Číslo 4
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Browsing Číslo 4 by Subject "C33"
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- ItemDeflation and output across sectors: results for the Czech Republic(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Ryska, Pavel; Sklenář, Petr; Ekonomická fakultaThe present paper looks into the relationship between deflation and economic output. Previous studies relied uniquely on annual macroeconomic data on GDP and prices, which caused lack of observations on deflation. This paper uses panel data on 86 sectors of the Czech economy in 1993-2015, which offer more variation in price changes and display frequent observations of deflation. Our goal is to test the hypothesis whether deflation negatively affects output growth – as is commonly thought – and whether central banks should counter all deflation that appears. The most common argument against deflation is that decreasing prices lead consumers and firms to postpone purchases, which in turn depresses output. We find that (1) sectors with output price deflation and below-average inflation have higher growth rate of output, and that (2) these sectors also tend to show quicker growth in gross value added. This evidence contradicts the often held notion that deflation is linked with recession or subpar growth. It also shows that firms with deflating output prices do not have trouble preserving their profits. Deflation observed in the Czech economy in 1993-2015 is likely to be the result of falling unit costs enabled by firms’ investment rather than the result of falling demand. This might have policy implications. Our results highlight that monetary policy should differentiate among sources of deflation and that deflation observed in the Czech Republic has been rather of the 'good' type. We believe that our approach using sector data is novel because it uncovers more variation in prices and output than the more common approach that uses macroeconomic aggregates.
- ItemImportance of R&D expenditure for economic growth in selected CEE countries(Technická Univerzita v Liberci, ) Szarowská, Irena; Ekonomická fakultaThe goal of the article is to quantify the effect of R&D expenditure on economic growth in selected Central and Eastern European countries. From a methodological perspective, the research is based on Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality and the dynamic panel regression methodology, based on adapted growth model. The empirical evidence is performed on unbalanced annual panel data of eight selected countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia), during the period 1995-2016. The research confirms that there is a trend to combine direct and indirect public funding instruments. Because of limited financial resources, indirect support has become more important in recent years. Cash grants and tax deduction are the tools most often used for support and funding of R&D in the selected CEE countries. A dynamic panel analysis with fixed effects confirms a positive and statistically significant impact of R&D expenditure on economic growth. Government R&D expenditure is reported to be a key driver for economic performance followed by business R&D expenditure, a higher share of persons with tertiary education and/or employed in science and technology and country openness. On the contrary, investment and higher education R&D expenditure were found to have a positive but statistically insignificant impact. Hence, special care of policymakers should be given to investment mix. It is decisive to direct and support investment to growth-enhancing areas (e.g. infrastructure and communication, R&D, education and health care) and to improve the ratio between current and capital investment. Attention should also focus on higher education R&D support, and future development must be concentrate on its cooperation with business sector especially in the area of applied research. Finally, a crisis is reported to have a negative and statistically significant impact on economic growth.