156,081 research outputs found
"Put your own house in order first": local perceptions of EU influence on Romani integration policies in the Czech Republic
No full textThis article examines the influence of the European Union (EU) on the development and implementation of Romani integration policy in the Czech Republic from the perspective of those responsible for policy delivery. Based on analysis of key policy documents and research conducted in the Czech Republic, this article first examines how Romani integration became a more important issue during membership negotiations and then discusses how the criticism of the European Commission's Regular Reports was received by those responsible for implementing pro-Romani policies. Finally, the paper assesses how the status of full EU membership has impacted on integration policy. The article concludes that while funding for Romani integration projects has benefitted some groups, the overall impression of the EU is of a remote institution, quick to criticise and unwilling to practise what it preaches
Voucher funds in transitional economies : the Czech and Slovak experience
No full textVoucher funds have arisen in the transitional economies of Eastern and Central Europe that have used voucher privatization. These funds collect vouchers from citizens and use them to buy shares in enterprises. In the Czech and Slovak Republics, voucher funds are typically organized as corporations owned by the citizens who contributed their vouchers. Recently, they have also been organized as unit trusts (either open-ended or closed). A management company manages the funds under a contract that specifies the management fee. The management company is typically owned by the initial sponsor of the fund - for example, a bank. Voucher funds can give owners a diversified and professionally managed portfolio. More important, the funds select who sits on an enterprise's governance boards (which oversee management and profitability). Although experience is limited, the funds in these two countries have probably stopped most fraud and self-serving by enterprise mangers and are beginning to encourage the restructuring needed for profitability. A few funds have replaced poorly performing or dishonest managers; more often, because qualified replacements are few, they encourage managers to improve performance. There have been complaints about funds'performance. Some have made unrealistic promises to voucher holders and have appointed poorly qualified members to management boards. There is concern about conflicts of interest in the bank-sponsored funds and excessive control of enterprises. Funds typically lack capital or expertise to undertake restructuring - but few other potential owners are likely to be better qualified. The author examines 27 regulations that have been proposed for funds. Regulations in transitional economies, unlike regulations in most western countries, should encourage funds to play a strong role in corporate governance, he contends, as few potential owners have this ability. Most important, regulations should require that funds disclose information about their operations so their owners can monitor and control fund managers. The regulatory regime, the author says, should discourage monopolies and anticompetitive behavior; create incentives for fund managers to improve fund performance; discourage self-serving or fraudulent behavior by fund managers, and conflicts of interest; and eliminate high-risk investments unacceptable to fund owners. Because there is so little experience with these funds, the regulatory regime should not be unduly restrictive. As problems arise, regulations to deal with them can be added.International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Adjustment and Lending,Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Payment Systems&Infrastructure
An Analysis of the Cost of the Supporting and Guarantee Agricultural and Forestry Fund (SGAFF) in the Czech Republic
No full textThe paper analyzes the cost to the Czech state budget of the Supporting and Guarantee Agricultural and Forestry Fund (SGAFF). In the empirical part of the paper, the author shows that the SGAFF portfolio has sufficient value to cover the expected costs of the credit guarantees and subsidies offered by the fund. The theoretical model looks at government interventions designed to decrease the credit rationing of farmers with high probability of success. The theoretical model shows that, with uniform non-targeted supports, the Czech government unambiguously prefers lump-sum guarantees to interest-rate subsidies. With support targeted wholly to disadvantaged farmers, the cost of lump-sum guarantees, proportional guarantees, and interest-rates subsidies are all equal.credit; guarantees; subsidies; transition
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Czech Foreign Policy and EU Membership: Europeanization and Domestic Sources
No full textThis paper examines the impact of EU integration and membership on the foreign policy of the Czech Republic. After examining the historical, geopolitical, and domestic sources of Czech foreign policy, it surveys Czech foreign policy since 1989, focusing on five distinct periods. The paper concludes that Czech foreign policy has been “Europeanized” to only a limited extent, and that EU influence on Czech foreign policy decision-making is relatively small compared to domestic political factors. EU membership also does not appear to have altered basic perceptions of Czech foreign policy interests, which remain largely determined by (pre-1989) historical experience and perceptions of geopolitical vulnerability. However, the Czech Republic has also sought to use the EU to achieve its key foreign policy goals, especially during its EU presidency in the first half of 2009. Limited socialization within EU institutions and the Czech Republic’s peculiar historical experience and geopolitical situation are the main explanations for limited Europeanization, suggesting that further socialization and the accumulated experience of EU membership could promote greater Europeanization of Czech foreign policy over time
Equilibrium Exchange Rate in the Czech Republic: How Good is the Czech BEER?
