<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of individual types of taxes on the economic growth by utilizing regression analysis on the OECD countries for the period of 2000–2011. The impact of taxation is integrated into growth models by its impact on the individual growth variables, which are capital accumulation and investment, human capital and technology. The analysis in this paper is based on extended neoclassical growth model of Mankiw, Romer and Weil (1992), and for the verification of relation between taxation and economic growth the panel regression method is used. The taxation rate itself is not approximated only by traditional tax quota, which is characteristic by many insufficiencies, but also by the alternative World Tax Index which combines hard and soft data. It is evident from the results of both analyses that corporate taxation followed by personal income taxes and social security contribution are the most harmful for economic growth. Concurrently, in case of the value added tax approximated by tax quota, the negative impact on economic growth was not confirmed, from which it can be concluded that tax quota, in this case as the indicator of taxation, fails. When utilizing World Tax Index, a negative relation between these two variables was confirmed, however, it was the least quantifiable. The impact of property taxes was statistically insignificant. Based on the analysis results it is evident that in effort to stimulate economic growth in OECD countries, economic-politic authorities should lower the corporate taxation and personal income taxes, and the loss of income tax revenues should be compensated by the growth of indirect tax revenues.</abstract>

The Impact of Taxation on Economic Growth: Case Study of OECD Countries

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>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.</abstract>

Economic Freedom and its Impact on Foreign Direct Investment: Global Overview

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This paper presents an analysis of quality, customer satisfaction and business performance in food industry. The main objective of the research is to determine the influence of quality on customer satisfaction and on business performance and competitiveness. In particular, this paper answers the following research question: Does the quality of a product result in a satisfied customer and thereby in a well-performing business? Customer satisfaction is defined as the satisfaction of the customer with a product and the business performance as a capability to generate profit. Therefore, satisfaction was examined by the means of a survey using questionnaires, and the performance was measured by financial data. We managed to find a correlation between the main factors, although partial results were due more factors mostly statistically insignificant.</abstract>

Customer Satisfaction, Product Quality and Performance of Companies

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
In this paper, we explore the drawbacks of GDP per capita in purchasing power parity as an indicator of economic development and well-being and evaluate the factors which diminish its ability to represent the level of life. Firstly, we theoretically outline the issues that might be undermining the suitability of GDP per capita as a measure of well-being, and debate other development indicators. Subsequently, we confront GDP per capita with the most well-known development indicator – the Human Development Index HDI – and calculate the deviations between these two indicators for a panel of 141 countries. To empirically evaluate the potential limitations of GDP in measuring development, we regress the computed deviations between development and GDP on an array of economic, social, and political variables employing a heterogeneous panel dataset and robust fixed effects estimators. The results reveal that countries with higher income inequality and level of economic freedom are characterised by lower development than implied by their GDP per capita. Contrarily, the size of the shadow economy is negatively linked to the deviations of HDI from GDP. Certain sociocultural, geographic, and ecological factors, such as higher fertility rates, cold climate, and the depletion of natural resources, are prevalent among nations ranking higher in GDP per capita than in development.
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Exploring the limitations of GDP per capita as an indicator of economic development: a cross-country perspective

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The paper deals with the economic theory of Milton Friedman. Its first part outlines the life of Milton Friedman. The second part examines his economic theories - “Essays in Positive Economics” (1953), “Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money“ (1956), “A Theory of the Consumption Function” (1957), “A Program for Monetary Stability” (1959), “A Monetary History of the United States 1897 to 1960” (1963), and “Price Theory” (1976). His Nobel Prize lecture and American Economic Association lecture in 1967 are discussed, too. The third part analyzes Friedman’s methodology. Milton Friedman was the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century. He is best known for his theoretical and empirical research, especially consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy.</abstract>

