{"title":"Assessment of Priorities of Construction of High-Speed Rail in the Czech Republic in Terms of Impacts on Internal and External Integration","authors":"V. Pařil, M. Viturka","doi":"10.2478/revecp-2020-0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2020-0010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The priorities assessment for the planned construction of high-speed rail/HSR in the Czech Republic in terms of impacts on internal and external integration is a though-provoking topic not only from the technical and economic, but also from the social and geographical point of view. Its primary basis is the application of the gravity model, according to which the planned route C Prague-Wien has the most significant potential in passenger transport. Then following routes are A Prague-Berlin, B Prague-München, and D Brno-Katowice. Subsequently, the likely impacts generated by a significant improvement in the quality parameters and hence the competitive position of rail transport were assessed, including the potential for shifting part of the demand from the road and air transport to HSR. Overall, however, it can be stated that the potential impacts of the HSR on the growth of passenger transport in the Czech Republic will not be essential. To perceive the regional impacts of HSR construction, analyses of selected indicators (population density per km2, GDP per capita, unemployment rate) by NUTS 3 regions for the period 2007-2017 were also carried out. From the strategic point of view, the research results did not confirm that the planned construction of the HSR primarily stimulates convergence tendencies in regional development as the main priority of EU regional policy. Rather, it seems more likely that the HSR will stimulate the extraction of economic activity from “rural” regions in favour of metropolitan regions.","PeriodicalId":43002,"journal":{"name":"Review of Economic Perspectives","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43360010","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Effect of Economic Conditions on Accounting Conservatism under IFRS in Europe","authors":"Antonio Cerqueira, Cláudia Pereira","doi":"10.2478/revecp-2020-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2020-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We analyse in detail conservative accounting practices in seventeen European countries, taking into account institutional factors. In addition, we examine the impact of IFRS adoption and the influence of changes in economic conditions on conditional conservatism. Specifically, we study the level of accounting conservatism before and after IFRS adoption detailing for the pre and crisis period and post-crisis period surrounding the 2007/2008 financial crisis. Our findings are consistent with a conservative accounting practice in Europe as a whole and in each country individually. Besides, opposite to that expected, the results provide evidence of more conservative accounting practice in Anglo-Saxon countries, but we find no significant differences in conservatism in Nordic countries. Another finding is a significant decrease in the level of conservatism after IFRS adoption. Regarding the joint impact of IFRS adoption and economic conditions, we find a decrease in conservatism in the pre and crisis period, followed by a substantial increase in the post-crisis period. Our results seem to be in line with the positive accounting theory when suggesting that conservatism plays a fundamental role as corporate governance and efficient contracting mechanism between managers and other stakeholders of the firm. Furthermore, the results suggest that the flexibility provided by IFRS allows adjusting the level of conservatism when economic conditions change.","PeriodicalId":43002,"journal":{"name":"Review of Economic Perspectives","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43489454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spillover effects of unconventional monetary policy on capital markets in the shadow of the Eurozone: A sample of non-Eurozone countries","authors":"Mercédesz Mészáros, G. Kiss","doi":"10.2478/revecp-2020-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2020-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The transmission mechanism has been dominated by direct monetary measures since the crisis of 2008. While the indirect impacts of the unconventional monetary instruments have not been fully explored yet. Monetary policy and funding conditions determine pricing sentiments for bond, stock and currency markets, represented by the volatilities of their main indicators: stock market indices, exchange rates, and yield premia. Our theoretical model takes spillover effects into account when it determines the variables which are responsible for volatility: the activities of international financial institutions (like the ESM or the IMF) are represented by dummy variables, while the limited autonomy in the shadow of the ECB is captured through gravity-like approaches. Six EU member states outside the Eurozone and Switzerland were analysed between 2007 and 2019 with random effect panel regression models to identify the differences in the impact of spillover effects on capital market volatilities. The results obtained are considered to be useful in mapping the potential effects of continuing monetary easing in the near future.","PeriodicalId":43002,"journal":{"name":"Review of Economic Perspectives","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47424627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Are “fair” wages quantitatively important for business cycle fluctuations in Bulgaria?","authors":"Aleksandar Vasilev","doi":"10.2478/revecp-2020-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2020-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We introduce “fair” wages in a general-equilibrium model where worker’s effort is unobservable and investigate whether such a mechanism can quantitatively account for the degree of real wage rigidity in the Bulgarian labor markets, as documented in Lozev, Vladova, and Paskaleva (2011) and Paskaleva (2016). In contrast to Danthine and Kurmann (2004), we internalize the effect that past wages have on the current effort level. We calibrate the model to Bulgarian data (1999-2016), and quantify the effect of technological shocks on hours and wages in the theoretical setup. Overall, the calibrated model with “fair” wages performs poorly when it comes to the relative volatilities of labor market variables. This is because aggregate labor market conditions, as proxied by the employment rate and past aggregate wages, turn out not to be quantitatively important for business cycles in Bulgaria.","PeriodicalId":43002,"journal":{"name":"Review of Economic Perspectives","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41849693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Relationships between exchange rate regime, real exchange rate volatility and currency structure of government bonds in emerging markets","authors":"Viktar Dudzich","doi":"10.2478/revecp-2020-0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2020-0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Public foreign currency borrowing is a common problem of emerging markets. Scholars named it the original sin of foreign debt. It has a proven negative influence on economic growth and development, undermining financial stability, and increasing the probability of monetary crises. The roots of the original sin often lay in emerging markets’ institutional underdevelopment, with low-quality monetary policy, inappropriate exchange