D10 - Household Behavior: GeneralReturn

Unpaid work is a part of everyday life in all households; however, its scope and structure vary significantly across countries. Research on household management and unpaid work has shown that not only the duration of unpaid work matters, but also how it is organized and managed within the household. This article builds on a pilot study (2021) and explores the connection between household management and unpaid work activities, explaining the shift in researching this topic in the main phase of the ongoing study, which aims to achieve deeper results and better sampling techniques compared to the pilot survey. In this article, we use literature review methods and the historical-logical method. Preliminary findings suggest that households make limited use of more advanced management strategies when organizing unpaid work. The article also discusses the advantages and limitations of the survey design, aiming to contribute to the broader academic debate on the methodological and conceptual challenges of researching unpaid work.

The paper investigates the households’ sentiment concerning financial decision making based on the micro data from the third wave of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) held in Slovakia in 2017. The aim of the research is to examine the sentiment of Slovak households using HFCS micro data and its impact on household’s financial decision making. According to previous research, we assume that positive sentiment increases stock market participation. For the purpose of the research, we created a Sentiment index based on the survey data concerning economic expectations and life satisfaction, as well as Portfolio index based on the households’ assets structure. The empirical results indicate a positive and statistically significant influence of sentiment on households’ financial portfolios applying Logit and OLS estimates.

Family business is characterized by a certain group of properties that distinguish it from non-family business. The aim of this paper is to identify dependency between selected characteristics and the turnover of respondents. These characteristics result from the survey, which was conducted in the preparatory phase of the project on the family business from Liberec region. Another aim of this paper is to grow awareness of family business, because this topic is in the Czech Republic still often overlooked and inadequately discussed. Most theoretical and empirical studies are focused on public corporations or small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and only few studies are focused only on family business. Importance of family businesses for the national economy is undeniable and based on the research can be stated, that family business as a tool for the future sees 83% of respondents.

The paper presents a comparative analysis of living situation in the Czech Republic and in Western Europe at the beginning and at the end of the decade 2000 - 2010. The primary thesis was the convergence of living situation during the analyzed period. The evaluation criteria were consumption expenditures of households. The aim was to obtain the base for related economic analyses and background for creating business or marketing strategies. The method used was cluster analysis supplemented by basic descriptive statistics. Classification system for evaluation expenditure structures was the standard "Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose" designed by the UN Statistical Division. Comparability of absolute values of expenditures was ensured by conversions to the Purchasing Power Standard. As a result the convergence of absolute amounts and relative structures of consumer expenditures was identified. As to structures of consumption expenditures the Czech Republic stood out the set of analyzed countries. This was probably due to non-economic factors dealt by the theory of cultural affinity zones. The conclusion is confirmation of the thesis on living situation convergence, i. e. improving living conditions of Czech households in relation to Western European households between years 2000 and 2010. The evaluation, however, applies only to the sum of consumption expenditures. In terms of selected expenditure groups the situation of Czech households got worse during the examined period. According to the results the real improvement of living conditions also lagged behind the growth of the market value of final domestic product, while GDP is often being presented (especially by media) as an indicator of life situation.

A brief look in the history shows that there were many different concepts for monetary policy making that have got asserted in the past. Among the features that distinguished one from another were mainly the settings of the main target of the monetary policy and the selection of instruments for their fulfilment. Different approaches of the central banks to the definition of the main target or the anchor of the monetary policy were applied. In the post-war decades, the most common approach used was making the monetary policy not public and application of the fixed exchange rate. In the following decades it was at first targeting of monetary aggregates that got well established, later followed by targeting of inflation. The main goal of this article is to analyze the role and function of monetary policy in smoothing of the economic cycle. Among the partial targets of the article is assessment of strong and weak points of alternative monetary policy concepts and reasoning of the possible changes in monetary policy settings in the following era.