Suchergebnisse

Procesom decentralizacije gradovi su postali vlasnici velikog broja nekretnina. Međutim, praksa upravljanja tim nekretninama nije ujednačena, pa je otvoreno pitanje koliko učinkovito gradovi upravljaju svojim nekretninskim portfeljem. Znanstveni problem rada proizlazi iz nepostojanja sustavne brige o nekretninama u vlasništvu gradova, a posebice nepostojanja primjerenog mjerila (benchmarka) za mjerenje uspješnosti upravljanja nekretninama. Cilj rada je utvrditi obilježja gradova koja utječu na učinkovitost upravljanja nekretninama u vlasništvu gradova. U radu se korištenjem sekundarnih podataka, analizom utemeljenom na neparametarskoj metodi omeđivanja podataka (eng. data envelopment analysis, DEA) i Tobit panel regresijama analizira učinkovitost upravljanja nekretninama u vlasništvu gradova i utvrđuju se čimbenici koji utječu na učinkovitost upravljanja nekretninama. Konkretno, istražuje se upravljaju li gradovi u Hrvatskoj učinkovito nekretninama u svojem vlasništvu, upravljaju li veliki gradovi nekretninama učinkovitije od malih, upravljaju li gradovi smješteni uz more nekretninama učinkovitije od gradova u unutrašnjosti te upravljaju li gradovi koji su sjedišta županija učinkovitije nekretninama od ostalih gradova. Empirijski rezultati u radu upućuju kako gradovi u Hrvatskoj ne upravljaju učinkovito nekretninama u svojem vlasništvu, da veliki gradovi nekretninama u svojem vlasništvu upravljaju učinkovitije od malih gradova, da gradovi uz more učinkovitije upravljaju nekretninama od gradova u unutrašnjosti te da gradovi koji su sjedišta županija učinkovitije upravljaju nekretninama od ostalih gradova.

Due to ineffectiveness in mitigating fiscal inequalities, Croatian fiscal equalization system has recently been reformed. Before that, criteria for application of fiscal equalization instruments were based on a status of local government units in areas of special national concern and hill and mountainous areas. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between the use of equalization instruments and political structure of local government units in 2010. The research revealed a statistically significant relationship between the political alignment of local and central government and the preferential status at areas of special national concern and the distribution of grants through the income tax return.

The Croatian system of old-age provision comprises a traditional public pay-as-you-go scheme and a mandatory funded scheme ("second pillar") that will provide increasing amounts of supplementary pensions to those entering retirement in the future. Due to the continuing economic crisis, the public scheme is currently under enormous financial strain, with a sizeable impact on central government public finances. At the same time, the level of benefits deriving from the overall system is likely to become inadequately low in the long run. In this paper, we describe the existing system and project its future development under current rules. Building on lessons from recent pension theory, we also discuss options for further reforming the system, highlighting their potential impact on pension finances, public budgets, and retirement incomes.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, when countries are facing difficulties in raising the amounts of revenue needed to cover the expenditure side of the budget, fiscal risks can pose a significant threat to the sustainability of public finance. This became particularly evident in the case of public enterprises and their liabilities, which often increased public debt because of difficulties in meeting their financial obligations. The aim of this paper is to evaluate fiscal risks from government guarantees in Croatia and the European Union in general. Moreover, the paper aims to analyse the dynamics of the value and structure of government guarantees in Croatia in the period from 2009 to first half of 2015. Particular emphasis is placed on the impact of government guarantees on direct public debt in the context of methodological changes in the registration of public debt.

Although it may at first seem unimportant, the structure of excise taxes on cigarettes greatly affects the price of cigarettes, the structure of the consumption, but also the amount of the tax revenue. EU Directive 2011/64/EU prescribes the combination of the specific and the proportional (ad valorem) excise tax on cigarettes. However, Member States independently determine the shares of one or another component in the overall excise tax structure, whereby the EU directive only prescribes the upper and the lower limit. The purpose of this article is to challenge several myths related to the cigarette taxation in the EU. The first one is that an increase of the specific component of the cigarette excise negatively affects the consumption of cigarettes, whereas this does not hold for the proportional component. The second assumption empirically tested in the paper is that an increase of the specific excise increases the government revenue from cigarette excises, whereby this can not be confirmed for the proportional component. Lastly, since both previous hypotheses have been confirmed, we tried to delve into reasons why certain countries – despite obvious advantages of the specific in relation to proportional excise – still predominantly rely on the latter. To this end, we tested the assumption that countries with domestic production of tobacco increasingly use proportional excises to increase the price gap between domestic (usually cheaper) and more expensive (imported/international) brands. The results of the empirical analysis were consistent with this hypothesis and confirmed that domestic tobacco production is a significant determinant of the structure of cigarette excises.

