This study investigated direct energy consumption and land performance under two different methods of farming—organic and conventional. The aim of our study was to examine the performance of farmers in the Czech Republic and identify the differences between organic and conventional farming regarding food safety and direct energy consumption. Based on the data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network of the EU, we measured the performance of both organic and conventional farmers in terms of product per unit of land and direct energy consumption per unit of product regarding the natural condition of the farm localization. Our findings show that organic farms produce lower output with less direct energy per unit of land; however, they need more direct energy for one unit of production. We found that a product from organic agriculture consumes 1.7-fold greater direct energy than a conventional product. The worse the natural conditions for farming, the broader the difference between organic and conventional regimes regarding their performance and energy consumption. Our conclusions may help shape agricultural policy in the Czech Republic, where organic farming is receiving systematic political support, leading to an increase in the proportion of organically farmed arable land.

The paper aims to explore the relationship between size, production orientation, and performance in the Czech agriculture and to answer the research question as to what extent a farm size and a product orientation of farm do matter in relation to its productivity and profitability. We use data from FADN CZ database (Farm Accountancy Data Network—Czech Republic) of conventional farms oriented on fieldcrops production, milk production, other grazing livestock and mixed production, and we cover the period from 2015–2020. Pursuing an econometric approach (ANOVA and multivariate regression analysis), we test productivity and profitability differentiation among the different-sized and different production orientation companies. Finally, subsidies and their effects on different groups of companies are assessed. The findings from testing our empirical model indicate that very large farms have statistically significantly higher total factor productivity than large farms, which perform better than medium and small farms. Average productivity of large-size farms compared to small and medium farms is 1.4 times higher in terms of total factor productivity, more than two times higher in terms of agricultural land productivity, and 3.2 times higher in terms of labour productivity. The findings show that farms with field production statistically significantly outperform farms with orientation on other grazing livestock and mixed production. Different levels of productivity are translated into differentiation in the profitability. The highest profitability ratios are achieved by large farms followed by very large, medium, and small ones. The assessment of ratio of subsidies to agricultural production shows that small farms received 2.3 times higher agricultural subsidies per unit of agricultural production compared to very large farms.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis on small family farms in Visegrad countries and to provide evidence of how they have responded and coped with the crisis. We conducted our investigation using an exploratory qua...

The phenomenon of zombie firms is gaining the attention of economists across different countries of the world; the increased interest is particularly evident after periods of economic crises. In our study, we focus on the development of zombie firms in the period before and after the 2008 crisis within two different economies, i.e., Germany and the Czech Republic, to provide insight into how different conditions and the overall economic context affect the fact that companies are more prone to becoming zombie firms. We implemented a difference-in-differences regression model to estimate the treatment effect by comparing the change (difference) in the differences in observed outcomes between these two countries. The data were obtained from two databases—the database Albertina by Bisnode a.s. providing financial statements of enterprises in the Czech Republic, and the database provided by Creditreform AG, which includes annual report data for a large sample of German companies. The dataset of German enterprises included 1,444,698 observations, i.e., 338,923 firms, and the dataset of Czech enterprises included 2,139,462 observations, i.e., 523,542 firms, both across the years 2000–2016, i.e., the data sample covered the period before and after the 2008 crisis. The different development of the share of zombie firms after the great financial crisis between Germany and the Czech Republic was proven as statistically significant. The findings confirm Germany is a country with a more stable economy and with a significantly lower risk of zombie firms’ persistence, while the Czech Republic is at the level of the European average in terms of zombie share. The results also suggest an influence of post-crisis monetary policy on companies and the possible link between low interest rates and a growing share of zombies.

This paper aims to examine the productivity of Czech farms with dependence on their size and natural conditions. The methodological approach is based on the analysis of variance (ANOVA), which enables to assess whether there are significant differences between groups of farms with different size and from different locations in terms of their productivity and profitability. We use data from the FADN CZ database for the period 2015–2020 and show that very large and large farms reach substantially higher productivity in all regions, whatever the natural conditions are. Results confirmed that farms in areas without natural constrains achieve statistically significantly higher levels of all productivity indicators in comparison with farms located in areas with natural constraints. The results also showed that the agricultural policy is decisive for functioning of small farms. The subsidies have a greater effect on smaller farms than on their larger counterparts.

Structurally affected regions face a necessary economic transformation, for which the efficiency of public financial support is crucial. Regional innovation systems represent a modern approach to regional and urban development focusing on innovation and research activities. The aim of this study is to assess whether there is a difference in the effect of public R&D funding on the development of a region’s innovation environment between structurally affected and other regions. The beta convergence and the method of calculating the average efficiency of public funds were used to meet the objective of this research. The analysis was conducted on data from 2012 to 2022 in 14 regions of the Czech Republic. The results show that public support for R&D has a positive effect on development of the innovation environment in structurally affected regions in the Czech Republic and that there is a difference in the effect of this support regarding structurally affected regions versus developed regions. These affected regions on average respond better to public financial support for R&D than mature regions. In contrast, the efficiency of public financial support is lower in regions with a strongly developed innovation system.