This master{\crq}s thesis deals with the issue of the pension system in relation to the demographic development in the Czech Republic. In describes the pension system from its very beginning until the effective legislation regulated by Act No. 155/1995, on Pension Insurance. The Czech pension system is based on two pillars {--} the basic obligatory system of pension insurance where the principle of social solidarity is applied and that is based on continuous funding (PAYG), and the voluntary private pension scheme with a state contribution. The private scheme is conceived as individual savings and is based on capital funding. The financial balance of the pay-as-you-go system where the expenditures on the benefits for current pensioners are immediately paid from the funds of those who are economically active to a critical extent depends on the rate between the number of pensioners and the number of contribution payers. As the expenditure on old-age pension accounts for the highest share in the expenditure on pension insurance, the rate between the number of pensioners and the number of contribution payers is primarily determined by the age structure of the population. Similarly to all developed countries, the development of the age structure of the population of the Czech Republic is marked with ageing of population as a result of the stagnating or decreasing fertility and extension of the lifespan. Benefits derived from the period of insurance and generated earnings are then paid from the pension insurance. They include old-age pension, disability pensions, and survivors{\crq} pensions. The aim of this thesis was not only to map out the current situation, but to define pros and cons of effective legislation related to pension insurance based on interviews with employees of district social security administrations, taking into account the demographic development in the Czech Republic. It also aimed at establishing the opinion of the lay public on the operation of the existing system and providing it within the context of the answers given by the expert public. To achieve these objectives, the qualitative method of document analysis and questioning was applied. Research techniques included a secondary data analysis and a half-standardised interview. The reviewed set comprised 11 officers at pension departments of district social security administrations and 11 respondents from among the lay public. The results of the research show that the current setting of the pension system is regarded as rather negative. The changes that must be made must be comprehensive and going across multiple systems; with a functioning labour market and stable background for families with children being an utmost necessity. It is also necessary to change the thinking of the citizens of the Czech Republic where one should no longer rely on the state only, but build on a responsible approach to one{\crq}s life and provide for oneself with one{\crq}s own founds for any social event, not only including the loss of income due to old age. The opinions of the expert and lay public were the same in more than 80%. With respect to the information obtained, this thesis might be a useful contribution to the discussion on other legislative changes in the pension system with a subsequent positive impact when applied in practice.

Doctoral thesis deals with dementia, which social, health and economic impacts are alarming worldwide. Expected dramatic increase in the number of people with cognitive impairment will put high demands on health and social care. Population aging and the increase of elderly persons aged 65+ evoked a need to address this issue, since age is the major risk factor for dementia. Conflicting conclusions of the European and international studies confirm the difficulty of quantifying the disease. Different definitions and measurement methods lead to different results. In the Czech Republic, in comparison with other developed European countries, there is no relevant research on the expected increase in the number of people with dementia or trends and determinants of severe cognitive impairment. Available estimates of the prevalence of dementia in the Czech Republic are based exclusively on the international prevalence studies EURODEM and Eurocode. Dissertation provides an estimate of the number of people with dementia in the Czech Republic to 2050 based on the construction of life tables for demented people. The thesis also includes analysis of risk factors of severe cognitive impairment based on socio-demographic and health variables. This knowledge is very important for the development and maintenance of effective policies and programs responsive to the needs of individuals living with cognitive impairment in the Czech Republic.

