Distribution of new cars – no longer an issue for EU competition law?

Distribution cartels in the automotive sector used to be frequently dismantled and sanctioned by the European Commission and the EU Courts still some 15 years ago. In recent years, however, only a few cases have been reported at the national level of EU Member States. Is it because the distribution of new cars really ceased to be a competition problem as the European Commission declared when it removed this part of the automotive business from the specific Block Exemption Regulation for the automotive sector in 2010? The purpose of the present analysis is first to inspect the car distribution cases that emerged in the EU after the year 2000 and, second, to speculate somewhat whether new forms of distribution, brought by the digitalization of marketing and sales, cannot bring about also new risks to cartel agreements and other types of distortions of competition in car sales.

What are the factors of tax evasion? New findings in the EVS Study

This paper is analyzing tax morale in three selected European countries through the evaluation of the results of the European Values Study. The main aim is to identify the factors that influence taxpayers’ decisions on the issue of whether they justify cheating on tax or not. The dependence and effect of selected factors were determined by analyzing data from the latest European Values Study (2019). The analysis revealed that not only demographic factors (gender, age), but also other socio-economic and institutional factors (religion, willingness to defend the home country, being a proud citizen, trust in government and respect for authorities) have a significant impact on taxpayers’ justification of cheating on taxes. This research is specifically focused on the Czech Republic, Poland and Spain.

Reality and expectations of old-age pension savings in the pension system of the Slovak Republic

The aim of the authors is to provide a critical statistical-analytical view of the current pension system of the Slovak Republic with special regard to old -age pension savings in its fifteen-year existence, resulting in proposals for adjustments to its operation. It includes an analysis of the sustainability of pension systems, an analysis of the age distribution of savers as well as possible investment strategies of savers and the distribution of their property savings in pension funds. We model the investment strategy of a participant in old-age pension savings. We draw attention to the evaluation of old -age pension savings in pension funds during its existence and quantify the potential loss caused by an inappropriate investment strategy of savers. The an alysis showed that the Slovak participant in old-age pension savings invests mainly in conservative pension assets, which bring low volatility in the short term, which may not be optimal in the long run. In order to achieve change, we also outline the possibilities of changing the attitudes of savers to value their savings and propose reform steps that would contribute to ensuring a balance between the financial and social sustainability of the pension system.

Measuring monetary policy by money supply and interest rate: evidence from emerging economies

Although measuring monetary policy is a contentious issue in the literature, much less evidence on this issue is available for emerging economies. This paper aims to investigate the role of interest rate and money supply in measuring monetary policy in twelve emerging economies that target inflation through the analysis of Granger causality, impulse response function, and forecast error variance decomposition. The empirical results show that both money supply and interest rate are useful predictors for changes in inflation. Moreover, both show a comparable power to explain the variation of inflation. However, a rise in interest rate increases rather than decreases inflation, whereas money supply has a positive and expected effect on inflation. These findings suggest that interest rate may not fully capture the overall stance of monetary policy or interest rate has a limited effect on inflation.

The Impact of Seven Macroprudential Policy Instruments on Financial Stability in Six Euro Area Economies

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether macroprudential policy instruments can influence the credit growth rate and hence financial stability. We use a fixed effects panel regression model to test the following hypothesis for six euro area economies (Austria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain) during time span 2010 Q3 to 2018 Q4: “Macroprudential policy instruments (degree of maturity mismatch; interbank loans as a percentage of total loans; leverage ratio; non-deposit funding as a percentage of total funding; loan-to-value ratio; loan-to-deposit ratio; solvency ratio) enhance financial stability, as measured by credit growth”. Our empirical results suggest that the degree of maturity mismatch, non-deposit funding as a percentage of total funding, loan-to-value ratio and loan-to-deposit ratio exhibit the predicted impact on the credit growth rate and therefore on financial stability. On the other hand, interbank loans as a percentage of total loans, leverage ratio, and solvency ratio do not exhibit the expected impact on the response variable. Since only four regressors (out of seven) have the signs predicted by our hypothesis, we can only partly confirm it.

Oil price shock in the US and the euro area – evidence from the shadow rate and the term premium

The aim of this article is to investigate the consequences of oil price changes for the economy of the US and the euro area. Oil price transmission channel is assessed using Granger causalities and structural vector autoregressive (VAR) specifications (applying the Cholesky factorization and the restrictions following the method of Blanchard and Quah). The conventional oil price transmission channel is extended by a shadow policy rate and term premium, as the importance of both indicators has been growing rapidly in recent years. The results confirm that the oil price shock is not negligible in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis and in the subsequent period of monetary policy normalization. The findings are confirmed by the outcomes of the Bayesian VAR specification with sign restrictions. The consequences of changes in oil prices have significantly grown since the introduction of unconventional monetary instruments. The magnitude of the response of industrial production, price level and shadow interest rate to the oil price shock is strongest in the period corresponding to the unconventional monetary policy. In many cases, however, the reaction is short-lived. The conventional instrument (policy rate) in the euro area has still not been sufficient to stabilize the economy in the recent period of monetary policy normalization in the US.