100 Years since the Birth of Milton Friedman

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> Psychological traits, attitudes and soft skills represent factors whose effect on an individual’s wages has begun to be examined recently. Today, there is an extensive empirical body on wage returns to the first two factors, but still a relatively small one on wage returns to soft skills, such as communication, cooperation, leadership etc. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of empirical literature on wage returns to soft skills. It suggests that soft skills are connected with significant wage returns and contribute to closing the gender wage gap. The end of the paper focuses on a discussion on methodological approaches to measurement of soft skills and relevancy of their approximation by job characteristics (incl. suggestion of using tools of competency modelling for this purpose).</abstract>

Soft Skills and Their Wage Returns: Overview of Empirical Literature

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Great differences are observed in the way of living, the quality of living, and the type of property ownership in individual countries of the world. However, housing affordability is currently a significant issue in every developed country. At the same time, it is also an important factor of economic development on both the national and regional level. The paper is focused on the comparison of housing affordability in the Czech and Polish regions. The presented research combines four different commonly used indicators of housing affordability (financial and physical) into a newly defined index and applies it to the Czech Republic and Poland regions for the period 2020-2022. The aim is the comparison of Czech and Polish regions according to the selected housing indicators and calculated standard housing affordability index SAI, which is a newly created index compiled by the authors. The result of the research is a calculation of housing availability in a total of 30 Czech and Polish regions and a comparison of the development of housing availability in 2020 and 2022 in these regions. The result of the research is the finding that the availability of housing in the Czech regions is on average lower than in the Polish regions and, in addition, that the availability has decreased compared to 2020 in both the Czech and Polish regions by 2022.
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Comparison of Housing Affordability in Czech and Polish Regions

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Examining the relationship between sustainability and economic development was covered by research over the past decades. The initial goal of the present research is to evaluate the contribution of renewable energy sector value added to the national economic development in Denmark. The research tasks of this study include assessment of carbon dioxide allowances and environmental taxation as well as the effect of other factors in terms of their contribution to the economic growth. The application of the regression analysis in order to examine the relationship between renewable energy industry and national economic development in Denmark shows that the increasing of renewable energy value added leads to the sizeable expansion of the gross domestic product. From the environmental-economic standpoint this is presumably the first research to make unambiguous conclusion, that proves significance of renewable energy value added for economic development in Denmark. Likewise, the results of the present study prove that expanding usage of carbon dioxide (CO₂) allowances in Denmark leads to quite considerable increase of the gross domestic product. Besides that, this study provided evidence regarding positive and statistically significant impact of the other factors on the economic growth.
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The contribution of renewable energy sector value added to the national economic development in Denmark: an empirical analysis

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Education is a key area that should matter to the whole society. Measuring efficiency in education is a widely discussed academic and professional topic. The presented article focuses on investigating the efficiency of 57 elementary schools in the city of Bratislava. We used a two-step approach. In addition to measuring the output efficiency of elementary schools through the analysis of the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis method (DEA) with variable returns of scale (VRS), we also performed regression analyses to examine the connection between contextual variables and the measured output efficiency. The analysis shows that the achieved output efficiency is positively associated by the technical equipment of schools, staff in schools and the establishment (prestige) of schools in society. We noted a negative association with the number of students with special needs. Our findings can serve the city administration, as they can largely influence the monitored parameters by their own decision.
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Efficiency Analysis of Elementary Schools in Bratislava – A Two Step DEA Approach

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Tony Lawson, the leading figure of the Cambridge Social Ontology Group, recently published a series of papers devoted to the question of the nature of money. These contributions have to be understood in the context of his broader approach to social ontology, the so called social positioning theory. While at first glance Lawson’s monetary ideas might appear disconnected and sometimes even contradictory or mistaken, there is a consistent vision behind them which is Lawson general social ontology. Lawson’s elaboration of the nature of money is not the only one compatible with the social positioning theory and an alternative one is briefly proposed in the paper. While systematising various Lawson’s monetary contributions, attention has been paid to several particular discrepancies and mistakes and their rectification. At the end of the paper, some lessons from analysing Lawson’s monetary contributions are drawn for his general approach to social ontology.
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Tony Lawson on money

