Switzerland is a unique in its own way country which, although being located in the heart of Euro... more Switzerland is a unique in its own way country which, although being located in the heart of Europe, is an independent state and non-European Union (EU) member. Its political structure and future development direction is very different from the rest of the Europe. Swiss economy, in comparison with others neighboring EU countries, is much stronger. Being inspired by highly competitive and successful economic performance of Switzerland, the aim of the present study is to conduct a macroeconomic analysis via observing and forecasting the employment/unemployment rates in Switzerland. Employing time series analysis and econometric calculations own forecast will be collated with the forecast published by the Federal Statistical Office of Switzerland. The practical importance of the obtained results will be, as expected, manifested in finding possible ways how to fight unemployment and achieve at least 70% employment rate in the Czech Republic.
The project dealt with an evaluation of the soil quality in the Central Bohemian Region in the Cz... more The project dealt with an evaluation of the soil quality in the Central Bohemian Region in the Czech Republic. The relevant attributes and characteristics were found regarding the soils in this selected area. Based on the data from soil probes, climate characteristics, soil production function and data on the land use, the characteristics, known as soil quality indicators, were selected. Then the soils were sorted into groups which indicated their suitability for the best land use and planning. The characteristics of the soils that contributed the most to the ecosystem services provided by this part of the environment were chosen as the soil quality indicators. In order to find out how the soils are able to provide ecosystem services, two types of approaches were used – the average score and the total amount of points gained. Maps indicating the soil quality were created using the ArcGIS program. At the same time, research on the differences in the quality in two different layers of...
The paper proposes a new soil evaluation system using the principle of the Saaty method. The Saat... more The paper proposes a new soil evaluation system using the principle of the Saaty method. The Saaty method has been modified and named Soil Assessment System (SAS). Significance weights are assigned to individual soil characteristics (indicators). This provides a more detailed differentiation of the significance of the indicator on soil quality and a more accurate assessment, especially in marginal cases where the assessment by the methods used so far has not been fully conclusive. In addition to physico-chemical properties, other criteria are taken into account to assess not only productional but also non-productional functions. The possibility of using indicators referring to a broader context (e.g., soil sealing value) is also important, thus enabling a comprehensive assessment of the quality of the land. This results in points for individual sampling locations. Soils are categorized according to the number of points and results are shown on maps.
The environment is changing quickly and it is ever more burdened in connection with the greater n... more The environment is changing quickly and it is ever more burdened in connection with the greater needs of human society. This fact has increased efforts to improve the management of land and natural resources and the necessity to evaluate them. Land valuations become more important as the land consumption increases. Soil needs to be evaluated in the whole context of how its quality is affected and the values it provides. The concept of ecosystem services offers this holistic view. This paper defines ecosystem services (ES), the various linkages between soil properties, their functions and benefits, the assessment of soil quality using indicators and then briefly mentions EU environmental assessment methods and terms used in the context of ES. The article also mentions frameworks with which to assess and evaluate the soil quality that can be divided into two groups. The first group is comprised of a framework of indicators that describe the current state of the soil system assessment ...
Currently, due to the calamity of unplanned harvesting, the amount of biomass from wood products ... more Currently, due to the calamity of unplanned harvesting, the amount of biomass from wood products has increased. Forests occupy 33.7% of the total area of the Czech Republic; therefore, wood and non-wood forest products are important renewables for the country. Wood biomass consists mainly of branches and bark that are not used in the wood or furniture industry. However, it can be used in bioenergy, including wood processing for fuel. As spruce production in the Czech Republic increased from the planned 15.5 million to almost 36.8 million trees in 2020, the price of wood biomass can be expected to be affected. This study aims to develop a predictive model for estimating the decline in the price of wood biomass for wood processors, such as firewood or sawdust producers, as well as for the paper industry. Wood biomass prices are falling with each additional million m3 of spruce wood harvested, as is the decline in wood pulp, which is intended for the paper and packaging industries. The...
