Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

This paper researches the imposition of the Value Added Tax (VAT) on the excise-inclusive retail price of unleaded gasoline in the European Union countries. The issue of tax-on-tax arises when the excise duty is included into the VAT tax base. We analyse the tax burden shifting through the retail prices of gasoline in the context of tax collision between VAT and excise duty. The results show that VAT burden is over shifted toward the end-consumers through prices. Moreover, the tax interaction between VAT and the specific tax reduces the corrective effect of the excise duty imposed on the unleaded gasoline. Keywords: tax collision, tax burden shifting, excise duties, VAT JEL Classification: H22, H23, H29, H30

This paper examines the value relevance of intangibles expressed by R&D expenditures and intangible fixed assets, and other variables with the firm value. Using the regression approach for 1 520 observations in years 2011 – 2015, we found out that R&D expenses to total assets can significantly explain market to book value ratio of selected companies. Results of our analysis indicate the more accelerated increase of firm value with the increase of R&D expenses to total assets in comparison with the increase in relation to other regressors. An interesting fact is that intangible fixed assets to total assets are not statistically significant, indicating that the market does not evaluate passive strategy of externally acquiring intangible assets instead of their own development. Keywords: intangible assets, intangible-intensive firms, R&D expenses, intangible fixed assets, ROTA rank measure JEL Classification: M21

The European Central Bank started to stimulate European economies in 2009 since the countries of the European Union have been facing a low growth and low inflation after both the global financial and sovereign debt crisis. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the effects of very low and negative interest rates on the financial position of manufacturing firms in the Slovak Republic using the balance sheet channel. The results confirm that firm-specific determinants affect the capital structure of firms. When assessing the impact of monetary policy on the financial structure in the environment of low interest rates, our findings support the existence of the balance sheet channel in the Slovak Republic, which is apparent in short-term structure. Keywords: financial position, low interest rates, monetary policy, negative interest rates JEL Classification: E52, G32

Old age mortality modelling is often associated with lack of reliable data, especially for small populations. We focus on an approach to incorporate information contained in the data from closed populations and study its impact on estimation uncertainty in an old age mortality model. We assume a two-dimensional age cohort extension of the exponential (Gompertz) model. We compare uncertainty of the parameter estimates for two models. The first is a single population model based on data solely from one country. The second is a multi-population model for a sample of populations from the central European region. Bayesian generalized linear model and a hierarchical Bayesian generalized linear model is applied. We quantify the difference in the uncertainty of the estimates of the force of mortality and whole life annuity based on root mean squared error of the predictions for different ages, cohorts and populations. Keywords: old age mortality, Bayesian GLM, Bayesian Hierarchical model, multi-population model JEL Classification: C10, C11, J10, J11

The paper aims to design a general assessment framework of working conditions in Europe and associated flexicurity measures, as main drivers of economic growth. We focused on a panel of EU-28 MS and on a sub-panel of 10 CEE countries. First, we conducted a complex cluster analysis based on the Ward method and Euclidian distance that allowed for a proper grouping of EU-28 MS according to the three job quality indices. Second, we configured two SEM models that capture the impact of working conditions and flexicurity measures on labor productivity and economic output. The results highlight that CEE countries have a less flexible working program compared to the other MS. The estimations for flexicurity and job quality interdependencies reveal important positive contributions of the working dimensions and external numerical flexibility credentials to labor productivity, GDP per capita, and a reduction of the poverty risk. Keywords: working conditions, flexicurity, economic growth, welfare, labor market, cluster analysis, structural equations modelling (SEM) JEL Classification: J81, J28, O47