The 2020 Pandemic: Economic repercussions and policy responses

This paper analyses the economic and financial repercussions of the 2020 COVID‐19 pandemic. It argues that the pandemic has inflicted serious injuries to the labor force but has not damaged the physical capital stock. Therefore, the resolution policies of this crisis ought to be carefully tailored to supporting structural adjustments to the labor market. The analysis asserts that the impact of the pandemic crisis is exacerbated by the identification gap between the unobserved and the officially reported cases of COVID‐19. The gap increases financial risks, including market‐, credit‐, default‐, and foreign exchange risks.     

Monetary policy rules for convergence to the Euro

This paper investigates the applicability of open-economy convergence-consistent instrument rules for monetary policies in the economies undergoing monetary convergence to a common currency area. The proposed policy rule is forward-looking, consistent with a monetary framework based on inflation-targeting containing input variables that are relative to the corresponding variables in the common currency area. Robust forms of the policy rule are tested empirically for three inflation-targeting countries converging to the euro, i.e. the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. Empirical tests imply systemic differences in monetary policies among these euro-candidates. The Czech monetary policy seemingly follows the rule prescribed by our model. Both the Czech and the Polish central bank interest rate policies respond predominantly to changes in the inflation gap, while the Hungarian responds mainly to the exchange rate gap. In all three cases, changes in the eurozone short-term interest rates strongly drive adjustments in the central banks’ reference interest rates.     

Commitment and conflict in the restaurant industry: Perceptions from the Generation Y viewpoint

This study investigates Generation Y restaurant employees’ perceptions of conflict and the extent to which the presence of management team conflict influences employee organizational commitment. Regression analysis found that perceptions of task and process conflict negatively impact organizational commitment, while relationship conflict was not found to have a statistically significant impact on organizational commitment. This study represents the first attempt to understand the carryover effects of management team conflict on employees and offers insights into the perceptions of the Generation Y restaurant worker. Theoretical and managerial implications of the empirical findings as well as directions for future research are discussed.     

Monetary convergence to the Euro

This special issue of Economic Systems includes seven papers about various aspects of monetary convergence to the Euro. It includes both policy discussion papers examining a wide range of issues and empirical studies evaluating specific areas of monetary convergence. From a policy strategy view, the selected papers examine the ways of combining the two key objectives of monetary convergence, i.e., price stability and exchange rate stability. In addition, the papers analyze the interplay between monetary policies and financial market stability. The findings provide new insights on monetary policy transmission channels, market equilibrium exchange rates, interest rates pass through effects, the importance of real relative to nominal convergence, and other intricacies encountered on the passage toward the Euro.     

Financial crisis and extreme market risks: Evidence from Europe

This study draws attention to the proliferation of extreme risks in financial markets prior to and during the course of the recent global financial crisis. It examines the level of such “tail” risks in selected equity, interbank lending and foreign exchange markets in selected EU Member States in relation to the United States. The extent of tail risks is assessed by applying general error distribution (GED) parameterization in GARCH volatility tests of the examined variables. The empirical tests prove that extreme market risks were pronounced across all of the examined European financial markets throughout the crisis. They were also significant prior to the crisis outbreak. The analyzed interbank lending markets exhibited more extreme volatility outbursts than the equity and foreign exchange markets did.     

Monetary Convergence and Risk Premiums in the EU Accession Countries

This study examines the impact of various monetary policy regimes on the ability to lower inflation and exchange rate risk premiums in the EU accession countries as they undergo monetary convergence to the eurozone. It proposes a monetary policy framework of flexible targeting of relative inflation risk premium that is believed to be credible and useful for managing these two categories of risk. A model of inflation and exchange rate risk premiums within the context of inflation targeting is developed. Recent trends in these risk premiums in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland are tested by employing the threshold ARCH (TARCH) model.     

The Inforum Model of the Polish Economy

A demand-oriented model for Poland is developed. A number of special features are incorporated to reflect the realities of the Polish economy and to take advantage of some of the statistics which are available in Poland but not in Western Europe. These special features include disequilibrium indicators in the consumer demand equations, direct measurement of capital stocks and technological progress, allowance for hoarding of obsolete equipment, strong connections between input coeffcients and new investment, and the treatment of liquidity overhang. Results of simulations showed correctly in advance the effects of the 1990 austerity policy. Experiments indicate the best way to use foreign investment funds.