J21 - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and StructureReturn

The topic of the relationship between human capital and economic growth has been intensively examined in empirical studies since the 1980s. Although the positive impact of education and human capital on growth has been repeatedly confirmed, there are still doubts about the strength and probable inverse causality of the relationship. The quality of human capital is frequently mentioned in the empirical literature as an important factor which can help to understand and properly determine the link. The quality of human capital is a key focus of this paper. It tests and confirms the hypothesis that the quality is an important factor which significantly influences the intensity of the relationship. The main hypothesis has been tested using the dynamic panel data technique (GMM estimation) on panel data covering 65 countries in 1960-2005. It has been confirmed that the years of schooling have a higher positive impact on economic growth in countries with a higher quality of education.

The paper deals with the possible impact of the 2008-2009 financial and economic crisis on the potential output in the Czech Republic. Given the general difficulty in sketching out all the consequences of the crisis itself, the article is primarily focused on the labour market, which is regarded as an important driving force in terms of potential output fall or its growth slowdown. First, principal reasons why the potential output could have been hit by the 2008-2009 crisis are discussed in detail. The paper then analyzes a number of transmission mechanisms through which potential output could be generally impacted by severe recessions. Further, the output gap of the Czech Republic is estimated and a potential output development is drawn up. Finally, an approximate impact of the crisis on the potential product through the labour market is demonstrated. The results show that the potential output in the Czech Republic has been partially and temporarily affected in volume. This is specifically due to an adverse long-term unemployment and, to a much lesser extent, employment behaviour, in both cases seemingly in relation to the recent crisis. Likewise, Okun's law has been found to be relatively weak in the case of the Czech economy, thus further supporting the "hysteresis explanation". However, such a drop in potential output will likely not persist in the long run, provided that appropriate economic policies - in particular aiming at re-integration of long-term unemployed/discouraged workers and an increase in the employment and participation rates - are implemented.

The paper deals with one of the biggest problems currently faced by the Czech labour market: namely, a shortage of labour with regard to specialists who have completed tertiary education. The introduction stresses the importance of knowledge capital both in contemporary society and in a knowledge-based economy. The need for university-educated labour on the Czech labour market was ascertained from the results of a Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs grant project entitled "Risk of a Brain Drain in the Czech Republic". The monitoring took place from the 2nd quarter of 2004 to the 2nd quarter of 2008. The results are based on an analysis of quantitative data (classified advertisements for job vacancies on web portals and in the media and statistics on vacancies provided by labour offices) and repeated qualitative surveys (standardised interviews with recruitment agency personnel). Based on these sources, a shortage of specialists with tertiary education in the Czech Republic was identified in terms of sectoral and professional structure and specialisation. The paper goes on to present university-educated workers as subjects of international competition and the reader is briefly introduced to the approaches of different countries to attracting specialists from abroad.

This paper deals with the situation on the European labour market and especially on the Czech labour market. It shows the impact of long-term unemployment - a crucial problem in contemporary European countries - on the economy and on the society and its integrity. Great attention is paid to the social parasitism of the long-term unemployed and to the conversion of social protection systems that started in the late 1990s, when the new principle of social protection systems - the coercive principle - was set up. The principal findings concern the decline in long-term unemployment both on the European labour market and on the Czech labour market after the conversion of the social protection systems. Last but not least, the paper deals with labour market flexibility.

This paper deals with the situation on the Czech labour market in the period 1990-2006. It shows the status and development of the supply and demand sides of this market. Great attention is paid to the long-term trends in employment, self-employment, unemployment, and long-term unemployment. The principal findings concern the dominance of the supply side of the labour market, especially the unfavourable decline in young labour force in the present difficult period, a special pattern of Czech self-employment development, a heavy tax burden on employees' income, and distortions of labour market caused by high labour costs (social and health insurance). Last but not least, the paper explores the labour market flexibility.