No full textThe paper investigates the equilibrium exchange rate of the Czech koruna using the reduced-form equation of the stock-flow approach advocated by, for example, Faruqee (1995) and Alberola et al. (1999). We investigate whether the observed real exchange rate of the Czech koruna is close to its equilibrium value over the period from 1993 to 2004. Our empirical approach is tantamount to the behavioral equilibrium exchange rate (BEER), popularized by MacDonald (1997) and Clark and MacDonald (1998), in that the Czech real exchange rate vis-a`-vis the euro is regressed on the dual productivity differential; and the net foreign assets position, based on which actual and total misalignment figures, are derived in a time-series context. In other words, we check the quality of the Czech BEER. We also study the impact of a possible initial undervaluation on the estimated equilibrium exchange rate. Employing monthly time series from 1993, and applying several alternative cointegration techniques, we identify a period of an overvaluation in 1997 and in 1999, an increasing overvaluation afterwards, an undervaluation in 2003, and a correction toward equilibrium in the second half of 2004.behavioral equilibrium exchange rate, Czech koruna, equilibrium exchange rate, productivity, real exchange rate, stock-flow approach, transition economies
Organic Agriculture in the Czech Republic (Country Report 2011)
No full textThe Czech organic farming is continuously growing and has reached almost 12 % of the farmland acreage in the Czech Republic. The main driving force in the development of the organic farming in the Czech Republic are subsidies; which led to the fact that there is mainly grassland in the organic system (82,5 %). Concerning the organic plant production there is a significant increase in the organic viticulture (965 ha), the most important crops are cereals followed by fodder crops. The organic land burden in livestock units is very low (with beef cattle being the most numerous). The share of organic products on the Czech food market is still small (less than 1 %) compared to the developed EU countries and about a half of the sold goods was produced abroad. Organic food is sold mostly in retail chains, nowadays “farmer markets” and “box delivery systems” have become very popular. The Czech Ministry of Agriculture is since 2000 the key-player in the area of organic farming, it is responsible for regulation and supervision of the certifying control bodies and also for official controls in the organic sector (some of this activities are delegated to other bodies). Since 2004, the Czech Republic adopts Action Plans for the Development of Organic Farming (currently for the period of 2011-2015), a strategic document, which is approved by the government. The Czech Republic supports its organic farmers not only in the form of subsidies per ha but also for example in the form of promotion campaigns on organic food
Czech Social Reform/Non-reform: Routes, Actors and Problems
No full textIn this contribution, the author first considers the characteristics of the Czechoslovak communist welfare state and its theoretical alternatives. Throughout the reform process, dependency on both corporatist and socialist regimes won out, while residualist efforts were promoted in the beginning, but were later held back. The author then considers the possible actors involved in social reforms. In this respect, when proceeding from a general to a more concrete level, thought should first be devoted to the social classes and their ideologies, and second to political parties and their leaders. The author goes on to summarise the particular problems and traps in individual sections of the Czech social system. While no objection to decent standards of social protection and health care could be raised, the poor efficiency of their achievement should evoke concern. The author concludes by reflecting on the possible specificities of Czech social reform in comparison with the other countries undergoing reform and the EU. The current lethargy of the Czech welfare system corresponds to a “frozen edifice”, just as in most Western countries. However, such stagnation is apparently acceptable to both the politicians (who mask it in reformist rhetoric) and the population (which learned to master taking advantage of the generous welfare state) and thus is basically sustainable in the long run.social policy, social reforms, Czech Republic
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
No full textWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Social structural model and voting behaviour under the conditions of Czech rural areas
No full textFrom a social viewpoint, Czech rural areas are defined by joint, specific interests by which they differ from the urban environment. In relation to this, this article asks the fundamental question whether class polarization is the background factor of voting results, or if political conflict is based on different factors. The aim of this article is, through a case study of Zatec region, to verify the applicability of the social structural model of voting behaviour of citizens of Czech rural areas.Social structural model, voting behaviour, social class, rural areas, vote, right-wing, left-wing, social status, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, GA, IN,
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