rss_2.0Sciendo RSS Feed for Review of Economic Perspectiveshttps://sciendo.com/journal/REVECPhttps://www.sciendo.comhttps://sciendo-parsed.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/64735fd44e662f30ba53befe/cover-image.jpghttps://sciendo.com/journal/REVECP140216https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-0008<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The purpose of this article is to create and calibrate a high-speed rail passenger traffic-based ranking model using historical high-speed rail ridership data from Spain. The existing literature is scarce, and the models used have several main issues, such as arbitrariness, and not representing the real relations of variables. These models are analysed using real-world high-speed rail data; and improved by calibration with the data. Based on the results, I demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of these models and propose a new model by combining the strong aspects of these models. I also show the importance of intermediate cities for the estimated ridership of an HSR corridor. The study develops our understanding of the ranking models and provides a more promising ranking solution as a contribution to high-speed rail planning.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-00082023-09-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-0007<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Czech municipalities keep a substantial and growing volume of bank deposits. An analysis of determinants of unreserved deposits in 2021 suggests that municipalities are precautionary and accumulate fiscal reserves if they can and do so to stabilize their budget management. Signs of low activity of municipal administration such as low creation of new assets and low execution of the approved budget were not related to the volume of unreserved deposits in 2021. The change in the impact of the municipal debt on fiscal savings from strongly negative to weakly positive between 2016 and 2021 calls for more research on the impact of the introduction of new local debt regulation.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-00072023-09-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-0006<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper seeks to contribute to the current debate on EU-wide corporate taxation, steered by the impending Proposal by the European Commission on a new framework for the taxation of income of businesses in Europe. The objective of this paper is to verify whether the inclusion of intangible assets enhances the ability of the current proposals for Formulary Apportionment to explain variability in profitability. The research question addressed is “What is the explanatory power of the Formulary Apportionment, for factors such as tangible assets, intangible assets, labour and sales by destination, to describe the variability in the profitability of companies active within the EU internal market?”. The paper employs regression analysis of cross-sectional microeconomic data to analyse the explanatory power of the Formulary Apportionment. The research reveals that the inclusion of intangible assets fails to enhance the explanatory power and that factoring in intangible assets does not appear to have a statistically significant effect in the model. The best-performing model, without the inclusion of intangible assets, explained 22.6 % of the variability in the profitability of companies active within the EU internal market.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-00062023-09-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-0004<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This study investigates the effects of social distancing measures on various types of social mobility, using country- and day-fixed effects on a panel of daily data comprising 29 European countries. Although social distancing measures proved to be significant for all types of mobility in the examined period, they are best captured by retail and recreation mobility. Linear effects of restrictive measures on COVID-19 cases and deaths are examined by OLS regression with country- and day-fixed effects on a panel of 29 European countries, while non-linear effects were investigated by quantile regressions. Stricter mobility restrictions significantly reduced COVID-19 cases and deaths, but the variant of the virus was also an important determinant. Although the Delta variant was much more infectious, its mortality reduced. However, the impact of social distancing measures on COVID-19 cases and deaths was not constant but strengthened with increasing quantiles of the distribution of cases and deaths, suggesting that an early response from policy-makers was very important. Vaccination brought benefits for both cases and deaths, but a particularly beneficial effect can be seen on COVID-19 deaths. The vaccination benefits grew with the share of the vaccinated population. Distrust in public institutions proved to have a negative impact on both COVID-19 cases and deaths. The inclusion of a set of control variables (health, economic, social and demographic) revealed that country characteristics such as cardiovascular mortality, the share of male smokers, economic development, the proportion of the population living in extreme poverty, population density, the quality of education or the share of rural population were important determinants of COVID-19 spreads. The analysis of the linear and nonlinear effects of the stringency of measures on various categories of sales according to the digital cash collection system (eKasa) in Slovakia revealed that sales in essential sectors for consumers, such as retail and grocery stores, were relatively resistant to tightening measures, while sectors that are less essential for consumers were more sensitive to social distancing measures.