Health care financing is an important limiting element in the development of health care in Eastern Europe, especially in a difficult economic situation. Negative experience in creating reimbursement mechanisms that would support economic efficiency and high quality of care is also a problem.

Objective: Analysis of health care reform reforms and identification of common trends and national differences.

The supervisor for this topic is Professor Martin Dlouhý. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

The market allocates resources according to willingness and ability to pay, not according to needs of local population. But the geographic inequalities in public services are clearly the results of state planning. In the public sector, the equal access to services is one of the main public policy objectives. Therefore, any variation in the distribution of resources may be understood as a result of wrong state regulation.

Objective: to measure and evaluate the inequalities in geographic distribution of public services.

The supervisor for this topic is Professor Martin Dlouhý. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Annotation: The thesis focuses on the relationship between social identity, trust, and risk-taking behaviors within specific socio-cultural contexts among different groups. Utilizing incentivized economic games in strategic and non-strategic frameworks, the study aims to explain the dynamics of trust, pro-social behavior, cooperation, and risk-taking within and across these groups. In diverse socio-cultural contexts, such behaviors are crucial for understanding the effectiveness of public policies that promote equity, social welfare, and economic efficiency. Including experimental designs to explore the influence of social identity provides a comprehensive approach to understanding how these factors impact economic decisions.

Goal: How trust, trustworthiness, expected trustworthiness and risk-taking are influenced by social identity in diverse social contexts.

The supervisor for this topic is Miloš Fišar. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Pension systems in developed countries have undergone many reforms over the last 50 years. These have aimed at achieving long-term financial sustainability of the system while maintaining the meritocracy of the system. However, the reforms have often resulted in a deterioration of pension rights for current and future pensioners and failed to address the issue of sustainability. At the same time, it is clear that the principles on which pension systems have stood for the last 100 years are being exhausted and are unable to respond flexibly and adequately to the challenges of the 21st century. Examples include the differential impact of reforms on individuals with different life expectancies, the impact of the decoupling of the income and expenditure side of the system from the demographic behaviour of households, the effects of the inappropriate setting of pension funds on future income adequacy, or the declining cohesion of society resulting from the increasing role of education in differentiating the life paths of individuals. The above examples will frame the shape of pension systems and their reforms over the next 50 years. This research will aim to identify and assess the impact of selected aspects of pension systems that will fundamentally shape their design and reforms over the next 50 years.

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor Robert Jahoda. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Effective social policy is based, among other things, on the assumption that social benefits are utilised by the households targeted by the measure and at a designed level to help households address their social situation. In reality, however, there are cases where a household finds a way to draw social benefits to which it is not entitled. However, the opposite can also be identified, where a household entitled to a benefit does not draw it. Both of these cases distort the effectiveness of the social policy. Although the research results are mainly applied, we find this issue also in the academic literature. Research in this area should combine quantitative and qualitative methods. It aims to answer the question of which social benefits are prone to 'misuse' and why. It also identifies groups of households and their living situations that are less affected by efficiency.

The second possible branch of research focuses on fiscal instruments of family support. The family policy relies on social benefits, tax credits and public services with the increasing influence of tax credits. They differ from traditional benefit instruments in some aspects. These include the issue of eligibility for benefits, the issue of administrative costs and the issue of work incentives.

The aim of the dissertation is to assess the effectiveness of selected social and family policy instruments, taking into account the concept of equity and efficiency applied in economics. In particular, attention will be paid to their redistributive capacity, work incentives, eligibility and policy transparency. The research can focus on the perspective of the Czech Republic and other developed countries (possibility of comparison).

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor Robert Jahoda. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Healthcare markets have traditionally been subject to numerous government regulations. Their reactions, given by the interaction of supply and demand, depend to a large extent on the degree of their competitiveness. The aim of the thesis is to describe, measure and evaluate the competition in a selected segment of health markets in terms of scope, importance, influence on the behavior of providers/payers, etc.

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor Ivan Malý. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Choosing this topic assumes that the candidate will specify, in dialogue with the supervisor, the specific problem he or she wishes to address in the dissertation. The aim of the thesis may be, for example, to evaluate the effectiveness of lobbying, to propose appropriate regulation, to measure the degree of influence of interest groups, etc.

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor Ivan Malý. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Objective: The objective of this thesis is to identify the political determinants of the corruption through a quantitative analysis of the dependence of the level of corruption on the level of political responsibility, and to propose steps to improve the quality of the political environment limiting the risk of corrupt behaviour.

Quantitative analysis can be supplemented by qualitative analysis of corruption cases in selected country.

Annotation: This thesis focuses on the factors of corruption growth resulting from the political environment. The research issue is the correlation between the level of corruption and the level of political responsibility. The research object (in case of a quantitative analysis ) is a sample set of countries of the world economy. The research object (in case of a qualitative analysis) is a sample set of corruption cases in selected country.

