Unemployment and Age-based Labor Market Segmentation We analyze age-specific labor market dynamics in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia over the period 2009-2012. We document a marginalized status of young workers aged 16-24, whose risk of job loss followed by unemployment is two to three times higher than that of primeage workers (35-49). Further more, unemployed workers aged 50-61 face relatively the lowest probability of finding a job, at rates 30-50% lower than prime-age unemployed workers. These results are qualitatively in line with those established for the reference economy of the UK. Finally, we find that fluctuations in age-specific unemployment rates in all three countries are mainly driven by variations in outflow rates from unemployment rather than by variations in inflow rates into unemployment. In contrast, in the UK, the fluctuations in all age-specific unemployment rates, are decisively affected by variations in inflow rates into unemployment.

Research background: The sustainability reflected by the CSR of luxury fashion businesses, should meet stakeholders´ expectations and lead to an increase in customers´ buying decisions. Purpose: To analyze Czech luxury fashion purchasing habits during the COVID-19 pandemic and to achieve a deeper understanding with new propositions in this area. Research methodology: A logistic regression is performed and based on data gained from an investigative survey employing a questionnaire of a homogenous Czech group of purchasers. The comparison of the resulting logistic models and field observations with a holistic and empiric Meta-Analysis allows one to heuristically achieve an understanding of such an inclination. Results: Seven unexpected propositions emerge and call for further research, such as those during the COVID-19 pandemic, older Czech luxury fashion customers stick even more with their brand loyalty while younger buyers focus on sustainability. Novelty: The performed case study with a survey link sustainability perception and purchasing habits by relevant cohorts of luxury fashion stakeholders. The presented propositions about trends contributes to the development of the theory about purchase inclination determinants.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a myriad of challenges and opportunities and has influenced the modern concept of sustainability as projected into the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the underlying multi-stakeholder model. The new generation of consumers, Generation Z, has progressively increased its participation in the market and its shopping trends have been impacting the entire CSR scenery. However, little is known about their attitudes, consumption preferences and expectations. In Spring 2021, this induced a pioneering case study survey involving members of Generation Z, students from a private university in Prague, focusing on their (lack of) readiness to pay any “CSR bonus”. The principal research aim was to study and understand the rather surprising unwillingness of a solvent part of the new generation of consumers to support CSR during the COVID-19 era by paying at least a symbolic CSR bonus. A formal survey involving a questionnaire, replied to by 228 students, out of which 18 totally rejected the CSR bonus, was assessed via contingency tables. It was accompanied by a complementary questioning via an informal interview and glossing. This plethora of data was processed by meta-analysis and lead to an unexpected proposition: prima facie sustainability heretics denying to pay any CSR bonus can be conscious consumers and responsible and progressive supporters of the sustainability and CSR. Their rejection is a deontological cry in a desert for more transparency, trust and the rule of law.

We estimate the impact of unemployment duration on exits from unemployment, along with a set of individual and other explanatory variables. The analysis is based on EU-SILC longitudinal data for the period 2007-2010 and involves Spain and the Czech Republic as examples of the two EU countries with remarkably different labour market performance but similar in their totalitarian past, post-transition economies and recent EU entry. Survival functions estimates point uniformly to prolonged unemployment duration and increasing long-term unemployment. However, both these tendencies apply relatively more to the young unemployed. Estimations of hazard models indicate that shorter unemployment spells are more likely to be terminated by finding a job in comparison with spells lasting for more than one year. The hazard ratios are usually higher for prime age unemployed. Finally, we examine education, gender, household size, etc., as determinants of exits from unemployment, with uniform evidence found for university graduates only.