Th ough participatory budgeting (PB) is oft en discussed as a tool to bolster the level of civic participation and the quality of democracy, empirical research on the subject off ers ambiguous results. In the Czech Republic, PB was introduced 5 years ago, and the number of implemented PBs has since increased substantially. Th e purpose of this article is to evaluate whether the use of PB is associated with higher voter turnout in municipal and parliamentary elections. Voter turnout in Czech municipalities that implemented PB is analyzed and compared with the control group of municipalities without PB. Considered by type of election, we found that the impact of PB use on voter turnout is higher for local elections than it is for national elections, which is in line with our assumptions. However, our results were signifi cant for Prague districts only. Participatory budgeting could increase voter turnout in local election, but there are other factors that must be considered.

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In a number of countries around the world, population ageing raises concerns about the sustainability of pension systems. A younger generation has conventionally been least likely to save for retirement even if there is a need to take individual responsibility and start saving for their retirement as soon as possible. In this context, the aim of the paper is to identify behavioral barriers and interventions towards retirement savings ceiling to this part of the productive population. For this purpose, three online focus groups were deployed among 16 university students aged 23-24 years. Using the coding process, common categories, related codes and frequencies of responses were determined from the transcribed material. The results pointed at two crucial barriers related to retirement savings: behavioral (present bias, status quo bias, loss aversion, limited attention) and institutional (education, pension policy and trustworthiness of the state institutions). Additionally, three main categories of behavioral interventions were detected to overcome these barriers: simplification of decision-making (easy calculation of pension, default options), use of salience effects (information campaigns, visualization tools, personalized content) and minimizing feelings of loss (framing of messages, financial incentives, products with different types of liquidity). Based on findings, recommendations were formulated for three groups of stakeholders: government, industry (financial providers and pension funds) and employers. The results bring valuable insights to relevant stakeholders regarding behaviors and attitudes of the young generation on retirement savings issues. AcknowledgmentsThis contribution was written with the support of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, project number TL03000737 titled as “Behavioral economics as a population activation targeted tool within use of financial security banking products.”

Behavioural experiments in the field of provision of public goods (including free rider problem) help to uncover the underlying processes and forces determining the nature of economy in the public sector. The objective of this paper is to determine the impact of gender and intergroup conditions on the extent of cooperation in standard linear public goods game using the voluntary contribution mechanism. Design of the teaching experiment is based on the methodology of Špalek (2011) with some modification. There were 80 undergraduate students of business participating in the classroom game, age range 20–22 years. Students were divided into three independent groups by 26 to 27 participants. Each group was playing independently, and individual strategies were recorded. We used the nonparametric tests (Mann‑Whitney U test and Kruskal‑Wallis Test) to analyse the differences between the gender and groups. Findings do not show statistically significant difference based on gender. On the other hand, the intergroup conditions determined by the social dynamics and discussion have significant influence on the distribution of goods. Results bring strong evidence on the importance of social and political factors influencing the pro‑social behaviour in the society.

Participatory budgeting (PB) is often discussed as a tool to support active participation of citizens in the decision-making in the matters of the distribution of public resources. However, little was said about the possibility that the choice of a voting method used in the voting phase of the PB process could affect the participation in PB. In the Czech Republic, the Democracy 2.1 (D21) voting method is often used in municipalities implementing PB and additionally, it is promoted as a method to encourage more people to vote. This article aims to determine Czech municipalities with the D21 method and its modification, and to evaluate the impact of choosing these voting methods on participation rate in PB. The study suggests that the choice of a voting method is relevant for citizens´ engagement in voting. Based on the empirical findings, the D21 method and its modification are associated with a higher voter turnout in PB than another voting method. Further, the results underline the influence of external organizations offering online platforms for voting.