Evaluating the cohesion policy: Targeting of disadvantaged municipalities

This paper deals with the evaluation of the cohesion policy of the European Union in the 2007 – 2013 period. The policy is analyzed with the focal point of spatial distribution of the European cohesion policy funds among the Slovakian municipalities in mind, with emphasis on the social and economic characteristics of said municipalities. As Slovakia was for the most part covered by the Convergence objective of the cohesion policy, with the exception of the region where the capital is located, the assumption is that the most socially and economically disadvantaged municipalities should have obtained significant amount of cohesion policy funding when compared to those municipalities that have better standing in these characteristics. The author clustered the municipalities in accordance with the known social and economic characteristics and the resulting clusters were then analyzed from the point of view of the amount of support the cohesion policy provided. The findings of the paper indicate that the support awarded to the municipalities in the identified clusters varies, however, the level of support does not necessarily follow the level of social and economic development, but rather follows the level of settlement hierarchy. Thus not fully reflecting the Convergence objective at the micro-regional level. © 2018, Bucharest University of Economic Studies Publishing House. All rights reserved

Public administration management and social services in Czech municipalities: Perceived attitudes of municipal officials with the potential application of the smart city principles

Increasing demand for social services connected to the demographic and other changes of the European society presents serious challenge for public policy makers and for the administrative levels most concerned with social services provision. In the Czech Republic this level is represented by municipalities whose attitudes towards the offer of social services in their territory, the providers and the cooperation in this field were surveyed in this paper. Municipal officials’ attitudes to social services differ significantly within the researched sample from a full satisfaction with the present situation in a municipality to a strong dissatisfaction. The paper uses the results of the survey proceed by means of the principal component analysis and cluster analysis to identify the attitudes of the municipal officials in the Zlín Region of the Czech Republic and to divide said municipalities into four groups with similar attitudes and issues for which common policy measures may be adopted after more detailed inquiries into their specific issues. Close monitoring, as provided by this paper, presents detailed basis for local policy makers and the further planning of social services network. © 2017, Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest. All rights reserved

Perception of small and medium entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic

This paper deals with small and medium enterprises in relation to the attitudes perceived by business owners in their immediate neighbourhood, society, in relation to banks and the government. The key question is the difference between entrepreneurs who started their businesses voluntarily and those who entered the business out of necessity. The majority of governmental policies, including Czech policies, focus more on the questions of financial support, however the support of entrepreneurs can be broader and may include the efforts to influence perception of an individual and the society so that they have a more positive attitude towards entrepreneurial activities. The attitudes in the Czech Republic are so far rather negative and such a change may be positively reflected in the level of the entrepreneurial activity which strongly affects economic development

Distribution of structural funds: Equity, efficiency and public procurement (Czech Republic)

This article deals with structural funds allocation for projects realized by Czech regional and local authorities in the programming period 2007-2013. Geographical distribution of structural funds in the context of the equity and efficiency goals is mapped. Two research questions are formulated in this regard. The first research question concerns the position of lagging regions in structural funds allocation. The second research question maps spatial spillovers of public procurement contracts supported by structural funds. The findings point at a rather disadvantaged position of lagging regions in structural funds allocation. This position is further worsened by spatial spillovers of public procurement contracts. Thus, spatial coherence between the EU and Czech regional policies is questioned. © Foundation of International Studies, 2016

Spatial concentration of the cohesion policy projects in nationally delimitated intervention areas: The case of the Czech Republic and Poland

This paper deals with the topic of monetary support of the European Union cohesion policy to two Central European countries the Czech Republic and Poland. The main area of the interest is the spatial dispersion of said resources among regions of each country as it is related to special intervention areas that were delimited in both of them. The idea behind this delimitation is rather similar in both countries, targeting the economically less advanced areas. The results of virtually the same approach, however, are quite different as they are obtained through different implementation of cohesion policy. Poland is rather more successful in targeting economically weakest regions as the government prepared an architecture of operational programmes that allocates significant amount to the economically weak Eastern Poland ex-ante through regional and multiregional operational programmes. The Czech government, lacking similar approach, is far less efficient in targeting economically weak regions. What both countries have in common is the worrying trend to invest prevalently into basic infrastructure in these regions and implementing projects with larger added value in economically sounder areas. © 2015, Centre of Sociological Research. All Rights Reserved

Management of European projects by Czech and Slovak entrepreneurs in Bíle-Biele Karpaty Euroregion

The paper deals with the issue of managing structural funds in Zlínský and Trenčiansky Regions on the Czech-Slovakian border with the focus on success of targeting funds to local entrepreneurs, especially small and medium ones. An expansive dataset was used to evaluate the process and to compare it with relative advancement of the regions in terms of their economic and social development as described by the development index created by the authors and based on the regional policy of Zlínský Region. The results brought forward in this paper are somewhat ambiguous in terms of usefulness of European funding at the most disadvantaged regions, especially Trenčiansky. On the other hand, Zlínský Region, being more successful in supporting the disadvantaged areas, is still slightly less efficient in supporting smaller organizational forms of entrepreneurship. The differences between these two regions are growing even further due to significantly different amount of funds available to them. © 2016, Centre of Sociological Research. All rights reserved

FINANCING OF TRANSPORT PROJECTS: FOCUSED ON REGIONAL OPERATIONAL PROGRAMMES

The theme transport is firmly positioned in the content of regional operational programmes, important development documents of Czech cohesion regions. This article analyzes transport projects of six regional operational programmes approved until April 2011, excluding in one of the previous issues of this journal evaluated ROP Central Moravia. The findings of our analysis point at different strategies applied in particular regional operational programmes considering the number and budgets of supported projects. Furthermore, the general preference of the projects related to construction and modernization of roads to the projects related to sustainable urban system was shown. Public sector institutions are the decisive applicants of transport projects supported from regional operational programmes but the importance of particular public institutions is different based on the programmes. Finally, spatial impacts are ambivalent, without an opportunity to generalize them

Vnější vztahy EU a Asie

Prezenční výpůjčkaVŠB - Technická univerzita Ostrava. Ekonomická fakulta. Katedra (120) evropské integrac

Politika podpory bydlení

Import 07/10/2008Prezenční153 - Katedra veřejné ekonomikyNeuveden