New members of the EU will not form an optimum currency area with the present eurozone member states. The article discusses some costs and benefits of an early EMU entry for the Czech Republic (and other Central-European economies). The authors concentrate on the consequences of loss of...

The relatively long term period of stability before the present crises called even "Great Moderation" or "Golden Age of Central Banking" indicated that the infl ation targeting was a success story. As of 2008 a lot has changed and the debate over "Leaning against the wind or Clean afterwards?"...

This paper studies whether the dynamic behavior of real GDP, unemployment and inflation is systematically affected by the timing of elections and by changes of governments in the Czech Republic. Two basic models of political cycles are tested – the political business cycle models and the...

This article explores development of the industrial structure of the Czech economy in the last ten years from the point of view of the gross value added and employment. It goes from the macroeconomic view at the level of the basic sectors to more detailed view focused on the individual branches....

This paper deals with the recent empirical phenomenon of intraindustry trade, i.e. trade in similar goods between similar countries. It treats this phenomenon from the point of view of the theory of structure of production, highlighting the importance of sequential nature of production and...

The paper deals with a wide-spread myth that a switch from a PAYG to a funded pension system might solve adverse consequences of the population aging. It is shown, that under additional assumptions the pension debt (which is created during the process of the switch) is exactly equal to the value...

The Czech Republic is going to face ageing of its population. It will affect the economy in many ways. The pension system is one of them. This paper provides a view on possibilities how to insure long-term stability of the pension system in the Czech Republic using a mix of pay-as-you-go and...

This essay focuses on the pension system and highlights some of its key elements. The first part deals with the economic principles connected with the social security system. Eatwell's model is utilized to give some basic intuition of terms and concepts used in the pension reform discussion. The...

Non-contributory periods is one of the key issues in the public discussion on the planned reform of the pension system in the Czech Republic. This article focuses on a detailed analysis of non-contributory periods in the Czech pension system and their impact on pension system balance and micro...

The paper examines implications of both real and nominal convergence for a fully-funded pension system. The process of convergence implies that higher contribution rates are necessary in the converging economy for replacement ratios to be the same as in a steady-state economy. This effect in the...