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For all 60 years of the existence of the University of Economics, Prague (UEP) was statistics one of the taught compulsory course, and here also took place the specialized studies of statistics, which predecessor was Statistical and Actuarial engineering at the University of Special Sciences (within the Czech Technical University). The article focuses on the 50's, when at the UEP existed the independent Faculty of Statistics and when the lessons of statistics were difficulty exempted from the Stalinist dogmatism. Between the personalities is mentioned prof. Benedikt Korda (1914- 2010), who was the most famous person in the first period of Faculty, (there will be mentioned his remarkable CV), prof. Lubomir Cyhelsky (*1929), who was the head of the department in 1962-1990, and prof. Jiri Likes (1929-1994) as well, who was internationally acclaimed scientists in the theory of probability and mathematical statistics, whose name is used for one of the greatest lecture hall at the University. Since 1991 there exist at the Faculty of Informatics and Statistics the Department of Statistics and Probability (17 internal teachers and 13 internal PhD students), the Department of Economic Statistics (6 + 3) and the Department of Demography (6 + 4). Adapted from the source document.

The article deals with an analysis of regional differences in rental housing affordability following rent deregulation in the Czech Republic. The objective is to identify the types of households potentially at risk of being unable to afford housing, to map the development of potential housing (un)affordability since 2000, and to trace the development of regional differences in the percentage of at-risk households in the Czech Republic. Owing to the absence of useful aggregate data on incomes and expenditures for different household types in the regions of the Czech Republic, the authors created their own simulation methodology for measuring housing affordability, which uses available regional wage statistics and data on market rents. The results indicate that the general risk of being unable to afford rental housing and regional differences in housing affordability are both decreasing, but there is still a relatively large group of households that under current wage conditions for paying social benefi ts would be unable to afford to pay market rents.

The Sociological Data Archive (SDA) was founded in 1998, & it is the only institution that systematically provides access to data files from quantitative sociological surveys. The main access to the data library is provided on the Internet. The SDA also pays great attention to promoting secondary analysis & the employment of existing data sources & cooperates in organizing large research projects, especially the Czech participation in the ISSP. The SDA is a member of the CESSDA (Council of European Social Science Data Archives). This also means that the Archive can mediate access to materials stored in other social science data archives in Europe. The full inclusion of the SDA's services into an international network is connected to the adoption of international standards (DDI, XML technology), which is planned for the future. In recent years two qualitative data archives have also been established, the Czech Archive of Qualitative Data & Documents & the Digital Archive of Soft Data MEDARD. The Czech Statistical Office provides data services in the field of official statistics.

The level of political participation of American citizens is commonly considered to be high. However, voter turnout is in fact relatively low, even in highly attractive presidential elections. The article focuses on this phenomenon and the particular factors that, according to the literature, affect turnout negatively. The first part describes various methods being used to measure voter turnout in the USA. The difference can even be several percentage points, depending on the method of calculation. With regard to these distinctions, American data cannot be directly compared with voter turnout statistics in European countries that use a different methodology. The main part of the article analyses several factors that are generally considered to influence voter turnout in the USA negatively, and counts their real impact. One important factor is that voter registration methods can lower the turnout by up to 11 per cent. Also significant is the lowering of the voting-age limit in 1971. Neither gradual changes in population age structure nor enactment of election-day holidays have proven to negatively influence turnout. The principal findings reveal a permanent increase of inhabitants without voting rights (esp. non-citizens). These persons are included in voting-age population figures, and due to inexact methodology, cause a merely statistical decrease at the level of at least 3 per cent of voter turnout. Adapted from the source document.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze awarded scientific degrees at the University of Economics, Prague (EUP) in the fifties of 20th century. Methodological approaches of economic, social, cultural and political history, economics and statistics were pursued and required in this study. An interdisciplinary approach that enabled further determination of factors will serve as the approach for all subsequent research of the UEP position in science in the fifties of the 20th century. Yet untapped primary sources from UEP Scientific Council Meetings were used, also published sources, newspapers, etc. We came to the conclusion that UEP failed to significantly increase the number of professors and associate professors in the first seven years of its existence. The reasons behind were: 1) Policy of the Communist leadership that followed cadre policies which frustrated many personalities and prevented them a chance to work for universities. 2) Only highly politically reliable teachers were awarded. 3) Bureaucratic apparatus rigidity and poor flexibility of the Ministry of Education and the State Committee for Scientific Degrees. 4) Ongoing continual changes in laws and regulations. 5) Lack of experienced teachers who had also been overwhelmed with paperwork and various out of university activities so they had little time to immerse in intense research activity. Analysis showed that some of the preferred fields after 1948 such as political economy were not preferred at the expense of others. Adapted from the source document.

The article explores several reasons why women in Czech politics are underrepresented not only relative to their overall share in the society but also relative to their presence at lower levels of politics. The article tests two principal hypotheses using data from both a unique post-electoral public opinion survey carried out in the Olomouc region in 2010, and from official electoral statistics. First, it concentrates on the structural barriers of female underrepresentation presented by the candidate nomination and selection processes of the political parties. Second, it explores the possibility that more flexible candidate lists are beneficial for female representation. We compare the proportions of preference votes received by women both prior to and after electoral reforms in 2010, which for the first time gave voters the possibility to cast four preference votes and thus made the list structures more flexible. The research design includes both OLS and logistic regression models, which specify the empirical relationships derived from previous theoretical debates. The results suggest that Czech women are heavily disadvantaged by the Czech parties' candidate selection mechanisms, and also that we do not have enough evidence to conclude that flexible lists are more conducive to higher female representation. The article concludes by considering various institutional means of reducing female political underrepresentation, including the introduction of electoral gender quotas. Adapted from the source document.