Czech Export Research Articles

Czech foreign trade: answer for new challenges

The article is devoted to the analysis of changes in the foreign trade sector of the Czech Republic during the last decade. The main priorities and key challenges within the framework of the new export strategy of the country were considered. Using the «case-study» method, the opportunities and prospects of the territorial diversification of the Czech export were demonstrated. The general dynamics of the foreign trade as well as changes of its territorial and sectoral structures are analyzed. The persistence of imbalances of the Czech foreign trade sector were revealed, including the prevailing of one or two key partner-country as well as narrow sectoral specialization. It is shown that changes in dynamics and balance improvement depend on external factors. The assessment of the future development of the sector was given, taking into account the existing foreign economic conditions and the development peculiarities of the Czech Republic and its strategic priorities.

The Iconsistency of Czech Presidential Diplomacy and the Growth of Czech Foreign Trade with China

This paper analyzes the relation between the diplomatic activity of Czech presidents and the economic trend of bilateral trade between the Czech Republic and China during 1993-2019. The investigation is based on a statistical survey of diplomatic steps and economic figures. Although the policy of the first Czech President Václav Havel (1993-2003) was cautious towards China, Czech-Chinese bilateral trade exchange was nevertheless consistent and relatively balanced. In the period of President Václav Klaus (2003-2013), after the accession of the Czech Republic to the EU, the trend of trade balance continued to the detriment of Czech exports despite the trade volume growth. However, the decline of exports to China was similarly observed in other Central European countries. That was also a period when Czech presidential diplomatic acts towards China became more numerous. In the period of President Miloš Zeman (2013-until now), the diplomatic activity of the Czech President increased significantly according to the number of official visits and signed documents. Simultaneously, there has been a significant decline in Czech exports and Chinese reinvested profits in the Czech Republic. The authors substantiate the findings by quantitative analysis and describe the development of Czech presidential diplomacy from the perspective of Czech-Chinese economic relations during 1993-2019 as inconsistent.

Effects of Development Aid on Donor’s Exports: A Case of the Czech Republic

Abstract The main goal of foreign aid should be the support of developing regions; however, due to the rising international requirements on the amount of provided aid, donors start to focus on the benefits aid can bring them as well. Both country-specific and general studies have been conducted to evaluate the return of aid from the donor’s perspective, with the majority of them suggesting that provided aid boosts donor’s exports to the developing countries. As no such analysis exists for the Czech Republic, this paper tries to fill this gap and aims to find out whether there is a positive relationship between the Czech aid and Czech exports. While employing the gravity model of international trade, the study, however, suggests that the Czech aid is not statistically significant for the volume of Czech exports. Unlike other donors, the Czech Republic thus leaves a considerable trade potential arising from the foreign aid untapped. The reasons might be other motives behind the Czech aid (both official and unofficial), poor co-operation of aid and trade policies, or changes in trade patterns.

Country selection and aid allocation: A case of the Czech Republic

Research background: Donors provide development aid from various reasons: while some of them might give aid based on the recipient´s needs, some countries pursue their own agendas with their development programmes. Visegrad Group countries are mostly considered as egoistic donors that try to support security in the East European region and promote their trade. Purpose of the article: This article draws back on the existing literature that focused on the motives behind the Czech development aid and examines influence of both egoistic and altruistic variables to determine which of these variables are important for the selection of countries to the aid portfolio and the allocation of aid funds. The researched variables are: number of asylum seekers, debt to the Czech Republic, Czech exports, unemployment in the developing countries, political and civil rights, and enrolment to the secondary education. Methods: Probit-tobit analysis and a generalized linear model are employed in this paper. Findings & Value added: The results suggest that egoistic economic motives (debt and Czech exports) are important factors for both country selection and aid allocation, while the number of asylum seekers affects only the aid allocation. As per the altruistic reasons, the country selection depends on the unemployment rates, political and civil rights and the enrolment to secondary education. The aid allocation depends also on the unemployment rates, political and civil rights, and the ratio of girls enrolled to the secondary education.