The complexity of the research object in the space of the world economy implies a high degree of abstraction in research of a secondary nature, which will focus, given the availability of data, on selected indicators of political responsibility assessment (for example the level of democracy reflecting political competition, the transparency of the political system determined by the freedom of the press – you should also identify other indicator throught theoretical analysis). The key research methods are the methods of classification analysis, comparison and abstraction in the development of the theoretical-methodological framework; the methods of causal analysis and comparison in solving the set research questions/testing hypothesis; and the methods of synthesis and partial induction in conclusions and methodological recommendations in relation to ensuring the enforceability of political responsibility and reducing the risk of corrupt behavior initiated by political factors. Secondary data collection is done through constructive method and its processing and evaluation through statistical methods with emphasis on cross correlation analysis (quantitative analysis). Primary collected data collection are processed and evaluated through case study method (quanlitative analysis). The expected contribution of the thesis is the proposal of steps to improve the quality of the political environment in order to reduce the risk of corrupt behaviour.

The supervisor for this topic is Professor Beáta Mikušová Meričková. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Public administration is reformed on continuous basis. However post-communist countries represent a specific context for administrative reforms (literature discusses focus, extent and success of administrative reforms in these countries in comparison to developed countries, also special theories like the theory of the neoweberian state have been discused with regards to specifics of public administration in transition/developed countries). In its theoretical part, the PhD thesis should address possiblities and difficulties of evaluation of administrative reforms (inc. the topic of their unexpected effects and paradoxes). In its empirical part the thesis should focus on evaluation of a selected reform (a comparative perspective can also be applied).

Aim: Based on secondary sources on evaluation of administrative reforms and data obtained through his/her own research, the PhD candidate is expected to evaluate impacts of selected administrative reform and lay down recommendation for improvement for practitioners.

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor David Špaček. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Annotation: Performance measurement and performance management are typical New Public Management instruments, used in the public sector also today. Their current use is connected with certain benefits, but also critical implementation problems. The task would be to select concrete public sector/ public administration subsystem and to analyze the use of performance measurement and management, to determine main factors and barriers related to their use.

Goal: Evaluation of the functioning of the concrete performance measurement/ management system, defining main factors and barriers determining the performance of such system.

The supervisor for this topic is Professor Juraj Nemec. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Annotation: The quality of local budgeting and local financial management represent one of core determinants of local performance. However, in many countries local self-governments still use old-fashioned approaches, their budgets just show revenues and expenditures and cannot be effectively used for managerial purposes. This is true also for large cities, where local self-governments manage significant amounts of own and transferred resources. In many cases, the budgeting process is also not supported by already available technologies.

Budgeting, including local budgeting represents the area of significant potential innovations – like performance budgeting, participatory budgeting, SDG budgeting, gender budgeting, green budgeting etc. The level of implementation of these instruments is also very different between countries.

Goal: Determining factors and barriers of the quality of local budgeting and local financial management in selected countries, preferably in the comparative perspective.

The supervisor for this topic is Professor Juraj Nemec. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Annotation: Contracting/ outsourcing are typical New Public Management instruments, used in the public sector also today. Their current use is connected with certain benefits, but also critical implementation problems. The task would be to determine the scope of contracting/ outsourcing and its success in the selected public sector area.

Goal: Evaluation of the functioning of the concrete contracting/ outsourcing scheme, defining main factors and barriers determining the performance of such system.

The supervisor for this topic is Professor Juraj Nemec. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

This topic proposes to study the importance of intentions on reciprocal behavior. The key contribution will be to design a series of experiments that will allow to vary the level or nature of intent as opposed to only controlling for intent as observed in the existing literature (Cox, 2004; Charness, 2004; Cox and Deck, 2005; McCabe, Rigdon, and Smith, 2003). The research will involve laboratory and field experiments and might be conducted as a cotutelle (double degree) under the supervision of Prof Maroš Servátka at Macquarie Business School in Sydney.

The supervisor for this topic is Professor Jiří Špalek. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Charities often publicize generous contributions as fund-raising strategy and encourage individuals to donate more. This topic proposes to analyze the effect of social influence in charitable giving and experimentally test the conjecture that different types of social information about other donors’ decision will have different effects on donors. The research will involve laboratory and field experiments and might be conducted as a cotutelle (double degree) under the supervision of Prof Maroš Servátka at Macquarie Business School in Sydney.

