This paper inquires into beginnings of a gift economy as well as related contemporary institutions. Gift economy and the gift as a complex phenomenon was a common base for institutions of markets, credits, taxation, alms or social security. Inquires of origins, development and contemporary forms...

The paper contains a descriptive analysis of selected interdisciplinary research methods developed for the study of complex socio-ecological systems (climate change problems in particular). Institutional analysis and participatory methods of social consensus are in the centre of the focus.

This paper starts with discussion about enhanced and frequently used conceptions of free markets, market failures and market primacy. There are pointed some simplifications due to the man should be prospective while using them, especially in applied economics. We have no positive definition of a...

The paper is concerned with pension reform in the Czech Republic and abroad. It argues against two opinions: on the one hand, that it is not necessary to do anything, and on the other hand, that a mandatory funded system should be implemented. Both approaches are false, because of creating...

Building upon exhaustive research of extant and often fragmentary contemporary resources, this paper provides a thorough analysis of financial options trading and sales in interwar Czechoslovakia. Whilst focusing primarily on a remarkable bucketshop episode occuring in the late twenties and...

An easy and popular method for measuring the size of the underground economy is to use macro-data such as money demand or electricity demand to infer what the legitimate economy needs, and then to attribute the remaining consumption to the underground economy. Such inferences rely on the...

Joint-stock companies are among the most fundamental components of a market economy. “Voucher privatization” in the Czech Republic saw an abrupt mushrooming of joint-stock companies where none had appeared for over a generation. This occurred in an environment lacking in guiding...

The paper demonstrates how survey methods and retrospective questions can be put to effective use in the study of shadow-economy dynamics; specifically, the evolution of tax evasion in the Czech Republic. The authors measure the average individual's transition between the shadow and official...

This paper presents results of repeated economic lab experiments. They were designed to test a model of combinatorial auctions on the case of providing financial support (capital investment subsidies) to polluters. Combinatorial auctions are those auctions in which bidders can place bids on...

Our rapidly changing world has been challenging insurers to keep the pace. Given the qualitative changes in risk trends, the insurance industry has encountered a problem of insurability limits and shifting boundaries of the private insurance sector. The possibilities of covering enormous...