Czech Automotive Exports in the Context of the Global Economic Downturn from the Perspective of Statistics

Research background:The global outbreak of the COVID-19 and, as a result, the measures taken fundamentally disrupted the lives of people and economies. Private and public demand, industrial production, supply chains, etc. were affected. Given the severity of these shock changes, it is clear that the European Union will have experienced a severe economic recession.Purpose of the article:Economists have long pointed to the Czech economy’s strong dependence on the automotive industry. Carmakers and a number of companies connected to them have been chained into existential difficulties after COVID-19 outbreak. However, the scenario of redirecting the industry is not real.Methods:The article maps the declines in the forecast of GDP development in 2020 and 2021 in selected EU countries and statistically evaluates the historical dependence of Czech exports on German car production.Findings & Value added:According to predictions, the Czech Republic expects the highest negative deviations in comparison with other EU countries. Reality will show what role a strong dependence on the automotive industry plays in this. The results of the statistics of the previous decade do not confirm the fundamental dependence of Czech exports on German automobile production. As the results indicate, Czech exporters are already diversifying at least in the sense of the target markets. The author raises the question whether the concept of public belief in the importance of supporting Czech carmakers as important producers of GDP on the export side can be the result of a strong lobbying by carmakers.

Sankce západních zemí a ruská odvetná opatření: dopad na české exporty

This paper addresses Czech international exports from 2000 to 2017. The goal of the paper is to determine whether the economic sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation by most of the Western countries, and especially the countermeasures adopted by the Kremlin, have exercised any significant effect on the Czech exports to Russia. The approach adopted is a gravity model and the results lead to the conclusion that the economic sanctions do not have any significant effect on the global Czech exports to Russia. Nevertheless, the sanctions affect the type of future economic cooperation between the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation.

Comparison of neural networks and regression time series in predicting export from Czech Republic into People´s Republic of China

The People´s Republic of China is one of the largest, but also the most demanding markets in the world. The trade is limited by a number of barriers, strong competition and unusual environment for trades from other parts of the world. Despite those limitations, Czech exporters are able to establish themselves in the Chinese market, exporting mainly machines and vehicles. To predict future export trends is very difficult; however, these predictions can be crucial not only for individual exporters but also for the whole national economy. For predictions, economists use causal, intuitive or statistical methods. The objective of the contribution is to compare the accuracy of equalizing time series by means of regression analysis and artificial neural networks for a possible prediction of future export trends on the example of the Czech Republic export to the People´s Republic of China. For the purposes of analysis by means of statistical methods, the data obtained from monthly statements from the period starting from the year 2000 and ending in July 2018. First, a linear regression is carried out and subsequently, neural networks are used for regression. Finally, the results are compared. It appeared that in practice, mainly all retained neural networks are applicable. However, the first of them showed significant deviations within a very short period of time.

Determining Probabilities for a Commercial Risk Model of Czech Exports to China with Respect to Cultural Differences and in Financial Management

Determining Probabilities for a Commercial Risk Model of Czech Exports to China with Respect to Cultural Differences and in Financial Management

Entry Into the Common Market of the European Union in Terms of Czech Republic's Foreign Trade with Dairy Products

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the development of the Czech foreign trade in milk and milk products and specify the typical features and consequences within its territorial and commodity structure using a specific system of indicators intended to show a relevant image on the topic. The analysis covers the period between 1999 and 2015 and are interpreted in the context of changes of the business environment that have occurred in the last two decades, particularly in relation to the Czech Republic’s entry into the European Union. Throughout the studied period, the Czech Republic revealed a positive balance of trade in milk and dairy products, as well as favourable values of TC index (value of coverage of import by export). The dynamics of the territorial structure of export and import is embodied in the overall trade dynamics between the Czech Republic and countries of EU-28. The Czech Republic’s entry into the EU common market, however, led to a change in the trading milk product structure. As a negative is regarded the fact that the structure of Czech export to the EU countries has changed and that is mainly concentrated on basic raw milk or dairy products of the first phase of processing with relatively low added value.

Is Czech Export still Biased towards the Eastern Markets?

There were special relationships among the COMECON members during the period of the centrally planning system. Czechoslovak trade/export was naturally biased towards these countries. The goal of this paper is to find out if there still exists any export bias towards the Russian or the ex‑COMECON markets. In our research approach we use gravity models. We revealed that taking into consideration growth in GDP, geographical distance and institutions there is no bias towards the Russian or the CIS markets. But we discovered a bias towards the ex‑COMECON contemporary members of the EU.