Demographic and epidemiological change has resulted globally in changes in population and individual health, which, in turn, have resulted in changing care needs. Demographic change in South Africa, mainly through a confluence of declining fertility rates and pre-AIDS increases in life expectancy, has produced an ageing population that is expected to continue ageing for at least the next 10 to 15 years. Currently, South Africa’s older population (60 years+) has a much higher annual average percent growth rate than the total population. Having more older persons than ever before implies increased prevalence of frailty, chronic disease and disability through a tendency of declining physical, mental and cognitive functional capacities—hence meaning a larger demand for care. The changing age structure of a population is commonly associated with changes in health, disease and cause of death patterns. Recent research indicates an intensive, quadruple burden of disease, with the major addition of HIV/AIDS to persistent pre-transitional conditions, non-communicable conditions, and high rates of injuries—implying an extensive and diverse need for care. While demographic and epidemiological change have led to an increased demand for care, health system change, shortages in formal public health care delivery, and the spiralling costs of private care have led to decreased availability of formal care. Care-requiring persons therefore may need to rely increasingly on ‘informal care’, defined here as ‘care provided at home to another person who, because of frailty disability or ill-health, cannot manage on his/her own’. Research on informal care in developed nations is well-established and extensive, but has received very little attention in South Africa where it is not clear how many and who it is that are informal carers. The thesis study has hence been conducted to contribute to the limited research in the field of informal care, aiming to establish the national extent of informal care, and to present a demographic and socio-economic profile of informal carers. A multi-stage stratified area cluster probability sample of 2704 persons was drawn from free-living adults in a nationally-representative household survey in 2000. Field data were collected during 2611 individual face-to-face interviews. Basic univariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted. Of the adult population, 27% were found to be informal carers. Significant prevalence differences were found regarding sex, population group, geographic residence, education, employment status, and income. Adjusting for selected demographic characteristics, the significance status and levels of some relationships changed. It is concluded that informal caregiving is widespread in South Africa. While demographic and epidemiological evidence suggest that the reliance on informal carers is expected to increase, many informal carers are struggling to shoulder the physical, mental and financial burden. A national strategy to focus on informal carers is recommended, to raise awareness about their essential role and value in the health care system; to recognize their contributions to population and individual health; to comprehensively support them; and to assess their needs and concerns through ongoing research. / Dissertation (MA (Demography))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Sociology / unrestricted

Czech Republic, like other European developed countries, has to deal with impacts of population ageing. The number of older people in society grows therefore the drain on workers in productive age is rising. Population ageing causes problems within current setting of the Czech pension system, especially in long-term sustainability of public finance. Hence added involvement of elderly people into working process becomes necessary. The goal of this Masters thesis is to analyse the situation of older workers on Czech labour market between 2005 and 2015 and to find some possible solutions that would increase the employment rate of people before and in retirement age. There are four chapters in the theoretical part that are dealing with population ageing, labour market, specificities of employing older workers and tools used to increase the employment rate. The practical part is focused on demographic situation in the Czech Republic and especially on analysis of the situation of older workers on the Czech labour market in comparison to countries of the European Union. Analysis that was carried out confirms that the overall employment rate of older workers in the Czech Republic is on a good level however there are some areas that need to be improved. For example, option of using part time working contracts is underused as well as the motivation of elderly people to stay economically active. In the last chapter there are possible solutions suggested. These recommendations could strengthen motivation of older workers to stay on labour market and in the same time should motivate employers to employ these workers.

Diploma thesis Position of Germany in the context of current economic problems of European Union is focused on characteristic of status of economy and competitiveness of Germany. This analysis will lead to the most important challenges, which will contribute in the development of current German economy and its linkage to economy of European Union. The first chapter is focused on current status of German economy from the view of main economic indicators like analysis of economic power of population, gross domestic product and business environment. The second chapter pays attention to analysis of competitiveness from the view of labour market, market of goods and services and investment position of Germany. The third chapter is starting point for the previous chapters and determines the main challenges of German economy in presence which are gaining importance to the future not only of Germany, but also of European Union. The final part of my thesis is focused on possible solutions of these challenges, that can help not only to the German economy, but also to the economy of European Union to become one of the most competitive economy of the world.

In the thesis we deal with the analysis of the development of the implementation active employment policy for the last 21 years. We are trying to make a short summary of this development in individual years and the subsequent evaluation of active employment policy. We also verify the effectiveness of this policy and its instruments during the period of economic growth and recession by statistical indicators of the number of jobs created, the number of candidates included into the working process, expenditures on this policy and employment rate. We are aware of some the potential distortion, because we use only for statistical data and do not take into account the social and psychological phenomena that affect effect of the active policy. Thesis also analyse fluctuation of the development of annual and quarterly employment rate in the Czech Republic. To correctly understand the current employment development is first necessary to look into its history and to highlight its past and present problems, because without this knowledge it is not possible for the Czech government to effectively respond for ganges in this indicator using the tools of the active employment policy. Development of quarterly employment rate is interesting with its seasonal periodicity, which brings regularly recurring fluctuations in a period of less than one year. We perform the analysis of quarterly time series of the employment rate using Box-Jenkins methodology and try to predict what the employment situation in the next five quarters. Then we recalculate forecast into years and try to estimate the final value of the employment rate for the year 2013 and the value for the year 2014.

