In the course of 2002 up to the end of 2007, very steep growth of oil prices, but no remarkable slowdown of either the world economy or the Czech economy, was observed. This phenomenon raises a question about the impact of oil prices on modern economies. Analyzing the available data we can...

The recent global financial crisis has had a diverse effect on countries’ fiscal stance, especially throughout the EU. This paper examines the impact of macroeconomic shocks, including those to government revenues and expenditures, on EU countries’ fiscal stance, on aggregate, and within the...

This paper presents evidence on the extent of real wage flexibility in 24 EU member countries based on the Eurostat labour cost data covering 2000Q1-2010Q2. The term 'wages' refers, for brevity, to total hourly labour costs and their two main components, namely wages and salaries per hour, and...

This paper investigates the effect of aggregate shocks on the fiscal stance of the EU, and of its old (OMS) and new (NMS) member states over a business cycle. The fiscal stance is measured by the government deficit. To study the impact of aggregate shocks, we use impulse responses derived from a...

We calculate production functions for the key productive sectors of the Czech economy (agriculture, industry, etc.), exploring the growth-accounting approach and decomposition of total factor productivity (TFP) growth. We establish that the growth in real value added over the period 1996-2005...

What is the size of quasi-fiscal operations and their impact on the overall fiscal balance and public debt in the Czech Republic? Is the recent increase in Czech fiscal deficits fully attributable to the business cycle, or are there non-cyclical factors in place? And last but not least, what are...

Total health care expenditure in the EU countries accounts for between 4 and 11% of GDP, out of which between 3 and 9% of GDP is financed from public sources. As it accounts for between 10 and 18 % of total government spending, health care is therefore among the most significant items of social...

After presenting an extensive overview of the reforms undertaken in the EU between 1990 and 2006, The paper assess with a diff-in-diff technique the short-term effects of pension reforms on the participation rates of individuals aged between 50 and 64 years. The analysis suggests that in the...

The government intertemporal budget constraint states that all public liabilities have to be financed by either current or future generations. The generational accounting approach incorporates the expected demographic development and the parameters of the current fiscal policy into the...

Using an ad-hoc survey at the firm level, we investigate the determinants of wage and price-setting practices in Czech firms, the presence and sources of wage rigidity, and reactions of firms to hypothetical shocks. Although the evidence of downward wage rigidity is not widespread, we find...