The supervisor for this topic is Professor Jiří Špalek. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Volunteering is often a two-stage process. People first register their interest to volunteer and then, on the day, they decide to whether to indeed volunteer or not, if asked to. For example, in some countries people first decide to join a blood or bone marrow registry and later, when approached by the registry, decide whether to actually donate or not. This two-stage decision is particularly interesting from the perspective of moral consistency and moral licensing academic debate in social psychology. According to moral licensing, behaving in a moral or sociably desirable way, such as signing up for a registry, might result in people later on being less worried about the negative consequences of their subsequent actions and thus displaying behaviors that are in contrast with their original choices. For example, they may not volunteer when contacted by the registry when there is an urgent need for their help. Moral consistency gives the opposite prediction – to stay consistent with the initial action of joining the registry the individual will be more likely to volunteer when contacted later on. Getting an individual to sign up for the registry might also increase psychological affiliation with the registry´s administering organization, and more so the higher cost to sign up. The time dimension between has been shown to influence volunteering and other prosocial activities. The time elapsed between the expression of interest to volunteer and volunteering itself is therefore a probable factor interacting with moral licensing/moral consistency, influencing the decision to actually volunteer. The objective of this dissertation is to theoretically and experimentally examine the relationship between the good deed of expressing the interest to volunteer that likely creates warm glow and the likelihood of following through when contacted by the volunteering organization. The understanding of the relationship is crucial for providing policy recommendations aimed at increasing the efficiency of volunteering process. The research will involve laboratory and field experiments and might be conducted as a cotutelle (double degree) under the supervision of Prof Maroš Servátka at Macquarie Business School in Sydney.

The supervisor for this topic is Professor Jiří Špalek. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Spanning sectoral boundaries is now perhaps accelerating, especially with the development of social enterprises that seem to transcendent sectors. Nevertheless, a complex approach that would enable reflection on the specific nature of social entrepreneurship in a transitional context as well as on current public debates and policy making discourses on the subject is lacking. This dissertation thesis intends to fill this gap. Since the economic crisis, the interest in social enterprises has increased and various forms of social enterprises have spread. The emergence of social enterprises is associated with the advancement of a civil society in which corporate altruism is on the rise. The discourse on social entrepreneurship is quite different across countries; each region produces specific debates. The definitions of social enterprise are diverse and tend to describe the functions of different types of social enterprises. To deepen the discussion on social enterprises as embodied in Western and Eastern Europe, it is useful to underline the distinct development the civil society in these regions experienced. The process of the institutionalization of social enterprise has often been closely linked to the evolution of public policies, especially regarding the real-world challenges the civil society has to face.

Aim: The aim of the dissertation thesis is to conduct a critical reflection of the current scientific discourse focused on research of the social entrepreneurship and to provide a comprehensive picture of the social entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic.

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor Gabriela Vaceková. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

Several authors argue that New Public Governance concept should be leading motive for public administration developments in the world. The principle of modern governance and its contents is for example defined by the OECD. The goal of this research is to assess if/how the NPG paradigm is applied in the public administration reality of the Czech Republic. The thesis is about to explore the nature of NPG in the Czech context from the point of the theory and practice of administrative services, public services delivery and public policy implications. Offering a range of theoretical perspectives and providing a critical examination of up-to-date empirical research the thesis is expected to provide answers and explanations to the NPG as a new paradigm for public services delivery in the Czech Republic.

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor Gabriela Vaceková. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

The ongoing transformation of horizontal cross-sectoral links in providing public services is a topic that has been discussed not only in the Anglo-Saxon environment. Hybridization is a highly relevant and, even in (post-) transition economies, still insufficiently explored phenomenon. The existence of a mix of public service providers (e.g. in the educational, health care, water management, power industry, and transportation sectors) and of various hybrid models (such as purchaser–provider models, contracting out, outsourcing/commissioning, corporatization, publicprivate partnerships) gives rise to new challenging issues requiring a systemic solution at both the theoretical and practical levels. They will be researched in the dissertation which is expected to determine the percentage of hybrid organisations in the selected sectors of public services and provide comprehensive evaluation of the current state of hybridization under the conditions of the Czech Republic (or, as the case may be, other transition economies) in identifying quasi-market principles. By measuring the impacts of hybridity on the provision of public services (focusing on a specific dimension of such an impact as well as on availability, expense-to-revenue ratio, influence on the labour market, accommodation of target groups’ needs, etc.), it is possible to quantitatively evaluate even qualitative attributes of so called mixed enterprises collaboration, while taking account of the legislative, economic and institutional environments and possibly also predicting potential changes. Purpose: The goal of the dissertation is to establish the share of hybrid organisations in the selected sectors of public services and analyse specific impacts of hybridity on their provision under the conditions of the Czech Republic/Slovakia, or, as the case may be, other (post-) transition economies.

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor Gabriela Daniel. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.

The primary objective of this PhD project is to examine the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on fiscal policy efficiency, with a particular focus on tax administration and public sector expenditure. The student will highlight both the potential gains and socioeconomic challenges associated with AI implementation in these areas. Given the rapid evolution of AI and its substantial policy implications, this topic is particularly suited to a PhD project. The study will apply quantitative econometric modeling and regression analysis to datasets from advanced economies, focusing on the efficiency of tax collection and expenditure, aiming to yield actionable recommendations for public policy adaptation. Additionally, the project will incorporate case studies from various public sector branches, providing a comprehensive perspective on AI’s role in public finance. With this approach, the findings offer strong potential for publication in leading journals, addressing key gaps in the field.

The supervisor for this topic is associate professor Robert Jahodal. Detailed information about the supervisor, his publications and research projects are available here.