Suchergebnisse

This article focuses on the connection between fi nancial aid systems in higher education and the development of inequalities in access to higher education. Although the student financial aid system is just one of a number of factors that infl uence a person's chances of studying in higher education, its role in a person's decision to pursue higher education may be of fundamental significance for those with lower socio-economic status. Therefore, the authors of this article focus on the effect of the fi nancial conditions of study on the chances that individuals from families with low socio-economic status have obtained higher education. The analysis looks at developments in the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, because Czech and Dutch student financial aid systems have been evolving in very different directions over the last two decades, while their secondary school systems continue to share very similar features. The analysis reveals that student financial aid based primarily on direct financial support (as in the Netherlands) was accompanied by a decline in inequalities in access to education, even though students had to pay tuition, while a system of financial aid primarily involving indirect support (as in the Czech Republic) applied over the same period did not inhibit increasing inequalities, despite the fact that during the period under observation students were not required to pay tuition.

Significant international attention has been directed to the most pressing problem of the financial crisis of 2008/2009 -- global liquidity shortages. The use of adequate foreign exchange reserves during the crisis helped alleviate pressures. However, this was only partially effective in a number of important cases. Some countries also needed to rely on external official financing. The aim of this article is to compare and analyse the main sources of official global liquidity -- foreign exchange reserves, bilateral swap lines of central banks, regional financial arrangements arid IMF resources. To reach effective outcomes in relation to the accumulation of FX reserves and a strengthening of the global financial safety nets, effective international coordination will be necessary. Adapted from the source document.

Financial stress indexes provide a new tool for regulatory and public institutions, which participate in the supervision of financial markets and in the monitoring of the development of risk in financial markets. Our paper introduced a number of methods of building the financial stress index for the Czech Republic and Hungary. We have developed our indices based on the variables representing the level of financial stress by the movement of market prices of assets, which provides a higher frequency to the measurement of financial stress in the main sectors of financial system, ie. banking, money market, currency, fixed income and equity sectors. We have than evaluated our indices by the effectiveness to identify periods of increased financial stress based on the deviation by one standard deviation of the value of the index from the median value. Comparing periods identified with this method with historical periods of increased financial stress, we came to the conclusion that my financial stress index for each country successfully identifies the development and level of stress in financial system. Adapted from the source document.

The study deals with analysis of economic reforms in South-Eastern Asia affected by financial crisis in 1990s. Authors have stressed, that it was a result of internal & external influences, which caused not only the fatal destabilization of main economic fundaments of affected countries & they have had consequences on international business authority of these countries. It was approved, that the high rate of internal interdependence of countries affected by crisis & also the interdependence on Japan, could be considered as basic, but hidden accelerators of crisis. Nevertheless using of important reforming interventions eliminated most of the economic implications of it the risks of re-outbreak of the crisis have been decreased to certain level only. For prevention against its expansion are responsible all "attended" subjects & equally they have to share on realization of reforming economic programs for its long-term elimination. Tables, References. Adapted from the source document.

The authors of the paper discuss reasons as well as current stage of the regulation of the financial (mostly banking) sector. They are not in favor of strict rejection of the regulation, but they are not in favor of strong regulation of the financial sector either. The article is based on the economic theory that there are objective economic reasons as well as specific financial features which cannot recommend and provide clear, simple, and unilateral solution about what level of regulation is appropriate in the financial market. The authors offer some economic ideas that can be useful for preparing and evaluating new regulation of the banking sector. The paper also defines theoretical assumptions of an ideal financial system. Based on those assumptions, the authors formulate and describe problems of real working financial (banking) system, and these problems create necessary condition, but not sufficient condition for imposing regulation. Finally, the paper describes and discusses impacts of concrete new banking regulatory proposals (increasing capital requirements, creating conservation and countercyclical capital buffers, calculating leverage ratio and liquidity ratio, and imposing bank levy). Adapted from the source document.

Článek prezentuje výsledky kvalitativního výzkumu realizovaného mezi českými organizacemi nabízejícími programy environmentální výchovy a orgány veřejné správy, které tyto programy finančně podporují. V rámci výzkumu byly řešeny tři základní výzkumné otázky: jaké evaluační strategie organizace používají? Jak tyto strategie souvisí s metodikou realizovaných programů, resp. do jaké míry odpovídají programy hodnocených organizací požadavkům na efektivní environmentální výchovu? Do jaké míry vycházejí orgány veřejné správy při finanční podpoře těchto programů z jejich skutečné efektivity? Výzkum prokázal poměrně malé zastoupení evaluačních strategií přinášejících relevantní informace o efektivitě programu, metodické nedostatky ve většině hodnocených programů a nedostatečnou schopnost orgánů veřejné správy formulovat a vyhodnocovat požadavky na efektivitu podporovaných programů. ; The article presents the results of qualitative research that has been undertaken among Czech environmental education centres, and regional and municipal government institutions providing financial support in this area. Three research questions were discussed: what evaluation strategies are used by the organisations? How are the strategies connected with the methodology of the programmes, or how do the programmes correspond with the standards for effective environmental education? How important is the real effectiveness of the programmes for a local government's decision regarding their financial support? The research proved that few organisations use evaluation strategies that provide relevant information about programme effectiveness, there are methodological weaknesses in the majority of analysed programmes, and local government institutions do not have and do not demand relevant information about the effectiveness of supported programmes.

