In order to restart economic growth in Latin America after the so-called "lost decade," most countries in the late 1980s began implementing neoliberal reforms aimed at economic transformation. The most important economic rules, which were summarized by John Williamson and named Washington consensus, aimed at providing macroeconomic stability and much needed economic growth. At first, the transition to market economy seemed successful. After years of economic stagnation, the economy began to grow again, inflation was reduced, privatization provided much needed funds to the state treasuries and the attention of foreign investors turned towards the region. However, the initial success did not last long. Economic growth was far smaller, than what was originally expected, and many countries were failing in dealing with unemployment, poverty, and growing income inequality. Growing scepticism was then fuelled by a series of economic crises in the second half of the 1990s. Comparing the impact of neoliberal reforms on the economies of individual countries is problematic because the way in which they were carried out has differed in many countries. Countries have undergone reforms at different time, different speed and with different intensity. The scope of the implemented reforms also differed. In the...

The film industry is one of the creative industries and is often referred to as cultural economy. The filmmakers are trying to maximize their profits and attract as many consumers as possible. One of the most important indicators for producers are box office sales of cinema tickets. The thesis examines national film preferences in Europe, based on these revenues. The aim is to reveal how feature film genre preferences differ among countries in the European Union. The first part of the thesis focuses on the theoretical background and setting the issue in the context of economics. It is followed by construction of data-set, which is then examined by regression analysis. The dependent variable is represented by box office sales. Finally, the results of the analysis are interpreted and explained.

The main aim of this presented diploma thesis is to help build a systematic understanding of the political and social foundations of global financial markets, their operations and impacts on the global power affairs. The thesis highlights the dynamic complexity of the post financial crisis state of the World with its itra- and inter-social features. It instrumentaly uses critique of a free market agenda and neo-classical economy which contrasts the Efficient Markets Hypothesis with Hyman Minsky's Financial Instability Hypothesis (FIH), taking into account the dynamic complexity of financial markets. This approach offers analytical tools that can account for crisis through processes endogenous to contemporary financial capitalism. I shall argue that a financially complex system is, according to the FIH, inherently flawed and unstable. After a theoretical and historical review, the thesis discusses various aspects of the process of austerity regime and its social consequences. This provides an opportunity for analyses of the ongoing existence of interstate competition, of militarised foreign policy, and of other international, at times violent conflicts. In an effort to make sense of some of these phenomena, I instrumentaly use the study of geoeconomics that builds on some fundamental assumptions...

South Africa is in the critical process of determining the profile of its power composition for the next 30 years and beyond. From the IRP2010 it seems that too much emphasis is placed on renewable energy, coal and other technologies and too little on nuclear power. In the revision of the IRP2010, the renewable portion of the energy composition has been increased substantially from 11.4 to 17.8GW, where nuclear remains on 9.6GW (DME, 2011). The purpose of this research is to investigate and compare power-generating technologies. The investigation of the different technologies is corroborated through modelling the IRP2010 planned energy mix efficiency, as well as a proposed energy mix. These models will be built using Microsoft Excel. Topics not investigated are socio-economic impacts and politics around nuclear energy in South Africa. The main finding of the research is that nuclear power is the best option for base load energy in order to meet South Africa‟s growing demand for electricity. It has the highest load factor, longest economic life, best safety record, adheres to the Kyoto protocol, uses the least fresh water and is economically competitive. It addresses all the concerns stipulated in the IRP2010 and the technology also offers benefits outside the electricity industry, such as the mining, medical, agriculture and research sectors. This versatile, reliable and powerful technology holds great benefits and has the potential to uplift the quality of life for the whole South African nation. / MSc (Nuclear Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

South Africa is in the critical process of determining the profile of its power composition for the next 30 years and beyond. From the IRP2010 it seems that too much emphasis is placed on renewable energy, coal and other technologies and too little on nuclear power. In the revision of the IRP2010, the renewable portion of the energy composition has been increased substantially from 11.4 to 17.8GW, where nuclear remains on 9.6GW (DME, 2011). The purpose of this research is to investigate and compare power-generating technologies. The investigation of the different technologies is corroborated through modelling the IRP2010 planned energy mix efficiency, as well as a proposed energy mix. These models will be built using Microsoft Excel. Topics not investigated are socio-economic impacts and politics around nuclear energy in South Africa. The main finding of the research is that nuclear power is the best option for base load energy in order to meet South Africa‟s growing demand for electricity. It has the highest load factor, longest economic life, best safety record, adheres to the Kyoto protocol, uses the least fresh water and is economically competitive. It addresses all the concerns stipulated in the IRP2010 and the technology also offers benefits outside the electricity industry, such as the mining, medical, agriculture and research sectors. This versatile, reliable and powerful technology holds great benefits and has the potential to uplift the quality of life for the whole South African nation. / MSc (Nuclear Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