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-00042023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-0003<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper aims to identify the factors contributing to the unusually high prevalence of over-indebtedness and debt enforcement proceedings in the Czech Republic at the granular geographic level of extended-powers municipalities (ORP). The main reason for this level is simple, not to lose information about differences among the municipalities, since there is quite a sharp contrast even within the same regions. The dependent variable is the share of people with one or more debt enforcement proceedings outstanding against them. We employ a set of explanatory variables including long-term unemployment, socially excluded localities, regional GDP per capita, education level, and a proxy for distance to the local economic center. The results are estimated using panel data regression with random effects, due to the time-invariant nature of certain variables. Because of poor data availability for some variables at this highly localized level, we make several assumptions; for example, we transfer the regional GDP per capita values to all ORPs in the region. Similar problems arise with education level, where we use data from the 2011 national census. Even with these data restrictions, our set of explanatory variables is shown to be statistically significant with the expected coefficient signs. GDP per capita and higher education level have a negative impact on the prevalence of debt enforcement proceedings, while long-term unemployment, the number of socially excluded localities in the area, and the distance-to-center proxy have a positive effect.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-00032023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-0005<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper investigates the link between corporate investments, eco-nomic policy uncertainty and the quality of institutional environments. The corporate investments of private firms in 10 European countries from 2009 to 2018 were examined and a negative effect of economic policy uncertainty on corporate investments was identified. More importantly, it was determined that the higher-quality institutional environments reduced the negative impact of economic policy uncertainty on corporate investments, especially when economic policy uncertainty was high. We also demonstrate the effects of government stability, legislative strength, government cohesion and socioeconomic conditions that mitigate the negative effects of economic policy uncertainty on corporate investments.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-00052023-06-20T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/v10135-009-0005-4<abstract xml:lang="en"><title style='display:none'>Flexicurity - Challenge to Improve Czech Labour Market</title><p>Flexicurity reflects the current basic trend of the EU in guaranteeing high employment levels and attainability of national fiscal systems. It was introduced in Denmark in the 1990s and significantly helped reduce unemployment levels. The Czech labour market, despite the transformation process, has still space for further improvement, especially in the time of economic slow-down. The best way is to try to apply elements and components which have been already successfully implemented in the other EU Member States. The aim of the paper is (based on the statistical indicators and official documents concerning labour markets topic) to describe the basic function of the model and find the components of the flexicurity model which could be used also in the Czech Republic and change labour market operation.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/v10135-009-0005-42010-03-15T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/v10135-009-0004-5<abstract xml:lang="en"><title style='display:none'>The Challenge of Socio-Economic Coherence for Poland's Economic Policy in Context of Transformation Processes</title><p>The article focuses on Polish socio-economic coherency in the European and regional context during post WWII period. The author argues that the source of this incoherency are faulty mechanisms, its economic, social and regional policies which were before the transformation based on central coordination of strategies and later, prior to Polish membership in the EU, due to autonomic processes. Much of the weaknesses after accession of Polan to the EU have been due to mixed policies practiced. This has been based on competitive harmony in which economic, social and territorial coherence that is augmented by open coordination methods at union, national, regional and sub-regional levels. It is not sufficient applying socio-economic coherence to processes of eliminating disproportions existing in regional development. Their practical utility requires taking cognizance of the specificity of local material, human and social capital resources. The key issue of socio-economic coherence is harmonizing the development of all aspects of human living.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/v10135-009-0004-52010-02-19T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/v10135-009-0003-6<abstract xml:lang="en"><title style='display:none'>Competitiveness of Czech Enterprises: What affects the performance of the Enterprise?</title><p>This article is based on an empirical survey performed by the Research Centre for Competitiveness of the Czech Economy in 2007. We analyzed a sample of 432 companies. The main objective of the article is to formulate the factors which decrease the probability that a given company will be rated as competitive. Using advanced statistical methods (particularly statistical method of pattern recognition developed by UTIA ČSAV and modified in a special way for the purpose of our research) we formulate 20 qualitative characteristics, which can cause uncompetitiveness of the selected firm. These characteristics are then discussed and basic recommendations are drawn.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/v10135-009-0003-62010-02-19T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/v10135-009-0002-7<abstract xml:lang="en"><title style='display:none'>Stakeholder Approach and the Corporate Financial Performance</title><p>The following paper aims to describe the analysis and utilization of stakeholder approach, which was used in the research of the Research Centre for Competitiveness of Czech Economy. The stakeholder model was employed in the research to explain the behavior of enterprises and to find factors of competitiveness. Here we can find assessment of stakeholders' importance and its relationship to corporate financial performance with some chosen interfering factors, which is preceding step before assessment all potential factors of competitiveness using multi dimensional analysis. Also the achieved results are related to chosen international and Czech studies.