Currently, the decline in spruce wood prices is a serious problem for the forestry sector in the ... more Currently, the decline in spruce wood prices is a serious problem for the forestry sector in the Czech Republic. We estimate that the fall in wood prices in European markets causes losses not only to the forestry companies producing, harvesting, and processing the wood, but also to the workers in the sector. These losses are mainly caused by a combination of several natural factors: drought, climate change, and the effects of bark beetles. In particular, spruce bark beetles cause the greatest damage. Due to this bark beetle calamity, unplanned logging has increased. In 2019, these damages have culminated. Almost 100 million m3 of wood has been harvested over the last decade due to the bark beetle and more than half of this volume has been mined in the last four years. Therefore, the losses in the forestry sector are around EUR 1.12 billion. The aim of this study is an analysis of the relationship between the volume of incidental logging and the decline in the price of spruce wood. T...
Employment in forestry is an essential component of the forestry industry. It is a socio-economic... more Employment in forestry is an essential component of the forestry industry. It is a socio-economic phenomenon, which has been at the edge of economists’ interest for quite a long time. The proportion of employees in the forestry sector is relatively small, standing at only 0.6%. However, forestry as a sector has a very significant multiplier effect which is reflected in the growth of related jobs. Examples of this can be found in the production of forestry machinery and equipment, the construction of wooden and timber structures, and the furniture sector. These sectors are kept separately in economic and statistical records, but forestry remains their natural determinant. The aim of this work is to describe, analyze, and formulate the prognosis for the development of these types of jobs. Conclusions of the work show that there has been a decrease in employment and simultaneously an increase in labor productivity. This is due to a increasingly high use of technological equipment. Deve...
An establishment's average wage, computed from administrative wage data, has been found to be rel... more An establishment's average wage, computed from administrative wage data, has been found to be related to occupational wages. These occupational wages are a primary outcome variable for the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics survey. Motivated by the fact that nonresponse in this survey is associated with average wage even after accounting for other establishment characteristics, we propose a method that uses the administrative data for imputing missing occupational wage values due to nonresponse. This imputation is complicated by the structure of the data. Since occupational wage data is collected in the form of counts of employees in predefined wage ranges for each occupation, weighting approaches to deal with nonresponse do not adequately adjust the estimates for certain domains of estimation. To preserve the current data structure, we propose a method to impute each missing establishment's wage interval count data as an ordered multinomial random variable using a separate survival model for each occupation. Each model incorporates known auxiliary information for each establishment associated with the distribution of the occupational wage data, including geographic and industry characteristics. This flexible model allows the baseline hazard to vary by occupation while allowing predictors to adjust the probabilities of an employee's salary falling within the specified ranges. An empirical study and simulation results suggest that the method imputes missing OES wages that are associated with the average wage of the establishment in a way that more closely resembles the observed association.
To gain insight into how characteristics of an establishment are associated with nonresponse, a r... more To gain insight into how characteristics of an establishment are associated with nonresponse, a recursive partitioning algorithm is applied to the Occupational Employment Statistics May 2006 survey data to build a regression tree. The tree models an establishment's propensity to respond to the survey given certain establishment characteristics. It provides mutually exclusive cells based on the characteristics with homogeneous response propensities. This makes it easy to identify interpretable associations between the characteristic variables and an establishment's propensity to respond, something not easily done using a logistic regression propensity model. We test the model obtained using the May data against data from the November 2006 Occupational Employment Statistics survey. Testing the model on a disjoint set of establishment data with a very large sample size (n = 179,360) offers evidence that the regression tree model accurately describes the association between the establishment characteristics and the response propensity for the OES survey. The accuracy of this modeling approach is compared to that of logistic regression through simulation. This representation is then used along with frame-level administrative wage data linked to sample data to investigate the possibility of nonresponse bias. We show that without proper adjustments the nonresponse does pose a risk of bias and is possibly nonignorable.
The article is focused on employment policy in the Czech Republic, its success and development, s... more The article is focused on employment policy in the Czech Republic, its success and development, stated goals, and whether it is possible to reach 75% employment by 2020. In the context of comparison with another country, Austria has been chosen. Total employment, women's employment, men´s employment and age groups from 55 to 64 years will be compared. Employment is a comprehensive indicator, which requires economic and social definition. For prognosis processing, the ordinary least squares (OLS) method, so called OLS, was used. Multiple regression analysis generates a regression econometric equation which could be, after the substitution of variables, used as an instrument of the prognosis of employment development for medium term forecasts. The OLS econometric model requires an econometric verification, which shows the conditions under which the model works and is valid.
