Suchergebnisse

This article is a preface to a special issue of Financial Theory and Practice, which is devoted to the comparison of tax wedge on labour income in Croatia and other EU countries. The articles in this issue have arisen from the students' research project, undertaken in 2015. This Preface outlines the motivation behind the research project, explains the most important methodological issues, and reviews the literature on the measurement of tax wedge in Croatia.

Family policies and their impact on the well-being of families are a frequent topic of research. However, local social benefits are the least researched of such policies. This paper aims to explore the extent to which the most important cash and in-kind local social benefits offered by the Croatian capital Zagreb and by the country's three largest cities (Split, Rijeka and Osijek) cover the costs of child-rearing and reduce child poverty. Using microsimulation techniques, the support provided to families with children is estimated, and the distributional impact of these policies is assessed. The results reveal that local benefits greatly complement central government policies and substantially increase support for families but with differences among cities; the policies of Zagreb and Rijeka prove to be the most generous and effective, followed by those of Split and Osijek. The main limitations of this study come from the use of microsimulation models: the assumption of full benefit take-up for some policies and the lack of simulation for other policies due to a lack of data. This is the first comprehensive study of family benefits at the central and local government levels in Croatia. ; Obiteljska politika i njen utjecaj na dobrobit obitelji česta su tema istraživanja. Međutim, lokalne socijalne naknade obično se u tim istraživanjima zanemaruju. Ovaj rad istražuje koliko najvažnije novčane naknade i naknade u naravi lokalne samouprave, koje pružaju glavni grad Hrvatske (Zagreb) i tri najveća grada (Split, Rijeka i Osijek), pokrivaju troškove brige o djeci i zaista smanjuju njihovo siromaštvo. Korištenjem mikrosimulacijskih tehnika procjenjuju se potpore obiteljima s djecom i njihovi distribucijski učinci. Rezultati pokazuju kako su lokalne naknade komplementarne naknadama središnje države i da značajno povećavaju potporu obiteljima, ali postoje razlike između gradova. Naknade Zagreba i Rijeke su najveće i najučinkovitije, a slijede ih naknade Splita i Osijeka. Glavna ograničenja ovog istraživanja proizlaze iz upotrebe mikrosimulacijskog modela. Naime, pretpostavlja se da svi potencijalni korisnici ostvaruju pravo na naknade, a određene naknade nije moguće simulirati zbog nedostatka podataka. Ovaj je rad prva sveobuhvatna studija o obiteljskim naknadama na razini središnje i lokalne države u Hrvatskoj.

Family policies and their impact on the well-being of families are a frequent topic of research. However, local social benefits are the least researched of such policies. This paper aims to explore the extent to which the most important cash and in-kind local social benefits offered by the Croatian capital Zagreb and by the country's three largest cities (Split, Rijeka and Osijek) cover the costs of child-rearing and reduce child poverty. Using microsimulation techniques, the support provided to families with children is estimated, and the distributional impact of these policies is assessed. The results reveal that local benefits greatly complement central government policies and substantially increase support for families but with differences among cities; the policies of Zagreb and Rijeka prove to be the most generous and effective, followed by those of Split and Osijek. The main limitations of this study come from the use of microsimulation models: the assumption of full benefit take-up for some policies and the lack of simulation for other policies due to a lack of data. This is the first comprehensive study of family benefits at the central and local government levels in Croatia.

The article analyses the redistributive effect attained by personal income
tax, social security contributions and social benefits in Slovenia and
Croatia. The redistributive effect is decomposed first to reveal
progressivity and horizontal inequity effects, and further to show
contributions of different tax and benefit instruments. Even though both
countries started from the same socioeconomic background two decades ago, the
current results reveal divergence that is a consequence of diverse
development during this period. The results indicate that Croatia experienced
significantly higher pre-fiscal income inequality and lower redistributive
effect than Slovenia. Horizontal inequity effects, though, were higher in
Slovenia than in Croatia. In both countries, the meanstested social benefits
exerted an over-proportionate influence on the vertical effect, suggesting a
strong impact of the welfare state on income position of their residents, but
also induced a large amount of horizontal inequity. In Slovenia, the
non-means-tested benefits slightly increased income inequality.