This thesis focuses on the issue of European pension systems from a standpoint of their structure and sustainability in view of ageing of the population. The structure of systems is examined through pension models which embody combinations of financing (pay-as-you-go or capital funded) and pension calculation (defined contribution or defined benefit). The main object is to reveal how much are the European pension systems threatened by ageing of the population and sort them out according to this discovery. The risk rate is calculated as a ratio of the difference between expense rate on public pension pillars in 2012 and 2060 to the difference between dependency ratio in the same interval. The final figure shows the percentage of relative expenses per capita in 2060 compared to the base year of 2012. The main object is carried out by dividing the studied states into three groups. According to thesis' results, the most endangered state is Poland with a value of 28 % while the least endangered state is Luxembourg with a value of 110 % or relative expenses per capita compared to the base year of 2012.

Quantum and tempo of population ageing process in the twelve countries of the former Soviet Union: Challenges, opportunities and public policies Abstract Population ageing is an omnipresent phenomenon which brings along unprecedented challenges to socio-economic development, especially to employment, social security and public health sectors. The broad goal of this doctoral thesis was to demonstrate that it is time to recognize the importance of population ageing and its dynamics even in the countries with relatively young population structures and to take urgent action through implementation of corresponding policy interventions in order to mitigate and eliminate the upcoming negative consequences and utilize potential opportunities. Research on population ageing in both more and less developed countries is abundant. However, amidst numerous studies, countries of the former Soviet Union remain largely overlooked. Besides, the quantum and tempo of population ageing have not been adequately addressed in the existing literature worldwide. This research addresses, to the best of our knowledge for the first time, those issues. Holistic approach to gap analysis was adopted to guide this study. The analysis was performed in three steps. The first step incorporated the identification and analysis of the observed...

Impact of demographic changes on healthcare expenditures in the Czech Republic Abstract This work aims to analyse the influence of demographic changes on public healthcare expenditures in the Czech Republic. The first part displays particular factors having effect on healthcare expenditures with a special focus on demographic characteristics. In spite of the fact that the expenditure level seems to be mainly affected by the economic output of particular states and new technology development, while the influence of demographic fluctuation is of minor effect so far, this situation is likely to change. The next part presents the health care expenditures evolution in the Czech Republic from the beginning of the nineties. The data sources confirm that these expenditures keep growing just the same way as in other states in the world. The last part defines and quantifies the foreseen scenarios of the above mentioned health care expenditures depending upon demographic evolution. The results of those scenarios are being compared with other analysis results focusing on analyzing the influence of ageing process and health condition fluctuations on expenditure levels in the Czech Republic as well as in other EU countries. Keywords: population ageing, health care, costs of dying, health, new technologies, healthcare...

This thesis aims to describe the current state of employment of people over 50 in the Czech Republic, indicate the reasons and context of this situation and suggest possible solutions to the related issues. All these matters are explored within the context of the international development. The methods employed in this research are statistical analysis and the secondary analysis of documents. The research has brought evidence that Czech society has been changing enormously. Firstly, it is the ageing. And consequently, it faces the growing percentage of elderly people in the population, causing not only problems in the functioning of social protection systems, but also raising the necessity of changes in labour. Secondly, Czech society is undergoing a digital revolution. The increasing use of the Internet and new technologies transforms completely our way of living. The employment of people over 50 is becoming the economic necessity in our struggle to avoid the total collapse of social security systems, yet at the same time, it is complicated or sometimes even hindered by new demands on older workers by the digitalising economics. The importance of ICT competences and language knowledge grows constantly. However, elderly workers unfortunately lack these competences either entirely or at least...