Ročník 41, 2012

Brezina, Ivan - Čičková, Zuzana - Pekár, Juraj - Evolutionary Approach as an Alternative Method for Solving the Vehicle Routing Problem (Evolučný prístup ako alternatívny spôsob riešenia problému rozvozu)

Abstract-Abstrakt: The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is one of the most important problems in the field of logistics and its importance follows from many practical applications as well as from its high computational complexity (NP – hard problem), therefore the use of optimization techniques seems to be relatively complicated and nowadays the attention is often focused on application of alternative computational techniques that are inspired by evolutionary biology. Presented evolutionary approach could be used in general for solving a wide variety of distribution problems.

Keywords: evolutionary approach, heuristics, self-organizing migrating algorithm, vehicle routing problem

JEL: C 61, C 90, L 91

str./p. 137-147

Abstrakt/Abstract

Fulltext

Rievajová, Eva - Přívara, Andrej - Nezamestnanosť a politika flexiistoty na francúzskom trhu práce (Unemployment and Flexicurity Policy in the French Labour Market)

Abstract-Abstrakt: The paper aims to characterise the development in EU labour markets with focus on the French labour market. Labour markets have been recently affected by the consequences of the global financial and economic crisis which has had a negative impact both on economic growth and as well on employment. The crisis has caused most damage to export-oriented economies. One of the much discussed approaches to dealing with unemployment is the need to increase labour market fl exibility in combination with a better social protection of workers. The paper analyses the implementation of fl exicurity policy in the French economy, focusing on its four components: fl exibility and security in employment relationships, active labour market policy, lifelong learning, and modern social systems.

Keywords: labour market, unemployment, global crisis, fl exicurity, active labour market policy, lifelong learning, social security systems.

JEL: J 21, J 64

str./p. 148-159

Abstrakt/Abstract

Fulltext

Škrovánková, Lea - Škrovánková, Petra - Aktuárske modely v systéme zdravotného a nemocenského poistenia (Actuarial Models in Health and Sickness Insurance System)

Abstract-Abstrakt: The paper contains designing and utilisation of actuarial models in health and sickness insurance. More and more often new modern methods are used in life insurance actuarial calculations. The old deterministic approach is giving way to new stochastic methods. One example of a stochastic method is analysed and applied in this article. The authors go on to show how the models described can be used to carry out actuarial calculations for a model of critical illness. The authors believe that the unifying approach provided by stochastic models is very important also for Slovak insurance companies; it enables a well-organised presentation of the personal sickness insurance statistics and, in particular, of health care. 

Keywords: sickness and health insurance, critical illness, actuarial model, stochastic processes

JEL: C 10, C 15, I 11

str./p. 160-171

Abstrakt/Abstract

Fulltext

Andrášik, Ladislav - Kultivácia ekonomickej imaginácie experimentovaním vo virtuálnych laboratóriách. Demonštrácia na prípade Cournotovho duopolu, keď sa hráči správajú adaptívne (Cultivation of Economic Imagination through experimenting in virtual laboratories. Demonstration on the case of Cournot Duopoly when players behave in an adaptive way)

Abstract-Abstrakt: Development of global knowledge society accompanied by crises in national economies, as well as by the world economic crisis makes the economics science face new challenges. These challenges are in the first place those new phenomena and processes that may be pertinently described with the attribute of “all-round”. In this new situation it is impossible to rely purely on conventional approaches. Instead, it is necessary to search for tools that are capable of raising economic imagination to a higher level. These methods and tools also include advanced ICT and in particular applied informatics and computation intelligence products. By means of them, we can construct virtual laboratories and experiment in them in order to find hidden qualitative properties of mental models, which are created by economists beyond the economic reality. For the purposes pursued in the present study, we have decided to use the mental model which was designed and developed into its mathematical form by A. A. Cournot by the end of the first half of the 19th century. We have supplemented this model with the change in players’ behaviour in the sense that the players behave in an adaptive way, i.e. fl exibly. This kind of modification of the classic duopoly is most suitable for demonstrating the phenomenon that even quite simple mental models may contain latent, at first sight unsuspected complexities. As a result, we have to be even more careful when dealing with more complex mental models constructed beyond the present-day economic reality. The investigation of a modified Cournot type of model populated with a pair of adaptive players poses relatively high demands on an analyst’s mathematical skills despite its seeming simplicity. Moreover, nor a highly sophisticated mathematical analysis renders such obvious results, which would display adequately clearly and exhaustively specific properties of this kind of model. On the other hand, to achieve a sound understanding of market processes this kind of knowledge is very significant as well as relevant and useful. Given the contemporary high standard of information sciences and software engineering, or when we have at disposal advanced products of computation intelligencie (CI), there are reasonable possibilities for experimenting in virtual laboratories, which do not place high demands on more extensive preliminary skills for this activity at a PC. Potential means that enable us to construct virtual laboratories for tasks of this type, including also the Cournot model, include the following programs: STELLA, Vensim, SWARM, Simulink in MATLAB, and some other. In the present case we have used iDmc program, which was designed in the programming language of LUA, and it runs in JAVA environment. The program is advantageous for most econonomists as it is freely accessible and downloadable from the Internet, and its author provides also free-of-charge detailed instructions how to experiment with it to economists, who, apart from their knowledge of economics, may not have parallel informatics knowledge and skills needed for these programming activities. The aim of the present paper is to familiarise the reader of the Economic Review with possibilities of unconventional acquiring of economic knowledge by these methods, namely on the instance of the well-known Cournot duopoly model, when players behave in an adaptive way (fl exibly) rather than responding by adjustment as Cournot supposed.

