Showing papers in "ACTA VŠFS in 2020"

Predatory and Alternative Hedonism – Better Later than Now?

Abstract: Hedonistic ethos is to intensify in the environment of consumer culture and in the atmosphere of unlimited consumerism, intentionally supported by market mechanisms. The value patterns of hedonistic life style are defined by experience motivations, excitement, sensual pleasures, delight, self-satisfaction, intensive need for emotional stimulations, present-time orientation or accelerated pace of life. It is considered identical with radical inclination towards individualization life practices, rapidly growing egoism and narcissistic tendencies confirming the meaning of one’s own existence. Life philosophy of independence, non-determination and “inner orientation” logically leads to the application of such life strategies that can support and develop this attitude to life. Predatory hedonism focusing on the values of pleasurable experience requires mobility, flexibility and variability; it refuses to accept stability and obligations, i.e. anything that could tie and restrict life movement focusing on the fleeting and shifting world of experiences. It is a life “without ties”, unpredictable, unsettled, wild and impulsive. Hedonistic life style oriented towards consumer values, however, meets with frequent social, ecological and ethical criticism. There is room for discussion related to the alternative model of hedonism based on more responsible and well-considered approach towards consumption and voluntary modesty, which shall eventually enhance the sense of personal happiness and general satisfaction with life. Ethical consumption, as part of fulfilling the idea of alternative hedonism, may become an attractive objective of this lifestyle, based on a non-ascetic, but socially and environmentally friendly, way of life. The alternative hedonism is further compared with ideas of economics of productive consumption and with development of financial market.

Theory of Consumer Behavior in Economic Science

Abstract: The aims of this article is to study the evolution of the theory of consumer behavior in economic science in the context of the ratio of rational and irrational motives of behavior and the answer to the question: can the theory of economic communications become an instrument for the further development of the theory of consumer behavior. The research methodology includes the method of rational reconstruction of scientific knowledge, the method of comparative analysis, the historical method, the method of scientific abstraction and others. The theoretical basis of the study is the work of representatives of various areas of economic thought in a historical context, including ancient philosophers, scholastics, mercantilists, representatives of classical political economy, neoclassical economic theory, behavioral economics, institutional economics, systemic economic theory.The author concludes that the further development of the theory of consumer behavior is possible based on a synthesis of the theory of productive consumption and the theory of economic communications.

Distribution of Wages in the Regions of the Czech Republic

Abstract: Regions as higher territorial self-governing units were established in the Czech Republic on the basis of Constitutional Act No. 347/1997 Coll. Their territory was delimited by the territory of the listed districts. The regions show various differences in social, demographic, but naturally also economic development. The text focuses on differences in the development of wages, covering the period of 2011–2018. Wages in all regions were growing in these years, but this growth was not uniform: the lowest wages (the 1st decile wages) were growing most, the highest wages (the 9th decile wages) showed the lowest growth. Four groups (clusters) of regions were identified by the cluster analysis according to the typical development of the lowest and the highest wages. In these groups, we focused on typical factors of the wage level formation: the economic level (measured as GDP per capita), the unemployment rate and the educational level (the share of the population with basic and university education). The results of the correlation analysis showed a moderate direct relationship between the economic level and the 9th decile wages, a moderate to strong indirect dependence between the low wages of the 1st decile and the unemployment rate, but the results of the correlation analysis between the variables the educational level and wages were not very conclusive.

Quantification of the Impact of a Ban on the Use of Gender in Life Insurance

Abstract: The paper explains the impact of insurance regulation to the pricing after ban of using sex life tables. On 1st March 2011, the Court of Justice decided that it is not possible for pricing to use lifetables based on sex differentiation. There would be a contradiction with the Directive 2004/113/ES that sets a principle of equal treatment between men and women in the access to and supply of goods and services. This conclusion forced the insurers all over the Europe to create new prices and made an information asymmetry in favour of the clients. According to the theory, the market participants’ behaviour in imperfect information leads to a creation of a new market equilibrium. In practice, it results into the product designs adjustments. The impact of regulation into the fi nal price of insurance is quantified on the case of European insurers group. The other impact is the change in the structure of the insurance class in terms of representation of men and women in the new business.

Scenario Analysis Approach for Operational Risk in Insurance Companies

Abstract: This chapter deals with the possibility of calculating the required capital in insurance companies allocated to operational risk under Solvency II regulation and compares the possible statistical distributions for the frequency and the severity followed by an aggregate distribution For the calculation, was used only the illustrative dataset to see the effect of the three main parameters (typical impact, worst case impact, and frequency) which are needed for building the model for calculation 995% VaR by using Monte Carlo simulation This chapter discusses parameter sensitivity and/or ratio sensitivity on calculating capital From analysis came up the first conclusion that the impact of frequency is much higher in the interval (0;1) than above the interval to calculated capital The second conclusion is the Worst case and Typical Case ratio, where we saw that if the ratio is around 150 or higher, the calculated capital increased faster