SMEs Export Activities in the Czech Republic and Export Risk Insuring*

JEL Classification : Fl, F14, M21 1. Introduction The role and importance of prosperity of small and medium sized enterprises for economy of any European countries is clearly on the rise although the value of their nature is still often underestimated at the level of national authorities and adopted political measures. A typical example may be public investment incentives that in a certain phase of economic development of given country, or in certain phases of the economic cycle do not necessarily bring long-term general prosperity. Conversely, tax payers as well as small and medium sized enterprises may suffer from them because they are typically unable to reach convenient tax and financial support conditions, thus experiencing local or regional weakened competitiveness, e.g. in drafting of qualified professions. But only those can help companies create value added that in most cases is critical for successful export activities in global and sophisticated markets. They also include the single market of the European Union where, by the way, the overwhelming majority of exports from the Czech small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are directed. Typical features of this segment of companies include, amongst others, the expansion preference rather to close markets and in a long term, it shows cautious expansion to geographically more distant markets although the validity of this fact has been successfully reduced over time. The Czech export statistics, however, are necessarily influenced by direct neighbourhood with an extremely strong economic player, namely the industrial Germany. Still about half of the Czech exporting small and medium sized enterprises do also export to markets outside the EU. It was proved by the survey of the Association of small and medium sized enterprises and crafts of the Czech Republic (AMSP CR) (2) in collaboration with EGAP (Export Guarantee Insurance Corporation) (3) conducted in May this year. Respondents of the survey (4) were mainly amongst exporting SMEs and the aim was to map the primary export destinations of the Czech companies and the insurance method for export risk. The research results and discussion are presented in this paper. 2. Literature Review Export is an essential international business activity mainly in the changing globalized world with growing logistics and technology capabilities, thus increasing the production capacity which more and more often strongly exceeds the needs of the local market. Thus it creates the need for expansion, and the Czech Republic is a traditional export economy with ever increasing annual exports. The share of the Czech small and medium sized enterprises in total exports was about fifty percent last year, but with a view to growing exports of machinery and transport vehicles (which is rather the domain of large companies), the total share is currently slightly falling (Export analysis and SME influence, 2015). The importance of export is, however, sometimes overestimated within the meaning of GDP formation no matter how its influence is growing. For example, household consumption (47%) had the greatest influence on the total GDP 2014 in the Czech Republic followed by gross capital formation (25%), governmental consumption (19.5 %), and only then followed by positive saldo of trade (6.8%), with the rest formed by consumption of non-profit organizations (Export analysis and SME influence, 2015). In addition, medium sized and above all small firms in the SME segment tend to export to geographically less distant territories. It is supported by a U.S. study (Neupert, Baughn, Lam Dao, 2006) claiming that SME exporters in the developer economies (amongst which the Czech economy can already be ranked) perceive issues such as country differences, general business risk, and logistics while exporting. Moreover, Rutihinda (2008) who surveyed the export barriers of SMEs stated that foreign market industry barriers and lack of home government support were seen as factors distinguishing between successful and unsuccessful exporting firms. …

Nová kritéria pro přijetí Eura

The sovereign debt crisis inside the European Monetary Union (EMU) as well as competitiveness problems of some EMU members made the members and non-members of the club address one question: Is a monetary union advantageous? This paper deals with the issue whether or not the Maastricht criteria are good indicators for deciding to join the eurozone, namely for a small open economy, as the Czech Republic. In particular, this analysis addresses the issue of price competition, which can be measured by the real effective exchange rate. In fact, the Maastricht criteria do not reflect the competitiveness of a country. Thus the arguments concerning the advantages/disadvantages of the adoption of a common currency should not be based only on the Maastricht criteria, but at first on the philosophy of the real effective exchange rate. We define a basis for setting new criteria to decideing on joining the monetary union. To sum up, if depreciation/devaluation of the real exchange rate is not a competitive advantage for both Czech exports and the Czech economy (especially in the long term), then the main economic argument against joining the EMU disappears.

