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...

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...

In this article, we have tried to present the theme of inner peripheries in the Czech Republic-using studies of three small villages. In our approach, inner peripheries are defined as socially and economically disadvantaged localities. The criteria for the identification of inner peripheries...

Kontrakcia svetovej ekonomiky bude mať výrazne negatívny vplyv na všetky oblasti života spoločnosti. Sú hospodárske krízy predikovateľné? Ex post štúdie nasvedčujú, že skôr nie. Je možné odhadnúť riziko a pravdepodobnosť vzniku krízy, avšak nie čas ich skutočnej...

The paper is concerned with the famous study "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (1904/1905) by Max Weber. It analyzes both main content and context of this work. It is shown that the main idea of the "Protestant Ethic" is not originally one of Weber, but it was taken over from...

This paper provides a brief but comprehensive overview of microfinance academic literature with emphasis on recent innovations, trends and efficiency. In particular, we focus on controversial issues of microfinance, such as commercialization, regulation, interest rate policy and the balance...

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) finance their business activities primary with clients’ deposits, equity or with external funding. The aim of our thesis is to determine whether macroeconomic development and the size of banking sector affect the range of external funding and consequently the...

This paper investigates the possible reasons why many microfinance institutions (MFIs) have gradually experienced a decrease in the share of female borrowers in their portfolios over the last few years. We confirm that the share of women may be decreasing due to the growing dependence of the...

The study is focused on macroeconomic stability of the Czech economy. The first part (methodological) stems from the system of national accounting which offers two approaches: from the point of view of relationship between domestic supply and demand and between savings and investments....