What is the Sustainable Level of Banks’ Credit Losses and Provisions?

In this paper, we estimate the sustainable level of lifetime expected credit losses and provisions and assess the procyclicality of banks’ credit losses and provisions in the Czech Republic. Further, we discuss the implications of the results for provisioning in stage 3 under the IFRS 9. Based on the estimation results, we can identify periods of insufficient provisioning when the actual values were below the sustainable levels. Additionally, we show that credit losses and provisions behave procyclically (i.e., decrease with a rising output gap and increase with a falling output gap) while banks recognize impaired credit losses and create provisions with a delay of three to four quarters after the output gap starts shrinking. Such a delay may result in a sharp increase in lifetime expected credit losses and provisioning in response to a deterioration in economic conditions under the IFRS 9 regime.

Does the instability of economic development affect the elasticity of the labour market?

Despite extensive research, the estimates of changes in employment are heterogeneous in different conditions of economic development. In this study, we examined the impact of the instability of economic growth on the elasticity of the labour market in a set of EU27 member states in the period 2000Q1–2019Q4.The sensitivity of the labour market was quantified in parallel by two available methods which are used for this purpose – by calculating the values of the arc elasticity coefficient and by regression analysis. Logarithmic linear regression models were compiled according to the analysis criteria individually for each member state. By comparing the values of the obtained elasticity indicators, differences in the responses of the labour market were identified. Our results show that the heterogeneity of opinions is to some extent natural. The elasticity of the labour market determined by calculating the values of the elasticity coefficient is characterized by a high variability of values. Similarly, the values of the regression coefficient reflect the nature of the macroeconomic development of the period under review. According to our findings, the frequent short-term trends of negative economic development result in a reduced sensitivity of the labour market to the changes in economic performance, manifested by a lower employment elasticity compared to its values in economies with a stable development trend. Based on this, we formulate the connection between the elasticity of the labour market and the positive and negative economic development. We condition the sensitivity of the labour market to the changes in the trend of economic development with the occurrence of longer-lasting trends of negative economic development.

Current Implementation of the Circular Economy in Enterprises in the Czech Republic

The subject of this paper is the contemporary use of the circular economy in business practice. The topicality of this theme was the reason for resolving the main objectives, which were to determine how enterprises in the Czech Republic are currently involved in the circular economy. The authors focused on empirical research, the methodological framework of which contains three interrelated parts. The basis was secondary research from scientific databases, which was followed up by the primary research. The objects of the primary research were based on three research questions, which were focused on the use of standardised environmental activities, the identification of tools of the circular economy and determining their importance. The research was evaluated using the methods of content analysis, descriptive and inductive statistics. The research showed that 71 % of enterprises present themselves as taking an active approach to the environment beyond the scope of the statutory obligations. Enterprises then make most use of regulatory tools such as the ISO 14001 standard or Ecodesign. An in-depth interview was used to identify sixteen tools of the circular economy as they are perceived by enterprises. When assessing importance, the highest rated tool was reducing energy consumption in production, waste from production, the consumption of materials, emissions and minimization of waste. Statistically significant differences were also identified with these tools. The research showed that the circular economy is most used in automotive industry enterprise.

The effects of education-job (mis)match on the earnings of graduates in the Czech Republic

This paper deals with the effects of education-job (mis)match on the earnings of higher education graduates in the context of higher education expansion and different phases of the economic cycle in the Czech Republic in 2006–2018. It aims to contribute to knowledge about the effects of education-job (mis)match on earnings in two ways. First, it concentrates on both the vertical and the horizontal dimensions of education-job (mis)match. Second, it considers the effects of contextual variables: the share of graduates in the population and the unemployment rate of graduates. The paper is based on assumptions derived from assignment theory. The authors use data of graduates’ self-evaluation collected in national and international graduate surveys – REFLEX, REFLEX 2010, REFLEX 2013, and Absolvent 2018. The data for contextual variables come from Eurostat and the Czech Statistical Office. The analyses focus on graduates four to five years after graduation. They are examined both as a whole and in groups based on the field of study using the method of weighted least squares. Overeducation usually has significant negative effects on earnings. Horizontal match effects are contradictory. The education-job (mis)match effects are relatively small in comparison with other factors. The role of contextual variables is mostly predictable, however, some exceptions uncover specifics of the labour market in the Czech Republic. There are important differences among groups of graduates in different fields of study.