Czech Exports and German GDP: A Closer Look

This paper analyses the relation between Czech exports in goods and services and German GDP. In order to contribute to the current state of knowledge the analysis goes more into detail in terms of disaggregating the German GDP. Do Czech exports depend more on German domestic absorption, or is it, rather, German exports which determine Czech exports? Does the Czech Republic produce goods for German consumers or is it an ""outsourced"" supplier to German export channels, instead? Co-integration analysis and the analysis of the commodity structure of Czech exports to Germany are employed to address these questions. The indings of this research indicate that the relationship between Czech exports and German GDP is a very complex one. The Czech economy can be considered a part of German distribution channels, which serves as its specialized outsourced production capacity.

Factors Influencing Innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises in the Czech Republic

Our paper is focused on the factors that influence innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Czech Republic. The country that went through long economic transformation that resulted in the set-up of the new improved standards for entrepreneurship activities is currently dealing with the aftermath of world’s economic and financial crisis. With regard to all that, Czech SMEs are facing tough competition on domestic and EU markets. This is when innovations might become one of the key factors of success that can help to differentiate the product, beat the competition and attract more customers. Our study is based on the empirical model that employs the data from the survey questionnaire with 1144 Czech SMEs. We find several forms of innovations (e.g. own R&D, investment into technology, improvement of quality of a product or service, or presence on foreign (EU and world) markets) can become very significant in enhancing the growth and success of Czech SMEs, while the bureaucratic barriers for innovations and external factors with negative impact did not come through as obstacles. Based on our results, one can state thatthe most important policy implications are for the relevant stakeholders would be the support of investment activities of SMEs, creation of SMEs clusters within business parks, education of employees, expansions of Czech exports to the new markets, and intensive support of R&D. It would also make sense to increase the number of small SMEs (sole-traders and micro-enterprises) by making the registration process easier, or by offering subsidies or government support to the new companies and start-ups.

ANALÝZA SOUČASNÉ SITUACE NA TRHU SE ZEMĚDĚLSKOU TECHNIKOU

The paper is dealing with the analysis of the market of agricultural machines in the Czech Republic. The part of the article is focused on export and import development of agricultural machines between Czech Republic, EU countries and the other countries of the world. The trade balance progress of agricultural machines is analyzed for Czech market as well. In the article the possible opportunities for the Czech exporters, which concern Danish, Spanish, and Polish market, are also emphasized. The part of the analysis is also focused on the area of subsidy policy for Czech agricultural subjects. The analysis of subsidies deals with the opportunity of financial supports by the Czech government and by the European Union. The difference in subsidy policy for Czech Republic before and after the entering the European Union is also mentioned.

Factors of the attractiveness of Slovak wine market and their influence on the Czech wine export to Slovakia

The contribution follows the development of Czech wine exports to Slovakia, depending on the development of the wine industry attractiveness in Slovakia. Wine export from the Czech Republic to Slovakia in the terms of volume and value of exports, both globally and in the division of export bulk and bottled wine, is confronted with the development of factors influencing the wine sector attractiveness in Slovakia. The Slovak wine market is a market in the phase of growth, the wine consumption per capita in 2011 reached 14.7 Lt.; the domestic production covered only 46% of the domestic consumption. The level of the industry concentration is high, the 6 largest companies produce more than 18.5 mill. Lt. of wine – 50% of the total domestic production. Wine legislation is comparable to the Czech legislation, the purchasing power of the customers shows a positive development, but the cheap table wine imports still represent more than 50% of the total domestic consumption. The opportunity for Czech exporters is the factor represented by the size and growth of the market and the legislation, too. The situation is rather more positive for the re-export of cheap wine from other countries than the direct export of Czech wine to Slovakia in case of other analyzed factors.  