This diploma thesis researches music dramaturgy of Czech public service radio Channel One (Radiožurnál) and pursues the goal of exploring hidden relations of political economy influencing its shape. The dramaturgy itself had been long criticised from both the public and experts and finally led to a public workshop held by the institution governing the broadcaster at arm's distance - The Council of Czech Radio in December 2011. The diploma thesis investigates the field of traditional requirements imposed on public service broadcasters as well as the redefinition of public service broadcasting due to market liberalisation and rise of new media in digital environment. For further context, the structural function of music in different types of societies is discussed; attention is also paid to relation of music and public service radio and normative demands for broadcasted music. Music dramaturgy of Czech Radio Channel One is then compared to two commercial broadcasters (Impuls and Evropa 2) on which only limited legal regulations are imposed. The final research describes public discussion over the channel's music and verifies legitimacy of complaints (which included too frequent repetition of songs and artists, few songs of one artist in database only or obscolencence of broadcasted music not giving a lead to...

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Social Sciences Institute of Economic Studies MASTER THESIS An Experimental Test of Design Alternatives for Spectrum Auctions with Communication Channels Author: Bc. Jindřich Matoušek Supervisor: PhDr. Lubomír Cingl Academic Year: 2013/2014 Abstract The multi-unit auction mechanisms are one of the most important instruments used for the allocation of spectrum licenses, airport time slots, delivery routes, networking or furniture allocation. This thesis experimentally examines the attributes of complex multi-unit auction mechanisms (Simultaneous Multi-Round Auction and its combinatorial extension Simultaneous Multi-Round Package Bidding) in the presence of an opportunity to collude among the bidding participants due to a provision of a simple communication channel - a chat window. The results suggest that in our parameter setting, the combinatorial bidding format does not bring higher efficiency. Interestingly, allowing for communication increases efficiency in both examined auction formats. Bidders are able to split the auctioned goods in a collusive agreement, which results in a better allocation compared to the auction formats without the communication channel. Combinatorial bidding on packages probably makes the decision-making problem of bidders hard to process...

This thesis deals with the research of humility from the view of its elusiveness - it does not define humility and it also does not even try to do so. Conversely, it walks around the phenomenon of humility and points at it in different ways. It uses examples, mostly from works of Comenius, and builds it with parallels from works of Jung, Foucault, Jünger, Drewermann and some other authors. It delimits humility against pride at example of different view of "epoché" in works of Comenius and Descartes; pride is basicly seen where human does not leave any unnaturalness and completely absorbs the world by his own opinion; work also uses Husserl's criticism of Descartes' view of "epoché" and Comenius' criticism of Machiavelli is also mentioned. Thence, the thesis sees the principle of humility in a close relation with the principle of faith or simply with the knowledge of the principle of some higher instance than the human's own sense is. The principle of humility is also nearby to the principle of grace - for this example the thesis researches Simone Weil's concept of "weight and grace"; grace from this point of view is an unpredictable step outside the performance-based part of human life. This thesis deals with mentioned phenomenons at first at the level of the visions of the world, later at the...

The diploma thesis observes the phenomenon of Czech journal attachements of luxury character in particular supplements ZEN, City Life, Esprit and Proč ne?! These are published together with daily press E15, MF Dnes, Lidové Noviny a Hospodářské noviny. In the theoretical part is first outlined the development of lifestyle magazines and classical daily attachments, because examined supplements are kind of combination of both these media products. The next chapter deals with the media content from the political as well as economical communication, which covertly affects media by means of advertising and public relations and thus shape public opinion according to their own interests. In the end the theoretical part focuses also on definition of advertisement and public relations. The goal of the practical part is to research using the semiotic analysis how the ideology of success is presented to readers, which is in general an attribute of political as well as economical elites. These elites secretly control media products following political economy of communication. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Main weakness of economics of crime is that it focuses on rational offender who is isolated from society. This thesis gives overview of game theory models, which take into account possible reactions of other actors to offender`s actions. I show that some variables of crime are dependent on individual`s social environment and I analyze them using moral costs of crime, where some gains and losses from crime are interconnected between people. Two own models are presented. First model deals with aggregated crime with significant role of moral costs of crime. Second model is a modification of Inspection game which includes moral costs of crime and is than modeled using evolutionary game theory. Result of first model is higher volatility of crime than in standard models of rational offender. Crime is maximally volatile in time in the second model. There is a critical level of moral costs of crime and after reaching this level, assumptions of inspection game are violated and society converges to state with zero crime. It is demonstrated on both models that crime is a self- propagating phenomenon, because of social interactions.