Search results

The aim of the paper is to find out what is the effect of different types of government spending and taxes on economic growth in developed economies. The analysis is performed on a sample of 27 OECD countries in the period 1997-2011. It is based on the neoclassic growth model extended with the level of human capital and fiscal variables. Those include particular types of government spending (according to the COFOG classification) and taxes (according to the OECD classification), and state budget deficit. From a methodological point of view, panel data estimation is used. We support the view that only some types of government spending are growth-enhancing, and only if they are financed through indirect taxes. However, the results show that only expenditure on defense, education and health, and general public services may be labeled as productive. In addition, we show that direct taxes, especially corporate taxes, negatively affect the growth, also in case they are used to finance productive spending. Adapted from the source document.

This paper deals with the topic of measurement of education services. The main part of output of education services is considered to be non-market in the Czech Republic and it is estimated a sum of related costs. Deflation has been traditionally done using input method i.e. recalculation of each component separately. The main drawback of this method is an assumption of direct correlation between changes in inputs and changes in output. Productivity can not be estimated therefore output methods based on direct volume measurement are now preferred for individual services. Methodology of direct volume measurement of education services has been developed in the paper. This approach is based on number of students in detailed breakdown weighted by costs in order to include changes in the structure of fields of study. Estimates are available since 2004 as data sources are available. Besides estimates of development of non-market output development of all education services is estimated. Adapted from the source document.

The Roma minority is one of the most vulnerable social groups in Slovakia, they are affected by poverty and social exclusion. Most of the marginalized Roma face low education level, long-term unemployment and very low Incomes (they are mostly dependent on the social benefits). In this paper we focus on time preference rates of the marginalised poor Roma. The measurement of time discounting and present-biased preferences is based on standard methodology where the respondents are asked to choose between receiving smaller amounts earlier at the time of interviewing or larger amounts with three months delay. The same choices are asked at a future time frame (smaller amounts in six months and larger amounts in nine months). In order to control for potential confounds due to lower credibility the 'front end delay' method is introduced. According to the results there are almost 48 percent of people with time-inconsistent preferences (27 % have present-biased and 21 % future-biased preferences). Men and people with higher level of education are more likely to have consistent preferences than women and people with lower level of education. Adapted from the source document.

"This study deals with historic cultural contacts between Europeans and the Benin Empire, one of the most significant native African cultural centres between the 15th and the 17th century. The study focuses particularly on the development of the Benin Empire on the background of acculturation and diffusion of European cultural elements and complexes. The study describes the first contacts between Europeans and the Benin Empire and the subsequent business activities, including slave trade. Special attention is paid to European colonial expansion that culminated in the 1897 British invasion which led to the conquest of the Benin City. The aim of the study is to draw attention to the role of the exogenous cultural change and acculturation processes, which caused the fall of once a socially, economically, politically and culturally stable African empire." (author's abstract)

This paper tests the selected determinants shaping the careers of women. It uses data from an exclusive survey conducted in 2011 in the Czech Republic and confronts the results with Hakim's preference theory. The results suggest arguments both for against the preference theory. We formulated four hypotheses and verified them by binary probit models. In accordance with the Hakim's theory we were able to demonstrate that the preference for work (work-centered preference) has a positive and significant impact on the career choices of women on the Czech labor market. According to the results of the model is the work-centered preference associated with 52% increase in likelihood that a woman will spend most of the energy in employment. The impact of higher education has been shown to be positive and significant - higher education increases the likelihood that a woman will spend most of the energy is employment by more than 14%. The impact of motherhood is according to our data negative and significant. It reduces the likelihood of career choices by more than 19% and this effect is the same for one and more children which is in contrast to Hakim's theory. Adapted from the source document.

"This article deals with the relationship between public opinion and rumour from ancient times, through the Middle Ages and right up to today. It will examine the terms which were used and which often depended not just on a particular author but usually an entire social class. The most often used terms to describe opinion, fama and existimatio, occurred in the speeches of politicians which were presented as the valuable opinions of the elite whereas the concepts opinio, rumor or sermo were considered as low value and unreliable opinions of plebeians to whom the ruling classes attributed the spreading and creation of rumours. The concept of fama, more often fama publica, indicated in the Middle Ages a local network of knowledge, a mechanism for the collective evaluation of an individual. In this sense it played an important role in the courts of law. The issue of rumours is common to all subsequent historical periods because public opinion usually both generated, and was supported, by rumour. The article also puts forward a hypothesis why the all-powerful fama dissapeared from the courtrooms, why it lost its significance and became purely a rumour." (author's abstract)

"In recent years, sociology in Britain -and in national contexts influenced by British sociology- has been diagnosed by various parties as suffering from a wide range of ailments. These forms of selfcriticism become ever more acute in terms of their potential effects as huge transformations in university funding regimes are brought to bear on the social sciences. But none of these critiques engages satisfactorily with what is a much more foundational and serious set of problems, namely the very nature of sociology itself as a historically-situated form of knowledge production. Sociology claims to know the world around it, but in Britain today much sociology seriously fails in this regard, because it operates with radically curtailed understandings of the long-term historical forces which made the social conditions it purports to analyse. A sophisticated understanding of the contemporary world is made possible only by an equally sophisticated understanding of very long-term historical processes, precisely the sort of vision that mainstream British sociology has lacked for at least the last two decades. This paper identifies the reasons for the development of this situation and the consequences it has for the nature of sociology's knowledge production, for its self-understanding, for its claims to comprehend the contemporary world, and for its apparent social "usefulness". A markedly more selfaware and historically-sensitive sociology is proposed as the answer to the pressing question of what aspects of sociology should be defended in the turbulent context of British higher education today." (author's abstract)