Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

The paper builds on an intertemporal model of an open economy to formulate the hypothesis of the dependance of real exchange rate on labor productivity. The model is formulated under those assumption on which the Balassa-Samuelson theorem rests. The hypothesis is tested using cointegration technique and vector error correction model. Usually testing the Balassa-Samuelson effect gives mixed results, sometimes finding the opposite reaction of the real exchange rate to the one predicted by the Balassa-Samuelson theorem, pointing to the restric-tive nature of the assumptions on which it is based. The analysis shows a little supportive evidence for the Balassa-Samuelson effect. However, according to the analysis the effect of labor productivity on the real exchange rate can hardly be considered as clearcut as predicted by the Balassa-Samuelson theorem. Keywords: Balassa-Samuelson effect, cointegration, intertemporal model, VECM JEL Classification: C32, F31, F41

We analyse agro-food trade structures of Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) with the European Union (EU-15) market to identify the specialisation patterns during the pre-accession using different trade indices. The analyses assess whether these patterns in the CEECs agro-food trade structures indicate convergence of the agro-food trade specialisation. We find that CEECs agro-food export has converged towards greater structural similarity with the EU-15 market, but less in high and very high quality differentiated agro-food products. This implies some of the CEECs pre-accession integration difficulties with higher valued agro-food products on the EU-15 market during adjustments and structural changes of CEECs’ agro-food export patterns towards more competitive the EU-15 market. Keywords: trade structure, specialisation pattern, Central and Eastern Europe JEL Classification: F14, F15, Q17

The process of privatization of companies basically generates the transfer of ownership of companies, which leads to the change of management form to private companies and persons. The subject of this research is to determine the scopes and challenges of the privatization process in the Republic of Serbia. The goal of the research is to define the level of applicability and adaptability of pri-vatization models under transitory conditions. The basic hypothesis of the research is that there is a correlative relationship between the numbers of offered and sold companies and the methods used. The results of this research will indicate the scopes, challenges and efficiency of the privatization processes in Serbia, appropriately providing a scientific background for further research in the area. The object of the research are the scopes and challenges of privatization in the case of the Republic of Serbia with a special overview on the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina as the most developed region of Serbia and under the hypothesis that the effects of privatization on the territory of AP Vojvodina are greatly felt on the whole territory of Serbia. Keywords: privatization, social capital, state capital, public companies, com-munal companies JEL Classification: L33

The centrally planned GDR (German Democratic Republic) economy obtained a complete institutional framework of a capitalist economy of the FRG at the mo-ment of reunification of Germany in 1990. According to the social-economic approaches to the growth theory based on formal conception of institutions, conditions for a dynamic economic development in East Germany were created. However, our case study shows that the economy of East Germany got stuck in a long-term stagnation. The growth theory of the new institutional economics based on the North’s path dependency concept offers more plausible explana-tions of the failure of East Germany transition: important causes of the long-lasting decline in productive activities lie in the incompatibility between West Germany formal institutions and East Germany informal institutions. We believe that this approach is the most general approach to the growth theory. Keywords: classification of social-economic growth theory, formal institutions, informal institutions, transition, German Democratic Republic JEL Classification: O10, O43, P27, P30

Knowledge and education in today's globalized world is becoming the most important factor in the development of society and regions. One of the main problems of regional development in Slovakia is the insufficient level of economic development potential based on the usage of knowledge, thereby creation of new sources of development is insufficient, and they will still be more built on the usage of creativity, education and skills of the workforce. To address the nature and direction of development of the education system at both national and regional level becomes more imperative. For this can be used regional training capacity indicator which is proposed in the paper and methodology of its application to the conditions of Slovakia and its regions as a solution to the processing of the regional strategy. Keywords: knowledge, regional competitiveness, tertiary education, indicator of educational capacity of regions, measuring the impact of tertiary education in regional development JEL Classification: O15, O47, R11, R15

Authors pay attention to situation in area of the human resources in the learning society, which is not possible to achieve without qualitative changes in all organisations and institutions. They concentrate at theoretic and methodological identification the main characteristics of the learning organisation and also create the framework of its implementation. Developed methodology underlines the working conditions and the professional competencies, which are the cardinal indicators of new process. Good practice is based on own experiences with implementation of the learning organisation in the space of the University of Economics in Bratislava and recommend applying of 9-steps model. Keywords: the knowledge economy, the learning society, the learning organisa-tion, quality of working life, working conditions, professional competencies JEL Classification: D80, D21, I30, I23, J81, M12, Z10