The Role of Foreign Direct Investment in the Privatisation and Restructuring of the Czech Motor Industry

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been considered one of the crucial factors of a successful economic transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. This article investigates the role of FDI in the privatisation and restructuring of the Czech motor industry in the 1990s. In particular, it examines how governmental policies towards FDI affected FDI inflows, the immediate effects of FDI at the enterprise level, and the contested nature of this change. Advantages of foreign ownership for Czech enterprises, such as access to investment capital, access to sale and distribution networks of parent companies and technology transfer are discussed, as well as examples of failures of FDI to result in a successful enterprise restructuring. The information presented is based upon in-depth interviews with top managers of twenty component suppliers, governmental officials and vehicle makers in the Czech Republic as well as on the secondary data.     

PVYn and Potato Wart Disease Outbreaks in Prince Edward Island: Policy Response and Analysis

This study analyzed the impact of PVYn and potato wart disease outbreaks in PEI on the potato industry. The two disease outbreaks resulted in loss of the U.S. seed export market to PEI producers. The effects of the disease outbreaks were mitigated through value‐added processing. Price premiums for processed potatoes allowed PEI potato farmers to abandon seed export and helped to sustain financial viability potato production. Policy responses to the two disease outbreaks include (i) development of zones policies, which helped to reopen markets into the United States, and (ii) compensation to producers above the minimum levels required under the federal Seeds Act and Regulations. Implementation of the zones policy had beneficial impacts on the potato industry. In contrast, compensation above minimum requirements may set a costly precedent for future disease outbreaks. Dans la présente étude, nous avons analysé les répercussions des flambées de virus PVYn et de galle variqueuse à l'Î.‐P.‐É. sur l'industrie de la pomme de terre. En raison de ces flambées, les producteurs de l'Î.‐P.‐É. ont perdu le marché d'exportation de la pomme de terre de semence vers les États‐Unis. La transformation à valeur ajoutée a aidéà atténuer les répercussions. Les bonifications reçues pour la pomme de terre transformée ont permis aux producteurs de l'Î.‐P.‐É. d'abandonner le marché d'exportation de la pomme de terre de semence et ont contribuéà maintenir la viabilité financière de cette production. Les réactions politiques à ces deux flambées ont inclus: i) l'élaboration de politiques en fonction des zones qui a favorisé la réouverture des marchés étatsuniens; ii) le versement d'indemnisations supérieures à celles prévues par la Loi sur les semences et le Règlement sur les semences. La mise en vigueur de politiques en fonction des zones a eu des effets bénéfiques sur l'industrie. Toutefois, le versement d'indemnisations supérieures aux exigences minimales pourrait créer un précédent coûteux advenant de futures flambées de maladies.     

Endogenous monetary commitment

We develop an asynchronous framework in which each player can optimally select the frequency of his moves based on cost-benefit considerations. To demonstrate how such ability to commit can alleviate coordination problems, we apply the framework to monetary policy.     

Structural Breaks and Spatial Linkages in FDI: Further Evidence in OECD Countries

This paper evaluates the knowledge–capital model (KCM) of foreign direct investment (FDI) as defined by Braconier et al. (Rev Int Econ 13(4):770-786, 2005). The model predicts that there are both horizontal and vertical motivations for engaging in FDI. The horizontal motives regard access to new markets in the case of trade frictions, whereas the vertical motivations imply that multinational enterprises seek to take advantage of relative skill differences in different countries. The impact of the vertical component in the KCM has been largely debated and thereby is of the greatest interest. Another issue addressed in the study is the relevance of spatial interdependencies in FDI flow. To check for these kinds of FDI determinants the KCM model is augmented with a surrounding market potential and a spatial lag term. By using large data sets for FDI stocks among OECD countries from 1982 to 2003 along with structural breaks and spatial econometric techniques, the paper evaluates the significance of traditional and spatial FDI determinants. The results show that the vertical component is indeed important, even for FDI among OECD countries, but that this importance is clearly decreasing over time. The findings point towards the existence of spatial linkages that are also compatible with export-platform motivations.     