Keywords: border-collision bifurcations, closed invariant curves, Cournot duopoly and adaptive behaviour, focus, isoelastic demand function, local and global bifurcations, local and global crises, Neimark-Hopf and Neimark-Sacker bifurcations, node, multistability, saddle

JEL: C 15, C 62, D 24, D 43

str./p. 172-191

 Abstrakt/Abstract

 Fulltext

Tomová, Anna - Novák-Sedláčková, Alena - Ku kritike politiky verejno-súkromných partnerstiev (Towards Criticism of Public-Private Partnerships)

Abstract-Abstrakt: The paper deals with public-private partnerships (PPP), discussing their role and place in socio-economic development of countries. Arguments in favour of PPPs and those against it are assessed on the basis of research reports of international economic organisations, papers in academic journals as well as other cross-countries and cross-industries investigations. A special emphasis is put on the analysis of political and legislative support of public-private partnerships provided by institutions of the European Union. Development of public-private partnership market in EU member countries is described in the paper (with regard to the development of public debt indicator to GDP), while its dimensions and relevance are identified in terms of future development in the EU.

Keywords: public-private partnership, privatisation, European Union, socioeconomic development

JEL: H 41, L 33

str. 192-201

Abstrakt/Abstract

Fulltext

Bystryakov, Alexander Yakovlevich - Savchina, Vladimirovna Oksana - Financial Stability of the Sberbank of Russia and the Bank for Foreign Trade (VTB) Activity in Conditions of the World Crisis (Finančná stabilita Ruskej banky Sberbank a činnosť Banky zahraničného obchodu v podmienkach svetovej krízy)

Abstract-Abstrakt: The stability analysis of the Sberbank of Russia and the Bank for Foreign Trade (VTB) activity is carried out on the basis of consolidated financial statement relative to key activity figures. Main destabilizing factors acting on the Russian banking system during 2007-2008 are revealed and evaluated. The infl uence of these factors on liquidity, profitability, asset quality and state of capital of the adopted targets of research is also determined in the paper.

Keywords: financial crisis, stability, liquidity, profitability, capital

JEL: E 44, E 5

str./p. 201-210

Abstrakt/Abstract

Fulltext

Pakšiová, Renáta - Význam teórie účtovníctva v kontexte svetového vývoja (Importance of Accountancy in Context of Contemporary World Development)

Abstract-Abstrakt: Every existing department within the company’s information system has its own justification. Accountancy belongs to the fundamental information systems of every organisation. The majority of disciplines in the field of direction sooner or later experience the importance of forming their own theory which may enable the clarification concerning the content of specific disciplines and its functioning and non-subordination in the system of direction. Accountancy as part of the information system (and the system of direction) was dependent on the historically proved necessity of every conducting system combined with the importance of accounting information. The continuous changes of legal norms referring to accountancy in the Slovak Republic with the aim to achieve harmony with above-the-standard modifications have led to the necessity of concept unification concerning the theoretical basis of accountancy. The familiarisation with the theoretical principles of accountancy and the influence of  different theoretical schools can help to comprehend the philosophy of accountancy, which forms the basis of national and above-the-national legal norms, and these norms in turn modify current accountancy and the financial statement.

Keywords: theory of accounting, practice of accounting, global progress of accounting

JEL: M 40

str./p. 211-223

Abstrakt/Abstract

Fulltext

Breveníková, Daniela - Lišková, Danuša - On the Importance of Translator´s Background Knowledge of the World of Finance (Based on the Analysis of German and English and Slovak Economic Text) (O význame znalostí vývoja vo svete financií z hľadiska potrieb prekladateľa)

Abstract-Abstrakt: The paper written by two language teachers offers the answer to the question what the students pursuing their studies at the Faculty of Applied Languages should know about the background of the world of money, banking and stock exchange to become successful translators in professional settings. The paper is written on the basis of analysis of texts of various genres, e.g. monographs on the subject, textbooks, professional journals, as well as daily press materials in English, German and Slovak languages. The focus of our analysis is on the issues of terminology of the three areas. The paper refl ects the authors’ long-time interest in this topic itself and their experience in teaching courses in Business German or Business English as well as in specialised courses in English/German for Finance. The authors do not aim to cover problems concerning terminology of banking and stock exchange in their entirety: the aim is to point to some difficulties arising in the course of studying texts dealing with this kind of specialised texts.

Keywords: Anglicism, finance, language, loanword, metaphor, professional communication, stock exchange, terminology, translation

JEL: E 44

str./p. 224-233

Abstrakt/Abstract

Fulltext

Grančay, Martin - Osobitosti ponuky na trhu severoatlantickej leteckej dopravy s aplikáciou na Slovenskú republiku (Specificities of Supply on the North Atlantic Air Transportation Market as Applied to the Slovak republic)

Abstract-Abstrakt: The paper explains the nature of air transportation as a non-standard economic sector. We specifically focus on the supply-side factors and identify the main features of air transportation services supply on the North-Atlantic market: high level of market saturation, strong business clientele, relatively high price of inputs, use of the most up-to-date technologies, and accelerating liberalisation. We evaluate current position of Slovakia in the North-Atlantic aviation map and arrive at the conclusion that Slovakia needs to focus on increasing connectivity between domestic airports and European hub airports. In accordance with this, we suggest measures to reach this goal.

Keywords: air transportation, airlines, North-Atlantic market, Slovakia, factors of supply

JEL: L 93

str./p. 234-247

Abstrakt/Abstract

Fulltext

Joniaková, Zuzana

SZARKOVÁ, M.: Komunikácia v manažmente. Bratislava: Vydavateľstvo Ekonóm, 2011. 268 s. ISBN 978-80-225-3251-8 (SZARKOVÁ, M.: Communication in Management. Bratislava: Publishing House Ekonóm, 2011. 268 p. ISBN 978-80-225-3251-8)

JEL: Y 30

str./p. 248-249

REVIEW/RECENZIA