It is well known that in EMU the degree of similarity in the composition of current expenditures is relevant since the way Member States are affected by external shocks depends at least in part on this composition. In the 8 postsocialist countries recently admitted to the EU (EU-8) the mean...

The article analyzes macroeconomic forecasts of tax revenue in the Czech Republic. Forecasts are tested for their biases on data from Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. The authors argue that Czech tax-revenue forecasts were highly biased and the hypothesis of unbiasedness could not be rejected...

The Stability and Growth Pact has become a primary fiscal policy framework in all European countries since 1997. Together with Maastricht fiscal criteria it determines the fiscal discipline of integration process. The aim of this study is to evaluate ex-post effectiveness of the fiscal rules...

The author of this paper criticizes the broad, cash-flow based concepts of seignorage that were introduced and emphasized by the economic literature of the 1990s (i.e., fiscal seignorage, total seignorage, etc.), which the author argues are ill justified and confusing. On the other hand, the two...

In the last years there has been a growing discrepancy between gross domestic product and gross disposable income (more than a double of government budget deficit in 2006)in favour of non-residents. The difference between the real interest rate and the rate of growth of GDP has been negative in...

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 article describes the system of state social support vis-?-vis personal income tax. The author shows that both systems have structural weaknesses that may be addressed by a better coordination of both systems' main principles.

This paper considers the legitimacy, scope and purposes of redistribution in Czech society. The authors use data from international surveys from the mid-nineties onward, as well as several national Czech surveys. The authors claim that Czech society does not favor extensive redistribution in...

The paper examines implications of both real and nominal convergence for a fully-funded pension system. The process of convergence implies that higher contribution rates are necessary in the converging economy for replacement ratios to be the same as in a steady-state economy. This effect in the...