Strategy AV21: Top research in the public interest
The activities of IDEA think-tank are enabled by Strategy AV21, a special project of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Within the framework of Strategy AV21, namely of its Effective Public Policy Research Program, IDEA research is being carried out to provide new empirical evidence to be discussed not only by scholars, but first of all by policy makers.
In its research, IDEA focuses primarily on following issues:
- The impact of taxes and social benefits
- Pension systems and the economic behavior of the Czech population - international comparison
- Prognosis of the labor market's educational needs
- Consumer behavior of individuals and families
- Economic aspects of the Czech Republic's entry into the eurozone
- Economics of education and education procurement
- Employment and labor market analyzes, including migration and poverty issues
- Evaluation methods of scientific research & publications
- Analysis of institutional support for research
- Reform of the science and research funding systems
- The quality of management of research organizations and the system of research and development
- Evaluation of scientific disciplines and research organizations
- Limitations and pitfalls of bibliometric analyzes
- Usage of bibliometry in management
More information on Strategy AV21 (in Czech).
Cooperation with the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic
IDEA at Cerge-EI has long been cooperating with the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. Based on expert analyses, it is able to advise the Senate and make its own proposals in the field of public policies.
In 2021, for example, the report "Financial Support for University students in the Czech Republic (Status and Recommendations)", authored by economist Daniel Münich, was submitted to the Senate. The report addresses important issue of the financial support for university students and support for education in general, which is still insufficient in the Czech Republic. Among other things, the report comes up with specific recommendations to improve the current situation.
Similarly related to the area of education is a report by economist Václav Korbel on the topic of 'The link between socio-economic disadvantage and regional and higher education', which was also submitted to the Senate last year.
Cooperation with the MPSV (Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs)
IDEA at Cerge-EI regularly cooperates with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in monitoring unemployment trends, especially in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. From 2020 onwards, we publish a graphical representation of unemployment trends based on data from the MPSV.
IDEA researchers produce reports for the MPSV on major economic and social issues. An example is the report "Analysis of the Impact of Parenthood on Labour Taxation Using the TAXBEN Model" prepared by economists Filip Pertold and Michal Šoltés.
Cooperation with IKEM (Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine)
In February 2022, IDEA at Cerge-EI produced a bibliometric report on IKEM's scientific publication results for the years 2017 to 2020 entitled "Annotated Analysis of Journal Publication Results, Productivity and Scientific Citation Impact of IKEM Basic Research in 2017-2020."
- This report presents the main findings of the bibliometric analysis of IKEM's scientific publication results from 2017-2020 and the citation impact of publications from 2015-2016 in the subsequent period 2015-2020.
- In addition to quantity, the analysis also takes into account the quality, or influence and significance of the scientific results.
- In addition to publication and citation performance, the report also takes into account the staff size of IKEM's research facilities, which is an important factor for assessing scientific productivity and comparing departments working in the same scientific fields.
Tax model for the Ministry of Finance
Daniel Münich, Libor Dušek, Klára Kalíšková a Petr Janský cooperated with the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic on the „Model for empirical evaluation and prediction of the impact of tax changes“ project funded by a grant from the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (Project TAČR TD010033) over 2012-2013. The main results are microsimulation tax models TAXBEN and QUAIDS, which estimate the impact of changes in direct taxes and social support (TAXBEN) and the value added tax (QUAIDS), respectively, on the taxpayears, households and public budget. Download background information on both models: Model TAXBEN, Model QUAIDS, Software Manual, TAXBEN Software and QUAIDS Software (only in Czech).
More information on the topic (in Czech).
Commitment to Development Index
Petr Janský collaborates with the Center for Global Development on its Commitment to Development Index (CDI). CDI shows which countries have most development friendly policies. Petr Janský has contributed to the project by proposing a measure of illicit financial flows that underlines the Finance component of the CDI. Petr Janský, together with a IES FSV UK graduate, Zuzana Řehořová, presented the first ever results of the CDI for the Czech Republic in the IDEA Policy Brief 6/2012.
More information on the topic.
European Expert Network on Economics of Education
Daniel Münich is affiliated to the European Expert Network on Economics of Education (EENEE). EENEE is an EU Think Tank sponsored by the European Commission, Directorate General for Education and Culture. The network is coordinated by the Ifo Institute. EENEE aims to contribute to the improvement of decision-making and policy development in education and training in Europe by advising and supporting the European Commission in the analysis of economic aspects of educational policies and reforms.
More information on the topic.
EUROMOD
IDEA is through the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (EI) and the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education (CERGE) the national partner of the EUROMOD project coordinated by the Microsimulation Unit, a team of researchers, in ISER. EUROMOD is a tax-benefit microsimulation model for the European Union (EU) that enables researchers to calculate the effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes and work incentives. It is also used to evaluate the effects of tax-benefit policy reforms and other changes on poverty, inequality, incentives and government budgets. The IDEA research team, most notably Klára Kalíšková and Daniel Münich, use the EUROMOD model for comparative analysis of tax-benefit systems in the Czech Republic and other countries; for example, see the IDEA Policy Studies 7/2013 and 8/2013.
More information on the topic.
ERAWATCH
Martin Srholec is the ERAWATCH correspondent from the Czech Republic. ERAWATCH is the European Commission's information platform on European, national and regional research and innovation systems and policies. Its main objectives are to support policy-making in the research and innovation field in Europe and to contribute to the realisation of the European Research Area (ERA). ERAWATCH is coordinated by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre - Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS) in Seville. The flaship publication is the annual ERAWATCH Country Report: Czech Republic.
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European Employment Observatory
Daniel Münich is a national expert in the European employment observatory (EEO) organized jointly by CERGE-EI in Prague and the GHK Consulting in Birmingram. EEO contributes to the development of the European Employment Strategy through the provision of information, comparative research and evaluation on employment policies and labour market trends in 33 countries.
More information on the topic.
Financial Secrecy Index
Petr Janskýcollaborates on the Financial Secrecy Index (FSI) published by the Tax Justice Network.The FSI shows which countries contribute most to global financial secrecy. One of the messages of the FSI results is that not only little island states (tax havens included), but also some big economies are the biggest contributors to the financial secrecy. Petr Janský focuses on the quantitative part of the FSI and estimates the exports of financial services.
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IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook
Vilém Semerák is the national partner for the World Competitiveness Yearbook published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD). The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook is the leading annual report on the competitiveness of nations. The yearbook benchmarks the performance of 60 countries based on 333 criteria measuring different facets of competitiveness.
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