rate regime choice, and exchange rate mismanagement being stated among the most important causes. This paper evaluates the influence of the exchange rate policy on the emission of foreign currency sovereign bonds in emerging markets. The relationship is estimated using panel data and GMM approach, with exchange rate regime type (both de jure and de facto) and real exchange rate volatility serving as explanatory variables. The findings reveal that fixed exchange rate regime and high real exchange rate volatility is promoting the foreign currency borrowing. Thus countries that want to reduce the burden of the original sin should lean towards a more flexible exchange rate policy while maintaining their real exchange rate stable.","PeriodicalId":43002,"journal":{"name":"Review of Economic Perspectives","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43927230","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Economic Freedom and its Impact on Foreign Direct Investment: Global Overview","authors":"Devesh Singh, Zoltán Gál","doi":"10.2478/revecp-2020-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2020-0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The purpose of this research is to examine the economic freedom (EF) along with its macroeconomic determinants impact on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow in South Asia, East Asia, Latin America, Middle East, and North Africa, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Sub Saharan Africa. We use Heritage Foundation economic freedom index data over the period of 1999 to 2018 and employ the stepwise multi regression on variables of business freedom, government spending, tax burden, government integrity, property rights, investment freedom, trade freedom and monetary freedom. The results show that EF has a significant positive impact in South Asia, Latin America, East Asia, North Europe and West Europe. However, for the Middle East and North Africa, East European and South European economies EF has an insignificant influence on FDI inflow.","PeriodicalId":43002,"journal":{"name":"Review of Economic Perspectives","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42951823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Determinants of private investments in Turkey: Examining the role of democracy","authors":"Selçuk Akçay, Alper Karasoy","doi":"10.2478/revecp-2020-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2020-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study investigates the determinants of private sector investments in Turkey with a focus on democracy. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and two different democracy indices along with the other determinants of private investment, we estimated a private investment function for the 1975-2014 period. Our main finding is that democracy has a profound positive impact on private investment. Moreover, the results show that: (i) public investment is a substitute to private investment; (ii) macroeconomic instability dissuades private investment; (iii) real interest is a serious impediment to private investment; (iv) financial development and GDP growth rate stimulate private investment.","PeriodicalId":43002,"journal":{"name":"Review of Economic Perspectives","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2020-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43985241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The effect of financial development on income inequality in Turkey: An estimate of the Greenwood-Jovanovic hypothesis","authors":"Emrah Koçak, Nisfet Uzay","doi":"10.2478/revecp-2019-0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2019-0017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper is the first to examine the linear and nonlinear effect of financial development on income inequality in Turkey over the period of 1980-2013. Financial development is represented by disaggregated and aggregated indicators. In this way, the effects of various financial indicators on income inequality are explained. Maki (2012) structural breaks co-integration test, and Stock and Watson (1993) dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) methods are followed for empirical analysis. Finally, the fully modified least squares (FM-OLS) regression analysis method developed by Philips and Hansen (1990) is used for robustness check. The estimation results of the linear relationship indicate that financial development is a mitigating effect on income inequality. These results support the inequality-narrowing hypothesis. The non-linear relationship results show that financial development first increases income inequality but after financial development reaches a certain level, this effect is reversed and financial development reduces income inequality. These results support the Greenwood-Jovanovic hypothesis. All the results strongly suggest that financial development is a mitigating or improving effect on income inequality over the long-run.","PeriodicalId":43002,"journal":{"name":"Review of Economic Perspectives","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45946877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Estimating Natural Rate of Interest and Equilibrium Exchange Rate: A Case of the Czech Republic","authors":"Zdeněk Pikhart, Pavla Froňková","doi":"10.2478/revecp-2019-0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2019-0013","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Article deals with estimating real natural interest rate and exchange rate to construct monetary conditions index suitable for the Czech open economy. Despite unobservable characteristics of underlying interest rates and exchange rate, the importance of reference indicators for monetary policy is crucial. Proposed monetary condition index in gap form examines monetary impulse on economic and credit cycle in inflation targeting model.","PeriodicalId":43002,"journal":{"name":"Review of Economic Perspectives","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48269782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Financialization and the Labor Share of Income","authors":"Onur Özdemir","doi":"10.2478/revecp-2019-0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2019-0015","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Financialization has been growing importance in macroeconomic perspectives since the finance-dominated capitalist relations have captured many of the specific positions in an aggregate economy. However, the empirical literature has substantially ignored the examination of the link between an increasing scale of financialization and the rising income inequality. In this study, a major hypothesis is based on the fact that the finance-dominated capitalism has a considerable effect on distributional practices through the channels of bargaining power. By applying the Kaleckian approach, the paper investigates the relationship between financialization and the labor share of national income using a panel dataset of 52 countries over the 1992-2012 period. The results suggest that a higher level of stock market development leads to a more unequal distribution of income and, thus, to the decline of wage share in the national income. Other factors such as globalization and technical change can also exacerbate the decline of wages, coupled with a decrease in the bargaining position of labor measured by unemployment rate and labor force participation rate.","PeriodicalId":43002,"journal":{"name":"Review of Economic Perspectives","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45902536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}