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/v10135-009-0002-72010-02-19T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/v10135-009-0001-8<abstract xml:lang="en"><title style='display:none'>Regional Analysis of New EU Member States in the Context of Cohesion Policy</title><p>The paper concentrates on the new European Union member states, i.e. the states of central and eastern Europe which entered the Union in 2004 (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Slovenia) and 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania). The basis of the paper is the evaluation of the cohesion policy in the countries in question, which are then analysed at the level of NUTS 2 regions (cohesion regions). The aim of the socioeconomic analysis is to assess the economic level of the regions and to use the results to form their typology. Ten characteristic indicators were chosen so that the study was as complex as possible. For each indicator in the examined countries the average was calculated, which allowed for a considerable increase of the information relevance of the study conclusions. For the cartographic representation of the regional differentiation intervals based on this average and the standard deviation were used. The final part of the study presents a concluding synthesis together with the above-mentioned typology of the regions. The results are interpreted in the context of the optimal strategy selection for the regional policy determined by the EU cohesion policy.</p></abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/v10135-009-0001-82010-02-19T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-0002<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The paper investigates implemented diversity and inclusion practices’ effect on firm sustainability. The study covers a sample of small and middle-sized automotive firms in Czechia, where diversity and inclusion practices have been implemented in relation to firm sustainability. The paper’s methodology is based on theoretical models of diversity management and firm sustainability in the automotive sector. The paper provides evidence that a low number of firms in the Czech Republic in the automotive sector have been rolling out any diversity and inclusion measures but at the same time, the majority of the selected firms have been considering the development and implementation of human resource management practices in the area of diversity and inclusion as a vital part of attracting more investors and aligning with the global sustainable goals of the United Nations. Moreover, the paper brings evidence that the automotive firms in the Czech Republic are following global and regional trends on diversity and inclusion as an important step for a sustainable strategic development.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-00022023-03-08T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-0001<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The paper studies the effects of foreign (the US, the UK and the Chinese) and domestic economic policy uncertainty (EPU) shocks on unemployment in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The analysis is run separately for the rates of adult and youth unemployment. Impulse responses derived from vector autoregressive models show that the magnitudes of the responses of the adult and youth segments of the labour market are quite different. Following an uncertainty shock, the youth unemployment rate increases significantly more than the adult unemployment rate. This is the case for France, Italy and Spain. The German labour market seems to be resistant to foreign (except Chinese) and domestic EPU shocks, while the remaining labour markets, foremost the Spanish and Italian ones, are susceptible to uncertainty shocks, especially to the US EPU shocks.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2023-00012023-03-08T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-0016<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper is focused on high-speed railway planning and its general aim is to assess potential commuting behaviour change on the example of planned high-speed railway in Czechia. We used standard geographical methods based on census data from 2011 in relevant ten regional centres and two important railway junctions that will be connected to high-speed railway according to planned network. The rest of three regional centres not planned to be connected to high-speed railway are disregarded. We assessed the attractiveness of relevant centre for commuter mobility change. The results document the strategic position of Prague as the main commuting centre, which relevant indicators significantly exceed all other labour mobility centres (the second most crucial centre Brno is about half the important one). This fact was confirmed by analyzing gradient labour areas and evaluating commuting relations among relevant centres. The assessment of potential impacts of HSR on labour markets is then carried out using the model of the marginal rate of labour mobility, where it is possible to count on positive impacts except for Prague on two other commuter centres, Brno and Pilsen. In the case of other analyzed centres, we can count on increasing the potential of a trip for work to the centres mentioned above.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-00162022-12-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-0017<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This article aims two EU member countries (i.e. Portugal and Germany) from different regions in Europe which have, for decades, been following common strategies regarding HSR development. The authors discuss the economic profitability vs. political aims, which were related to rail modernization. The text outlines the historic background of early railway construction, important milestones for a new level of rail planning in the 1980s and 1990s in both Portugal and Germany and delays in the realization of HSR projects, their rising costs, and the opposition of the public against the new lines. The experience of the countries under scope serves as an example for other EU members who have plans to take part in the Trans-European Transport Network.