The comparative advantage of Czech agricultural trade in relation to the most important trade partner countries in the period of 2008-2011

The objective of the presented article is to analyze Czech agricultural trade as a whole and primarily trade in relation to the six key trade partners, with an emphasis on the identification of changes in its structure and competitiveness that occurred within the period of the years 2008–2011. On the basis of the results of the conducted analyses, it may be stated that the problematic period of the years 2008–2011 did not affect the development of Czech agricultural trade in an especially negative manner (commodity and territorial structure did not change significantly), whether in relation to the analyzed partner countries (In the case of individual countries within the analyzed period, the value of export and import increased as follows: Germany: 1.5% per year and 0.1% per year respectively, Austria: 2.9% per year and −0.01% per year respectively, the Netherlands: −1.1% per year and −6.3% per year respectively, Italy: 8.7% per year and 7.3% per year respectively, Slovakia: 6.1% per year and −3.2% per year respectively, Poland: 3.5% per year and 11.1% per year respectively.), or in relation to the overall agricultural trade of the Czech Republic (Agricultural trade was able to face the stagnation of the global economy relatively very well. Only in the year 2009, there was a slight year-on-year decline in the value of agricultural export by approximately 5%, but, nevertheless, within the years 2010 and 2011, the value of agricultural trade increased year-on-year by approximately 3.6% and 14.8%, respectively.). Growth in the area of the development of the value of export as well as import remained preserved. The comparative advantage of Czech export remained preserved in the case of key aggregations. The strong aggregations of Czech agricultural export generally include CN 01, CN 04, CN 10, CN 11, CN 12, CN 13, CN 17, CN 21, CN 22 and CN 24.

Credit Support for Export: Robust Evidence from the Czech Republic

AbstractThe topic of this paper is quite a novel one – it is one of few empirical academic papers dealing with export credit. Moreover, it is the first analysis of this kind which focuses on transition economies. The paper deals with export credit promotion in the Czech Republic. The development and structure of Czech trade and export support is presented first, followed by an econometric analysis of the gravity model of Czech Republic trade. A panel of 160 countries in 1996–2008 is analysed and two gravity models of exports for the Czech Republic are estimated, the static model by fixed effects (LSDV estimator) and the dynamic model by System GMM. Due to ambiguous conclusions we assume that the behaviour of our explanatory variables is not uniform and our data set behaves as a mixture of countries with heterogeneous behaviour. This means that traditional techniques of estimation which include all observations into one model do not give significant results. Thus, we use robust techniques of estimation that solve the problem of heterogeneous patterns in data sets. Out of several possibilities we use the Least Trimmed Squares estimator (LTS) with a leverage point. We show that guarantees are a significant factor that influences positively the volume of exports in the Czech Republic. Moreover, there exist more variables that affect the size of exports in the Czech Republic. Market forces described by GDP, distance, political risk or gross fix capital formation are significant in our econometric model. We find that higher GDP, shorter distance or lower political risk have a positive impact on Czech exports.

Hodnocení regulace poskytování státem podporovaných vývozních úvěrů z pohledu českých vývozců

Práce se zabývá mezinárodní regulací státem podporovaných vývozních úvěrů. Upozorňuje na rozdíly mezi příslušnými bankovními a pojistnými trhy a také na rozdíly mezi fungováním komerčních a státem podporovaných institucí. Analýzu konkurenčního prostředí na jednotlivých trzích doplňuje hodnocení regulace omezující činnost exportních úvěrových agentur s dopady na konkurenceschopnost českých vývozců. Čeští vývozci jsou v rámci vyspělých zemí částečně znevýhodněni na úrovni Organizace pro hospodářskou spolupráci a rozvoj. Na pojistném trhu byli částečně znevýhodněni na úrovni Evropské unie v době krize. Na trhu vývozního financování naopak mohou využívat nadstandardních služeb.

Proexportní služby státu a jejich vnímání českou podnikatelskou veřejností. Analýza vybraných aspektů

The article deals with the Czech export promotion system. The hypothesis that is being examined in the article is as follows: Exporters in the Czech Republic do not have enough information about the current system of the Czech state export promotion services and they only make little of use these services. The theoretical part contains an analysis of the Czech export promotion system. The Czech export promotion system is based on the activities of several institutions, mainly the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and also government agencies such as CzechTrade and CzechInvest, but there is also the Czech Export Bank and the Export Guarantee and Insurance Corporation. The hypothesis formulated in the introduction is then confirmed by the results of the author´s primary research, which was carried out among Czech exporters in the form of a questionnaire.