Joint production under uncertainty and multifunctionality of agriculture: policy considerations and applied analysis

The impact of various policy instruments on the production ofenvironmental goods that are complementary to or competing withagricultural commodities is analysed in the light of the uncertaintyin output prices and farmers' risk aversion. Some theoreticalassessments are first summarised and then tested on a case studyconcerning beef and grassland biodiversity production in Montsdu Cantal, France. The results of simulations carried out bymathematical programming farm-level models show that joint commodityand non-commodity production is nearly independent of the degreeof farmers' risk aversion, and that commodity-linked policyinstruments are not suitable for the production of environmentalgoods even under uncertainty.     

The future of food demand: understanding differences in global economic models

Understanding the capacity of agricultural systems to feed the world population under climate change requires projecting future food demand. This article reviews demand modeling approaches from 10 global economic models participating in the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP). We compare food demand projections in 2050 for various regions and agricultural products under harmonized scenarios of socioeconomic development, climate change, and bioenergy expansion. In the reference scenario (SSP2), food demand increases by 59–98% between 2005 and 2050, slightly higher than the most recent FAO projection of 54% from 2005/2007. The range of results is large, in particular for animal calories (between 61% and 144%), caused by differences in demand systems specifications, and in income and price elasticities. The results are more sensitive to socioeconomic assumptions than to climate change or bioenergy scenarios. When considering a world with higher population and lower economic growth (SSP3), consumption per capita drops on average by 9% for crops and 18% for livestock. The maximum effect of climate change on calorie availability is ?6% at the global level, and the effect of biofuel production on calorie availability is even smaller.     

The Urbanization of Nature in a (Post)Socialist Metropolis: An Urban Political Ecology of Allotment Gardening

In this article we explore how nature becomes part of the city through the example of allotment gardening in the city of Prague, in the Czech Republic. Prague allotments were established based on an ongoing political-ecological process of urbanization of nature that was locally driven by socialist (from 1948 to 1989) and later neoliberal governance. We employ a situated urban political ecology (UPE) approach to analyse changes in the planning of allotments and the impact thereof on the experience of gardeners. This double focus allows us to uncover the effects of neoliberalization on the processes of production of urban nature in respect of both policy and everyday practice. We contrast contemporary capitalist urbanization with its socialist predecessor by showing the immediate effects of the acceptance of neoliberal modes of governance on allotments, urban nature and the understanding of the city. We open allotments as a terrain for UPE to turn attention to the (uneven) production of urban nature in a post-socialist context that has thus far been largely absent from the UPE literature. We demonstrate that post-socialist urbanization is a fruitful terrain that offers new opportunities to unmask the effects of neoliberalization on the production of uneven urban space and thus improves our understanding of contemporary uneven urbanisms.     

Agent-based modeling of systemic risk in the European banking sector

Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination - In this paper, we use an agent-based simulation combined with innovative calibration techniques to model the European banking system as accurately...     

Estimating the revenue losses of international corporate tax avoidance: the case of the Czech Republic

International corporate tax avoidance by multinational enterprises likely lowers the Czech Republic’s corporate income tax revenue, but it is not clear by how much. To clarify this I first review existing estimates of the revenue losses of international corporate tax avoidance to government revenue worldwide. I then discuss revenue estimates relevant for the Czech Republic and develop a few new, albeit only illustrative, ones. None of the existing research focused on the Czech Republic nor did the six recent international studies I examine provide reliable estimates for the Czech Republic. The extrapolations from these studies result in a revenue loss of a quite wide range with a median of 10% of current corporate income tax revenues. The other newly prepared estimates, based on firm-level and aggregate data, are of similar magnitude. I conclude with a discussion of these rough estimates as well as questions for further research and policy recommendations.