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-00172022-12-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-0018<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The aim of the paper is to determine how fast the HSR connection in conjunction with public transport between Brno and Prague should be in order to be time-competitive with car use. Brno and Prague are the largest agglomerations in Czechia and, according to the Czech government’s plan, the first HSR will be built between them. The competitive speed of high-speed trains is derived from mathematical accessibility models created in GIS. The route planner in Google Maps and control supplementary sources were used as a source of data on the speed of public transport connections and the travel time of cars. The effect of a possible relocation of the main Brno railway station is also considered. The derived optimal competitive speed is slightly higher than the current plans assume.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-00182022-12-30T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-0013<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This article analyses occasional work commuting mobility within three major metropolitan areas in Czechia in the context of future HSR routes. The main aim is to explain uneven commuting flows of inter-metropolitan travelers through their level of income, given their potential for the use of HSR from a demand perspective. To achieve the goals, the paper uses quantitative data analysis methods performed on a selection of 228 respondents who realized at least one business trip between Prague and Brno or Prague and Ostrava between January and September 2019. The results reveal that the level of income plays a significant role in the issue of using potential high-speed lines for occasional long-distance commutes.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-00132022-12-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-0014<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This paper investigates the transport policy development and characteristics of the Austrian passenger transport sector from the 1950s onwards. The analysed performance indicators deal with the three most prevalent modes of transport (cars, trains and airplanes) and are linked to independent decision-making units (passengers) and their motives (price, quality and time to destination) as well as to goals and decisions involved in government policies. In this theoretical framework, we identified three developmental phases, using an interdisciplinary approach to assess the development of three variables of interest (number of car, air and train passengers). In the long term, transport policy aimed to solve the rigidity and lack of vision in train transport and the extensive use of cars. Air transport was a steadily growing segment in a close and positive relationship with trains, which is in line with the transport political orientation towards Vienna Airport and train connections to the capital city. The post-war phase (1945–1970) was characterised by enormous growth in the number of cars, an upswing in air transport and stagnant train transport. The second phase (1970–1994) was defined by a progressive liberalisation of rail transport and a plan to balance the growth rates of car, train and airplane performance variables. Finally, in the 1995–2019 phase, the growth in train transport increased; however, this growth remained far below the growth rates of air and car performance variables. Transport policy achievements and shortcomings for future research are suggested.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-00142022-12-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-0015<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many aspects of our everyday lives. Governments have taken numerous measures to contain the spread of the pandemic, which has had a direct impact on daily mobility, modal choice and the function of public transport. This study uses quantitative and qualitative data to describe how the pandemic influenced travel on the Prague-Pilsen (Praha-Plzeň) railway line. The results of the case study on the Prague-Pilsen railway line are consistent with experiences in other countries. 38% decrease in passenger numbers was found between 2019 and 2020. Although numbers are increasing again, they still have not reached the pre-pandemic level. The number of connections has also decreased by a third on average (2019 to 2020). We also conducted in-depth interviews with train passengers on the above-mentioned route. Two-thirds of passengers stated that the frequency of their journeys had not been affected by the pandemic. However, like the other participants, they described other changes caused by the pandemic. Fear of infection played an important role, and the inconvenience of overcrowding was mentioned several times. The switch from buses to trains was mentioned, as was the fact that more and more travellers prefer to travel first class. In some cases, changes in the temporality of trips were also documented. The survey suggests that respondents travel less frequently by train for systematic, functional, health or social reasons.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-00152022-12-24T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-0012<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Reducing travel speed below the highway speed limit leads to savings in fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions. However, car drivers may be reluctant to drive more slowly either because they do not want to lose time or for other reasons we refer to as ‘the disutility of driving at lower speeds’. In this paper, we use a survey experiment to isolate the disutility of driving at lower speeds by comparing drivers’ willingness to accept compensation for a fixed increase in travel time caused either by taking a longer route or by travelling at below-limit speeds. We show that Czech drivers require higher compensation for travelling at lower speeds than they require for the same travel time increment caused by a longer distance. This result represents the first piece of evidence showing that the disutility of driving at below-limit speeds on a highway is substantial and economically relevant.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/revecp-2022-00122022-12-24T00:00:00.000+00:00en-us-1