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
One of the EU's main priorities is to boost the competitiveness of its member states through subsidies from the European Structural Funds. As SMEs are key elements of competitiveness, their support through various subsidy programmes is important. However, as our research shows, the distribution of funds among SMEs is highly unequal. While some SMEs are very successful in obtaining subsidies, others (especially the smallest ones) are not. Using a robust dataset of Czech companies, we have identified subsidy ‘sharks‘ receiving multiple times more funds, compared to mediocre ‘salmons‘ and lowly supported ‘daces‘. While using counterfactual design with control for a subsidy dose and taking labour productivity as a proxy for competitiveness, we have found out that the subsidy dose really matters. It seems that the higher the dose, the lower the impact on competitiveness. Since, on average, subsidies led to higher competitiveness of beneficiaries, the subsidy daces significantly outpaced sharks. From a policy perspective, limiting support per beneficiary could lead to higher effectiveness of support programmes. This study also highlights the importance of the subsidy dose in evaluation practice and research.
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When Daces Bite Deeper than Sharks – Does the SMEs Public Subsidy Dose Matter?

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The research aims to analyse the influence of selected factors on the demand for urban public transport in the Czech Republic. Urban public transport is important publicly provided service worldwide. In the Czech Republic this means public ownership of transport companies and massive subsidies from municipal budgets. In line with the literature, we tested the effects of the fares, the quality of services offered, the population´s income, car ownership, the urban population´s size and employment level. Using cointegration and regression analyses of data for 2004 to 2019, we constructed unique demand models for selected cities. Our analysis revealed a positive effect of quality, fuel price (as a cost associated with car ownership), and the urban population´s size. In contrast, unemployment and the price of fares have a negative effect on demand. The income effect depends on whether the transport company operates vehicles that cope better with traffic congestion.
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Demand for urban public transport in the Czech Republic

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> This paper sets out to answer the question: Is trade openness important for economic growth in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries? The policyoriented measures of trade openness used in earlier studies have been argued to be subjective, while the simple outcome-oriented measures only capture one aspect of trade openness, namely: countries’ share of trade. Hence, following Squalli and Wilson (2011), the paper constructs a new outcome-oriented measure of trade openness which captures a country’s share of trade, and its interaction and interconnectedness with the rest of the world. Using fixed-effects regressions for 17 CEE countries over the period 1994 - 2014, the paper finds trade openness to be important for growth within the CEE countries. In particular, the results show that increases in trade openness is associated with increases in real GDP per capita growth within these countries. The results appear significantly the same after we dropped Croatia and Estonia - two historically closed economies.</abstract>

Does Trade Openness Matter for Economic Growth in the CEE Countries?

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>E-government readiness is an important indicator of the quality of a country’s technological and telecommunication infrastructure and the ability of its citizens, businesses and governments to adopt, use and benefit from modern technologies. To measure and compare selected countries, a lot of benchmarking and ranking indices have been introduced since the beginning of the century. With the increasing importance of trends such as cloud computing, open (big) data, participation tools or social media, new indicators and approaches need to be introduced in the measuring of the e-government development, and the existing indices should to be updated, redefined and restructured. Therefore, this article explores the structure of the existing e-government development indices to show the main indicators and trends. Then, it proposes and implements a new framework to evaluate e-government development using these new trends in ICT. It also examines and compares a basic background on the e-government development, benefits and risks of cloud computing, open (big) data and participation tools in the public sector. Based on the newly proposed framework, the e-government development index is calculated for each EU Member State to clearly identify the indicators to have an influence on the e-government development. In the last part, these results are compared to the already existing indices to validate the conformity of the rank methods using Kendall rank correlation coefficient.</abstract>

Reframing E-Government Development Indices with Respect to New Trends in ICT

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