Browsing by Author "Mazurek, Jiří"

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    On the gravity equation of trade: a case of Germany
    (Technická Univerzita v Liberci, 2016-09-23) Mazurek, Jiří; Ekonomická fakulta
    Gravity models (equations) of trade belong among the most successful empirical tools in the modern economics since their first economic applications in the yearly 1960s. They assume that bilateral trade is directly proportional to “economic sizes” (usually described in terms of GDP or income) of both trading partners and inversely proportional to their distance. The aim of this study was to examine Germany’s latest (2012) yearly aggregate exports to its major international partners by a gravity equation without and with selected trade frictions including a geographical adjacency (the so called border effect), an influence of the same or different currency (Euro), and a location in the Schengen Area, the zone of a free movement of persons. Gravity models both without and with selected trade frictions fitted the data well, while the model with frictions performed significantly better. The adjacency was found the most important single trade friction, the location in the Schengen Area appeared to be the least important friction (but it was still statistically significant). Other feasible trade frictions, such as border length, a location in Europe or democracy index were examined too, but their effect on the trade was rather negligible. A possible explanation of the border effect, based on information deficiency, is included in the study as well. Furthermore, it was observed that yearly Germany’s exports data are susceptible to large year-to-year fluctuations especially for countries with low imports. Therefore, using averaged data over five or ten years long periods might be more appropriate.
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    On the relationship between selected socio-economic indicators and student performances in the PISA 2015 study
    (Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Mazurek, Jiří; Mielcová, Elena; Ekonomická fakulta
    The main aim of this paper was to examine the relationship between the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) international study results of 15 and 16 years-old pupils from 2015 and a set of socio-economic indicators (on a national level) such as governments’ expenditures on primary education, gross domestic product per capita, the Democracy index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, or primary teachers’ salaries. The study covered 71 countries or territories, including 34 OECD countries and their 37 non-OECD counterparts. The methods included multivariate linear models, models based on Törnquist functions, and cluster analysis. The main result of the study is that there exists a threshold in terms of GDP per capita and government expenditures on primary education per capita. Above the threshold, the higher GDP per capita or expenditures do not translate into the higher PISA scores. However, below this threshold, the opposite is true. Therefore, poorer and mainly non-OECD countries may achieve better student performances in PISA tests by increasing expenditures on primary education, while for student performances of the wealthy and mainly OECD countries expenditures are not a statistically significant factor. The division between OECD and non-OECD countries was also confirmed to be statistically significant by cluster analysis method. In addition, from linear multivariate models it was found that PISA scores were statistically significantly (and positively) related to the national GDP per capita, governments’ expenditures on primary education, and the Democracy index, while the influence of primary teachers’ salaries on PISA scores was found statistically insignificant