Over the past few decades, data mining techniques, especially artificial neural networks, have been used for modelling many real-world problems. This paper aims to test the performance of three methods: (1) an artificial neural network (ANN), (2) a hybrid artificial neural network and genetic algorithm approach (ANN-GA), and (2) the Tobit regression approach in determining the credit risk of local government units in Croatia. The evaluation of credit risk and prediction of debtor bankruptcy have long been regarded as an important topic in accounting and finance literature. In this research, credit risk is modelled under a regression approach unlike typical credit risk analysis, which is generally viewed as a classification problem. Namely, a standard evaluation of credit risk is not possible due to a lack of bankruptcy data. Thus, the credit risk of a local unit is approximated using the ratio of outstanding liabilities maturing in a given year to total expenditure of the local unit in the same period. The results indicate that the ANN-GA hybrid approach performs significantly better than the Tobit model by providing a significantly smaller average mean squared error. This work is beneficial to researchers and the government in evaluating a local government unit's credit score.

The main goal of the paper is to determine opportunities for the application of analytical tools to improve the management of state and local finances and increase the accountability and trust of citizens in state and local self-government units. PEFA is a useful tool for meeting such goals. PEFA is used on a global scale, primarily in countries that are beneficiaries of international aid, but also increasingly in countries that seek to increase their international credibility as well as their credibility regarding financial management in the eyes of their citizens. In the case of Croatia, PEFA was used in four cities in 2014. The implementation experience shows that PEFA allowed local government units to detect key weaknesses and technical shortcomings in their financial management, as well as to recognize the shortcomings of the provisions of certain regulations implemented at central government level. PEFA is an analytical tool that can be applied both at the national (central government) level and at the level of local self-government units. PEFA is certainly a demanding analytical tool which makes previous knowledge on financial management, budget accounting, and auditing more than desirable. For all European countries likely to join the European Union and finance part of their capital investments through EU funds, PEFA can be a very useful tool not only for the early recognition of weaknesses, but also strengths in financial management. Despite the fact that PEFA does not offer direct instructions on how to solve potential problems in financial management, the findings of the analysis with the accompanying rankings are more than sufficient to serve as recommendations for addressing weaknesses in financial management. The implementation of PEFA requires strong support of the heads of local units and the state. These are also the people expected to initiate reforms and improve financial management. As an analytical tool, PEFA can help these improvements happen much faster and more effectively. ; Glavni je cilj rada utvrdit˝i mogućnosti primjene analitičkih oruđa za poboljšanje upravljanja državnim i lokalnim financijama te povećanja odgovornosti i povjerenja građana u državu i jedinice lokalne samouprave. PEFA je korisno oruđe za ispunjavanja takvih ciljeva. PEFA ima raširenu primjenu u svijetu, primarno u državama koje su korisnice međunarodnih pomoći, ali sve više i u državama koje nastoje povećati svoj međunarodni kredibilitet kao i kredibilitet za financijsko upravljanje prema svojim građanima. PEFA se u slučaju Republike Hrvatske koristila na primjeru četiriju gradova u 2014. godini. Iskustva primjene pokazuju da su primjenom PEFA-e lokalne jedinice uspjele detektirati ključne slabosti i tehničke nedostatke u financijskom upravljanju, ali i prepoznati nedostatke odredbi pojedinih zakona i propisa koji su doneseni na razini središnje države. PEFA je analitičko oruđe koje se podjednako uspješno može primijeniti na razini država kao i na razini jedinica lokalne samouprave. Istina, PEFA je zahtjevno analitičko oruđe za čiju je primjenu potrebno imati prethodna znanja o financijskom upravljanju, računovodstvu proračuna i trgovačkih društva te reviziji. Za sve države u Europi koje teže pristupiti Europskoj uniji te dio svojih kapitalnih investicija financirati iz fondova EU-a, PEFA može biti dobro sredstvo i oruđe za rano prepoznavanja slabosti, ali i snaga u njihovu financijskom upravljanju. Unatoč tome što PEFA ne nudi izravne prijedloge za rješavanja potencijalnih problema u financijskom upravljanju, nalazi iz provedene analize sa dodijeljenim rangovima i više su nego dovoljni da posluže kao preporuke za otklanjanja slabosti u financijskom upravljanju. Za provedbu analiza PEFA potrebno je imati čvrstu potporu čelnika lokalnih jedinica i države. To su ujedno i osobe od kojih se očekuje iniciranje reformi i poboljšanja financijskog upravljanja. PEFA kao analitičko oruđe može pomoći da se ta poboljšanja ostvaruju znatno brže i kvalitetnije.

Like in a number of other transition countries, the Croatian pension system comprises a traditional public pay-as-you-go scheme and a mandatory funded scheme (second pillar) that will provide increasing amounts of supplementary pensions to those entering retirement in the future. Due to the continuing economic crisis, the public scheme is currently under enormous financial strain, with a sizeable impact on central government finances. At the same time, the level of benefits deriving from the overall system is likely to become inadequately low in the long run. In this paper, we describe the existing system and project its future development under current rules. We also discuss options for further reforming the system and highlight their potential impact on pension finances, public budgets and retirement incomes, as this may provide lessons, which are of interest elsewhere.