Suchergebnisse

This paper aims to verify gains and losses from foreign direct investment as well as outflow of capital in the form of dividends from Central and Eastern Europe. The topic of dividend outflow is currently at the centre of political as well as media interest. At the same time, it is prone to simplistic interpretations and possible political intervention might exert a significant negative social impact. The contemporary economic theory and empirical research are in relative consensus on the positive effects of foreign investment. Most notably, it increases capital endowment of labour. However, the questions that have not yet been resolved are the rate of intensity, phases and channels of foreign capital flows. The effect of foreign investment during the different phases of foreign life-cycle is practically unexplored. The need for this type of research does not arise in Western Europe's economies as they are in a position of creditor compared to Central and Eastern Europe. Therefore, the article examines whether the outflow of dividends is associated with the deterioration of aggregate demand or an increase of export capacities. Through the panel regression method, these relationships are captured in Western Europe's economies and compared with the Central and Eastern Europe's economies. The effect of capital intensity and dividend outflow on real wages in the post-communist countries was examined. The findings break down the myth portrayed in the media concerning the cost of dividend outflow and, on the contrary, they confirm substantial benefits stemming from the capital inflow. Late stages of foreign investment cycle connected with dividend outflow do not bear any adverse effects. The high profitability of foreign-controlled enterprises is in line with the favourable wage development of domestic labour force.

AbstractThe main aim of the article is to identify unintended consequences of economic policies to combat climate change, in the short and long run, using the example of the Czech economy. The short term impacts are assessed by world input-output analysis in order to capture direct and indirect channels affecting the Czech automotive industry. Optimistic, realistic and pessimistic scenarios of decrease in demand for cars due to the imposition of environmental taxes in the European Union and the rest of the world are presented. The results show adverse impacts on Czech gross domestic product from 1.6 to 4.9 percentage points. The economy is expected to change its structure and reallocate factors of production to an alternative use, but there is a risk of suboptimal allocation, which might reveal losses from less efficient allocation of labor and capital. Therefore, the analysis of the relationship between economic welfare and the quality of the environment is conducted. Data on the Czech economy confirm the hypothesis of an environmental Kuznets curve and point to unintended consequences of overly ambitious policies to mitigate global climate change. If economic welfare excessively declines, there would be a significant risk of undermining people's will to invest into environmental protection.

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