of personal income tax in many European Union member states since 2000. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe in particular tend to consider a new tax phenomenon – a flat tax rate. This has been a part of the tax system in the Czech Republic since January 1, 2008 as well. The nominal tax rates predicate the real rate of taxation insufficiently. A more objective way to measure the tax circumstances of the taxpayers in individual countries is relative indicators such as the tax incidence of taxpayers with an average wage, the calculation of an efficient tax rate or measuring the tax progressiveness. This paper shows that changes in the efficient tax rate do not have to influence the relevant change of tax progressiveness. The aim of this paper is to show the impact of personal income tax changes on the efficient tax rate and the tax progressiveness in the Czech Republic. Keywords: average wage, efficient tax rate, flat tax rate, personal income tax, tax liability, tax progressiveness JEL Classification: H21, H22, H24

Slovak cities insure several services. The article is concentrated on waste collection, lightening, care of the verdure, road maintaining and cemetery services and we analyze decision-making on the contract allocation by Slovak cities in the context of transparent decision-making which is assumption of the public services effective utilization. The findings hint as that cities mainly use public tenders within the selection of given services provider. Such competitive practices are chosen within the contracts that are restricted on the longest period and are at the same time restricted on the highest prices. According to our findings political factors, besides economic motivations, are entering into the decision-making of contract allocation. An example is identified influence of political cycle on contract allocation. Keywords: decision-making, municipalities/cities, services, public procurement, transparency, contracts JEL Classification: R38, H76, H44

Demand deposits play an important role for commercial banks as they represent relatively reliable funding base as well as a source of income (they are remunerated bellow market rates, sometimes even at zero rates). At the same time, demand deposits are also responsible for significant part of volatility of profit and loss (P&L) – both economic and accounting. This paper demonstrates how the interest rate risk of demand deposits may be assessed and hedged under earnings perspective and economic value perspective and discusses whether these approaches are consistent with low volatility of accounting P&L. Keywords: demand deposits, interest rate risk, replicating portfolio models, stochastic models, hedge accounting JEL classification: G11, G12, G13, G21, G32

The paper draws attention to the new socio-spatial differentiation emerging in the Czech Republic and discusses its relation to certain aspects of people’s quality of life in cities, towns and villages. At the same time the paper points out the significance of empirical research focused on territorial disparities at mi-croregional level and it proposes feasible approaches to measure and to evaluate microscale socio-spatial differentiation. Finally, the objective is to emphasize the necessity to reflect research results in political practice – in introducing explicit regional dimension into public policies and development strategies of cites and municipalities. Keywords: socio-spatial differentiation; regional policy; quality of life; Czech Republic JEL Classification: O18, E61, G18