Currently, we can see a rapid decline of agricultural land with new uses, especially for construc... more Currently, we can see a rapid decline of agricultural land with new uses, especially for construction purposes. This negative trend is evident across Europe, the Czech Republic has the fastest loss of land in the EU. One reason for the significant loss of agricultural land is building industrial zones, which utilises of greenfield areas, and their occupying new areas of agricultural land, often the most the most fertile. The analysis deals with the occupied area (the area of a particular industrial zone), the percentage utilisation of that industrial zone, the number of employees in the industrial zone, and the land quality expressed by means of the agricultural land protection class. The results of the analysis show the low usability of industrial zones, the large occupation of the agricultural land, and the low benefits to the Czech state and Czech citizens. The results also show the poor land use policy in relation to the soil protection. This work is followed by the project Sust...
International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 2017
The article is focused on employment policy in the Czech Republic, its success and development, s... more The article is focused on employment policy in the Czech Republic, its success and development, stated goals, and whether it is possible to reach 75% employment by 2020. In the context of comparison with another country, Austria has been chosen. Total employment, women’s employment, men´s employment and age groups from 55 to 64 years will be compared. Employment is a comprehensive indicator, which requires economic and social definition. For prognosis processing, the ordinary least squares (OLS) method, so called OLS, was used. Multiple regression analysis generates a regression econometric equation which could be, after the substitution of variables, used as an instrument of the prognosis of employment development for medium term forecasts. The OLS econometric model requires an econometric verification, which shows the conditions under which the model works and is valid.
Switzerland is a unique in its own way country which, although being located in the heart of Euro... more Switzerland is a unique in its own way country which, although being located in the heart of Europe, is an independent state and non-European Union (EU) member. Its political structure and future development direction is very different from the rest of the Europe. Swiss economy, in comparison with others neighboring EU countries, is much stronger. Being inspired by highly competitive and successful economic performance of Switzerland, the aim of the present study is to conduct a macroeconomic analysis via observing and forecasting the employment/unemployment rates in Switzerland. Employing time series analysis and econometric calculations own forecast will be collated with the forecast published by the Federal Statistical Office of Switzerland. The practical importance of the obtained results will be, as expected, manifested in finding possible ways how to fight unemployment and achieve at least 70% employment rate in the Czech Republic.
The paper addresses the issue of employment policy development and implementation in the selected... more The paper addresses the issue of employment policy development and implementation in the selected European countries with a similar economic structure and population, namely the Czech Republic and Belgium. The existing approaches used by Ministries of Labour and Social Affairs are based either on drawing subsidies from EU structural funds within the frameworks of various Operational Programmes or direct job creation that is realized as a consequence of GDP growth. The retrospective observation of the development of such macroeconomic indicators as GDP per capita and employment rate in Belgium reminded us the Okun's law. This encouraged us to verify the inverted version of the latter and conduct a time series analysis with the use of ARIMA model. The conducted calculations revealed the existence of determined relationship between GDP per capita and employment rate, namely with GDP per capita increase by 2% corresponds to an increase in employment by 1%. This relationship applies vice versa as well. The obtained result may be considered as an extension of the classical Okun's law theoretical framework. The main aim was to explore these relationships and on the basis of comparative analysis between macroeconomic indicators in the Czech Republic and Belgium to suggest recommendations aimed at development of employment policies.
Environmental policy is a set of objectives put in place for the protection of natural resources ... more Environmental policy is a set of objectives put in place for the protection of natural resources including water, air, soil, food, and other renewable resources. In addition, it has a considerable impact on the labor market and the income of employees in the environmental and forestry sectors. Environmental policy both directly and indirectly creates new jobs, the so-called green jobs. These jobs are designed to be long-term and sustainable, working towards both environmental and socio-economic stability. The aim of the research was to determine if there was a difference in income between the forestry and the environmental policy sectors. The primary objective of this paper was to propose ideas and instruments for strengthening the income of employees in both sectors to the creators of the new State Environmental Policy. This objective was met through appropriate research methods, including the field survey technique. In terms of statistics, we used descriptive characteristics and t...
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Papers by Daniel Toth