This paper provides a theoretical framework for a thesis that the transition to the Inflation targeting regime, either explicit or implicit, may be one of the causes of the long-term latent accumulations of the financial and structural imbalances, materializing much later and with more dire consequences. Due to the long-term systematic manipulation of interest rates, within the operational framework of the stabilization of consumer prices and the output gap, as well as of anti-deflationary fundamentalism, the economy can transform itself into a kind of black box, gradually and over time causing an escape of credit and monetary aggregates. Money supply tends to be more endogenous and elastic, changing the causality within a link between the money supply and its effective economic materialization, both in production processes of the real economy as well as in banking and financial services. Thereby, the economy lacks a needful defensive mechanism that would pull the overheating economy back through more exogenous and inelastic money supply, automatically adjusting market interest rates. In the empirical part we employed VECM tests to show that the money supply was exogenous before the implicit adoption of inflation targeting in the USA (1985), but endogenous after it. Adapted from the source document.

Parties are essential components of a political system, since they provide access to the decision-making process for the citizens. In democratic society they have to execute some basic functions (e.g. interest aggregation, articulation and representation). For this they need material and financial resources. In the recent year funding of the parties must deal with growing expensiveness on the one hand, and on the other with bribery and corruption (which can seriously damage citizens' confidence in the democratic system). Even the most democratic countries have from time to time problem with this unacceptable social phenomena. And it is more important to avoid it in transition countries and in so-called "new democracies" – as central and east European countries, where the democracy is not stabile enough. In this article we focus on the case of Slovakia. We try to outline party finances system and analyse financial resources structure. There are two main models of parties financing, one based on private finances and second based on public resources. Apart from serious defects in laws (still present in Slovak legislation), the main problem of parties financing in Slovakia is growing rate of public party subvention (what can negatively affect parties' independence on the state) and reducing number of party subjects, which participate on it.

This article seeks to identity functional and systemic shortcomings of the Register of Interest Representatives (the Register) and contrasts them with the Commission's own evaluation of the Register's functioning. Special attention is accorded to the analysis of financial data published by interest groups in the Register. The article builds on original empirical research in which quantifiable data from 1063 registered interest groups were evaluated. The analysis of the financial data is complemented by the results of a questionnaire given to the registered interest groups. The questionnaire was addressed to almost one third (324) of interests registered at the end of February 2009; the return rate achieved 22.84%. The research suggests that the methods for calculating financial amounts are inadequate. This situation is exacerbated by a passive control system of truthfulness and completeness of registered data, as well as by a weak voluntarily motivation to register and by the lack of a sanctions policy. These factors diminish the credibility of the data in the Register. Consequently, the level of transparency with regard to the financial aspects of lobbying is, to a great extent, limited. Adapted from the source document.

The relatively long term period of stability before the present crises called even "Great Moderation" or "Golden Age of Central Banking" indicated that the inflation targeting was a success story. As of 2008 a lot has changed and the debate over "Leaning against the wind or Clean afterwards?" is being revisited among central bankers and academicians. At the same time the question "Does money matter in monetary policy" is on the table again. This paper focuses on the discussion of these issues; moreover, some new challenges that emerged in previous three years are discussed. The crisis has highlighted an urgent need to incorporate banks and financial frictions into monetary policy modelling framework -- therefore some new findings on this field of research are outlined. An important lesson from the crises is that price stability is not a sufficient precondition for financial stability, therefore an operational framework for financial stability is being searched -- this is subject of the final part of this paper. Adapted from the source document.

The article deals with the theoretical issues of macroprudential policy, shift of monetary policy paradigm towards application of so called 'leaning against the wind' strategy and mutual cooperation of these policies, which are both aimed at maintaining financial stability. For detection of financial instability are mainly used early warning indicators, which are most often based on the credit activity of the economy and asset prices development. In the second part, we examine the impact of the credit activity in the Czech Republic on the prices of particular assets and its subsequent effect on the consumer price index. Adapted from the source document.

The publication is the result of a three-year observation of Czech companies' relation to quality, particularly their awareness of the fact that the quality of their products is a factor of competitiveness of the entire enterprise. The research was carried out using a questionnaire survey in companies in selected sectors. Based on the research of relevant specialized literature, research questions were formulated in the field of product quality, product quality monitoring and control, degree of customer satisfaction, and competitive advantages and disadvantages. Partial analyses were carried out from 2008 to 2010, and only those questions that remained completely unchanged in the individual reporting periods were subjected to mutual comparison. In addition to the survey, the financial indicators of the individual participating companies were analyzed in each year. This enabled the authors to monitor the situation of the company not only in the context of issues of quality, but also relate the results of this survey to their actual financial success. To split the businesses into two groups according to their financial performance five indicators selected on the basis of the research literature and experience with previous similar studies on a similar subject were used

Central banks of major advanced economies have already started their sixth year of the greatest ever experiment in monetary policy at place. First, special measures were taken to prevent collapse of financial intermediation. At the same time main policy rates were cut down to historical lows hitting the zero lower bound quite soon after the onset of the financial crisis. After that central banks realised various unconventional measures in order to support their weak economies. While exceptional instruments aimed at restoring financial markets seem to have been inevitable to avert a collapse of a much greater magnitude in the short run, some other measures have remained disputable. Not only had these measures limited effectiveness in restoring stronger and sustainable economic growth, but concerns have also been raised recently about their unintended consequences. These side-effects concern not only domestic economies but international spillovers on many vulnerable less advanced and/or developing economies have been evident. Moreover, potential risks of the unprecedented measures may start to act fully in a longer horizon. Quantitative easing has led to enormous increases in balance sheets of the Fed, the BoE and ECB; however structural differences on the asset side have been evident. Main challenge for major central banks thus seems to be the right timing and structure of inevitable exit strategies in the near future so that a smooth exit with minimal side effects could be guaranteed. Adapted from the source document.