Comparing Competition and Regulated Monopoly in a Railway Market: An Agent-Based Modeling Approach

This paper introduces an agent-based model of a passenger railway line. The model is used for comparing the welfare of the railway market under unregulated duopoly and monopoly with maximum-price regulation. In the model, the railway operators gradually adjust passenger fares and eliminate train departures until the market reaches steady state. The paper analyses the steady-state data generated using two sets of parameter values. It finds that for most maximum-price levels, including the price that would be chosen by an unregulated monopoly, the total welfare in the monopolistic market is significantly lower compared to the duopoly market. However, there are some levels of maximum price which produce similar or even higher welfare than the duopoly market. The paper suggests that if correctly implemented, a simple maximum-price regulation may generate welfare outcomes comparable to competition

Finding Equilibrium in a Monopoly Passenger Railway Market: A Comparison of Agent-Based Simulations with Theoretical Predictions

This paper presents an agent-based model of passenger rail services. It provides an algorithm that is able to find the optimal price and timetable for a service provided by a monopoly train operating company. For testing the efficiency of the algorithm, it presents a simplified setting in which the equilibrium price and timetable can be found analytically using the Salop model of competition. The paper finds that the algorithm approximates well the predicted price and timetable and that an increase in the equilibrium number of trains in the market reduces the efficiency of the algorithm

Application of radiation emitted from local areas of PN junction for solar cell diagnostics

Je-li PN přechod závěrně polarizován a oblast přechodu obsahuje lokální defekty, může v těchto oblastech dojít ke vzniku lokálních lavinových průrazů. Ty se objevují obvykle při dostatečně velkých závěrných napětích, ale nižších, než je napětí nutné pro lavinový výboj v celé nedefektní oblasti přechodu. Tyto výboje jsou často doprovázeny emisí záření, které nese informaci o procesech probíhajících v dané oblasti. Cílem práce je rozebrat a navrhnout metodické možnosti pro využití záření pro diagnostiku solárních článků.The microplasma discharges in the PN junction local defect micro-regions are as a rule, accompanied by the emission of light. This radiation from solar cell PN junctions was measured by means of a optical fibre connected to the optical input of a photomultiplier. By inching the fibre by means of computercontrolled X-Y plotter above the cell surface a 2-D image of the irradiation local regions has been created. It is seen that a cell of a superficial area of 100 square cm contains a large number of defects, which depends on applied reverse voltage. This method can be a convenient tool for study and diagnostics of optoelectronic devices.

Do R&D Subsidies Support Innovation or Imitation? Evidence from Four EU Countries

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the effects of public R&D subsidies on the innovative activities of private firms in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Portugal. We investigate whether public R&D subsidies make firms’ activities more innovative. We measure these effects using firm-level data from the 2010 and 2012 Community Innovation Survey and estimated the effects by propensity score matching. We find that the subsidies do not fully crowd out private sources of R&D expenditure in any of these countries. However, there is a substantial heterogeneity in the impact of the subsidies on firms’ innovativeness. R&D subsidies do support true innovations in the Czech Republic and Germany, but they enhance only imitations in Bulgaria and Portugal.Tento příspěvek představuje empirickou analýzu dopadů veřejných dotací na výzkum a vývoj na inovační aktivity soukromých firem v Bulharsku, České republice, Německu a Portugalsku. Zkoumáme, zda veřejné dotace na výzkum a vývoj motivují firmy přicházet na trh s inovativnějšími produkty. Tyto efekty měříme pomocí dat z Community Innovation Survey za rok 2010 a 2012 a odhadujeme pomocí neparametrického matchingového estimátoru. Zjistili jsme, že dotace v žádné z těchto zemí zcela nevytěsňují soukromé zdroje výdajů na výzkum a vývoj. Existuje však značná heterogenita v dopadu dotací na inovativnost firem. Dotace v oblasti výzkumu a vývoje podporují skutečné inovace v České republice a Německu, ale financují pouze imitace v Bulharsku a Portugalsku

Surfování na migrační vlně v době populismu: Sekuritizace migrace ze strany poslanců Parlamentu České republiky

The contribution of the following article is based on contribution to current discussion related to political populism. The study is anchored in theoretical approaches to populism and designed as CAQDAS of stenographs of speeches related to the “migration crisis” held by members of the Czech Chamber of Deputies. According to the theory of populism, we derived criteria for measuring populism and those were in the analytical part applied to analyzed data corpus. Main contributions of our study are following: 1. operationalization of analytical possibilities of the concept; 2. using valid and analytically relevant data that are not frequently used; 3. broadening of Czech debate related to populism (by empirically proving, that political party Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) is using very strong populist rhetoric 4. building ground for possible following research od populism in Czech/ European context

The Relationship between Profitability, Innovation and Technology Gap: A Basic Model

This paper introduces a model of innovation that explains some of the stylized facts presented in recent empirical literature. In the model, firms choose R&D expenditures that maximize their expected profits under the assumption that R&D expenditures of firms might be constrained by the size of their profits. Optimal decisions of firms generate relationships between profitability and innovation of individual firms that may create the observed patterns at the industry level. In particular, the model is able to explain an inverted-U relationship between profitability and innovation in the industry together with decreasing or flat and concave relationships between profitability and the dispersion of productivity in the industry. Additionally, the paper investigates the parameter space for which the model generates the observed relationships