This paper discusses the strategy of the Czech economic policy as regards the current enlargement process of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The authors discuss the validity of the Maastricht criteria for the new European Union (EU) member countries, as well as the risks and puzzles of both real and nominal convergence processes. The paper shows that current fiscal policy is the ma

The ability of firms to influence environmental regulation has largely been overlooked in transition studies. We study how car manufacturers combine and change their innovation and political influence strategies in response to a technology-forcing regulation. We apply a conceptual framework on corporate responses to public innovation policy to the case of the zero emission vehicle mandate over the

The possibility that structural changes in international trade might impact countries differently has been a matter of great concern for many observers from the 1950s onwards, and the view that the specialisation pattern of a country in international trade matters for its economic performance has been widespread. This paper analyses the structural changes in international trade from the 1960s omwa

Nonparametric efficiency analysis has become a widely applied technique to support industrial benchmarking as well as a variety of incentive-based regulation policies. In practice such exercises are often plagued by incomplete knowledge about the correct specifications of inputs and outputs. Simar and Wilson (Commun Stat Simul Comput 30(1):159–184, 2001) and Schubert and Simar (J Prod Anal 36(1):5

Although bottom water hypoxia (O2 −1) is presently widespread in the Baltic Sea coastal zone, there is a lack of insight into past changes in bottom water oxygen in these areas on timescales of millennia, and the possible driving factors. Here, we present a sediment-based environmental reconstruction of surface water productivity, salinity and bottom water oxygen for the past 5400 years at Gåsfjär

The EU’s stagnation on many innovation indicators led to a number of efforts to spur a turnaround. One of most visible projects has been the Horizon 2020 strategy, which devotes unprecedented levels of funding to the promotion of R&D and innovation. But does this strategy address the right issues to promote innovation? Is Horizon 2020 right to ignore geographical considerations when allocating

In this article, we analyze the impact of firms’ technology bases on their financial performance. By taking a strategic perspective of technology, we argue that it is not sufficient to analyze only the size or novelty/quality of the technology base as technology bases can best be understood as portfolios of individual technologies. In such a framework, risk consideration should be taken into accou

Since Solow (Q J Econ 70:65-94, 1956) the economic literature has widely accepted innovation and technological progress as the central drivers of long-term economic growth. From the microeconomic perspective, this has led to the idea that the growth effects on the macroeconomic level should be reflected in greater competitiveness of the firms. Although innovation effort does not always translate i

In economic, scientometric and innovation research, often so-called specialization indices are used. These indices measure comparative strengths or weaknesses as well as specialization profiles of the observation units with respect to certain criteria, such as patenting and publication or trade activities. They allow question like: is Germany specialized in the export of motor vehicles? Or is the

As scientific collaboration is a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly important, studies on scientific collaboration are numerous. Despite the proliferation of studies on various dimensions of collaboration, there is still a dearth of analyses on the effects, motives and modes of collaboration in the context of developing countries. Adopting Wallerstein's world-system theory, this paper makes

File-sharing has become synonym with the “digital economy” where large music conglomerates as well as certain artist voice strong concern over the impact on their bottom line. This research analyzes the music industry, which has been heavily impacted by a major technological shift i.e. the invention, and rollout, of the Internet. We look to the technological shift that has enabled the downloading

The evolution of intermetallic precipitate particles in Mg-Zn-Zr alloy ZK60 during thermomechanical processing by integrated extrusion and equal channel angular pressing was investigated in detail. Electron microscopy was employed to analyse individual particles and their orientation within the Mg matrix, while small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) was used for an assessment of global particle behav

Pure copper (Cu) having bimodal 'harmonic structure' (HS) was fabricated by a technique based on severe plastic deformation of powders, which involved tailored mechanical milling and spark plasma sintering. The harmonic-structured Cu demonstrates a unique combination of high strength and large elongation superior to its homogeneous as well as bimodal heterogeneous counterparts. Specific features o

The effect of ultrafine-grained structure formation in Mg-Zn-Zr alloy ZK60 on its mechanical response was investigated at strain rates ranging from quasi-static to dynamic regimes. The study demonstrated that the strength characteristics of the material rise significantly with increasing strain rate, while its ductility is reduced. These effects are particularly pronounced in the dynamic loading r

Fatigue performance under axisymmetric push-pull loading of a magnesium alloy Mg-6Zn-0.5Zr (ZK60) after processing by integrated extrusion and equal-channel angular pressing was investigated. Such processing was shown to nearly treble the endurance limit of the alloy, raising it to 160 MPa. It was established that the high-cycle fatigue performance of ZK60 is primarily controlled by dislocation su