E60 - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook: GeneralReturn

The first objective of this paper is to briefly describe and compare the methodology of the two best known international rankings of competitiveness (World Competitiveness Yearbook and The Global Competitiveness Report). The method of construction of these scoreboards (proportion of hard and soft data, form of their aggregation, choice of respondents, etc.) does not make it possible to find a satisfactory answer to the question whether national competitiveness is objectively measurable. The second goal of this paper is to analyse the V4 results in these rankings. According to the GCR all the V4 are most successful in indicators called Efficiency enhancers. The low trust in the political representation and its activities is typical for the V4 countries. This negative attitude is projected into negative evaluation of the quality of public institutions and public administration.

The purpose of this study is to answer the question 'Is Egypt ready to apply an IT regime?' The study presumed that a country is ready to apply an IT regime once the prerequisites for an IT regime are met. Comparing the current position of Egypt with some emerging market economies, the conclusions of the study are as follows: (i) the CBE is not factually independent. Although the CBE has been granted legal instrument independence, the existence of government representatives as voting members on the MPC and the coercion of the CBE to extend finance to the government are two elements sufficient to undermine the de facto independence of the CBE; (ii) inflation targets are expected to be missed under the possibility that the behavior of the CBE will be similar to the behavior of the majority of emerging market economies, i.e., adopting an IT regime whereas implicitly targeting FX rates; and (iii) the current level of knowledge about some central issues of designing an IT regime and the quality of the available data are not satisfactory to support the adoption of an IT regime. The study concludes that Egypt is still not ready to apply an IT regime.

Keynes foreword to the German edition of his General Theory is one of the causes of the association between his name and a total state. This paper looks into how justified the link between Keynes's theory and the Nazi German economic policy really is. The first part introduces Keynes's ideas on economic policy and his vision of society. These are in the second part confronted with the economic policy of the Nazi Germany (and partly that of Bolshevik Russia) and common components are identified. The conclusion is that despite his explicit repudiation of socialism and dictatorship and his efforts to "save" capitalism, Keynes's concept of economic policy was similar to the economic policy of Nazi Germany and opened the way towards socialism and planning.

As regards the frequently mentioned risks connected with the EU entry, we feel that the analyzed macroeconomic data do not confirm that these risks have materialized. The example of the Czech Republic, which joined the EU in 2004, conversely points to an improvement of most macroeconomic indicators following the EU accession, and in fewer cases maintenance of the results from time before the membership. After the EU entry the inflation rate is kept on a low level, real GDP accelerated, economic level of the Czech Republic is increasing towards the EU average, the foreign trade records very positive results, the unemployment rate did not increase, real wages grow, exchange rate of the Czech crown against the euro and USD keeps strong positions, based on the Convergence Program, general government deficit of the Czech Republic has started to reduce after EU accession. As follows from the statistical data, period of intensive preparation of the Czech Republic to join the EU as well as first months of EU membership have rather a positive influence on the competitiveness of the Czech Republic.