The paper provides an introduction to essays published in this volume, which focus on nominal and real convergence in transition countries. The paper is based on the idea that the process of convergence can, to a large extent, be viewed via developments in real exchange rates. Key issues...

Tax reliefs (tax expenditures) in the Czech Republic, as well as in other countries, are frequent topic of political and public finance discussion. Sometimes they are presented in a positive spirit as administratively inexpensive tool for promoting desirable public policies. More often, however,...

The article contests an argument that the creation of a capital market in educational "human capital" and subsequent voluntary transactions on this market are sufficient to create equal opportunities in education, consequently reducing the income premium enjoyed by households with higher initial...

Paper analyzes the Czech social security and tax system as their redistribution aspects are concerned. On a basis of individual data, authors find that social security programs are usually properly targeted but that the tax breaks favor richer households. A microanalysis of tax expenditures is...

The paper deals with the theoretical and practical aspects of the taxation of labor and capital in the Czech Republic. The authors show that if the low flexibility of Czech labor is taken into account, progressive taxation could stimulate a higher supply of labor than would a linear tax. The...

This paper tries to address the problem of donator?s efficiency. In spite of the fact, that social services and public goods are not fully determined by market forces, they are not beyond the subject of economics. The state or other donator can allocate grants among recipients either efficiently...