In this article, we take account of an evaluation of the short- and medium-term effects of the transmission mechanism of fiscal policy in EU and OECD countries and their dependence on the state of the economy and fiscal behaviour. Our findings indicate that (i) across EU member states the impact of government spending on economic performance is larger in the accession than in core member states, (ii) since the onset of the economic/financial crisis the government spending multipliers have become larger in both core and accession EU member states, and (iii) a comparison with fiscal responses in the OECD countries shows robustness of our estimates. The conclusion implies that the austerity measures present a substantial drag for economic activity in accession EU countries. Thus, we may state that not considering the fiscal behaviour and state of the economy gives misleading fiscal multiplier effects, which in turn lead to the adoption of inappropriate fiscal measures that even worsen a country's economic situation.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4993198
Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) is a system of approaches applied worldwide, which is designed to implement Better and Smart Regulation programs at both the European and national levels, as well as to support reforms aimed at promoting good governance. Its purpose is to enable public consultation in the regulatory cycle and to simplify legislation. To this end, public authorities strive for the implementation of several key principles related to the regulatory process, such as transparency, participation, proportionality, accountability, etc. This article examines the above principles over various stages of the regulatory process, analyzing regulatory stakeholders, the relations between them, and the introduction of RIA in administrative procedures. In addition to certain general principles, selected legal sources are considered, particularly with regard to Slovenia, which is used as a case study of compliance with international guidelines by an EU and OECD member. In order to identify a possible gap between declaratory principles and reality, a study on RIA in the Government’s practice was conducted in 2011 and 2016. This article explains the reasons behind such deficiencies and suggests the actions to be taken to bridge the gap and to develop effective public governance in the future.
COBISS.SI-ID: 5107374
This paper provides an estimate of the costs of reducing employee turnover and an estimate of the costs of employee turnover in Slovenian companies. The study included all economic activities, and in this respect it is one of the few studies that focus on the complete economy of an individual country. The study estimated two groups of costs; namely, the costs of employee-preferred measures for reducing employee turnover rates in organisations and the average costs of replacing an employee in an organisation. When evaluating the costs of employee-preferred measures we mainly wanted to evaluate the costs of subsidising informal meetings, bonuses for the continuity of employment and bonuses for workplace attendance. Most other measures preferred by employees are of a non-financial nature, except for promotion, which we did not evaluate specifically as it is primarily part of the company's employment and job diversity policy. In estimating the costs of employee turnover we focused only on the costs of hiring a new employee: the cost of replacing an employee and the cost of introducing the new employee. Using several assumptions the estimated total cost of employee turnover in Slovenia ranges from (sic)2.2 million to (sic)3.4 million per year in year 2011. In addition to the estimations of both groups of costs, this paper also provides a comparison of evaluations of selected measures for reducing employee turnover as perceived by employees and employers. We arrived at important conclusions, as it turned out that employers give higher ratings to financial measures, while employees give higher ratings to non-financial measures.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4774830
The article presents an economic valuation of the Ljubljanica riverbanks area, which is an urban cultural landscape with distinct qualities of international importance. For this purpose, we combined a classical contingent valuation with a closed-form version of discrete choice method, where the protest responses have been removed. By using econometric analysis, we obtained the willingness-to-pay (WTP) value and established its determinants. It was ascertained that residents derived more utility from implementation of the targeted development scenario than visitors. Thus, a discriminatory contribution scheme similar to the one with respect to the mean WTP could supply substantial revenue for further targeted development, while still providing ample consumer surplus for both residents and visitors. The present analysis represents one of the method’s very few applications to urban public spaces in Central and Eastern European countries.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1809038
In regulating administrative procedures, legislators at the national and European levels should devote special attention to the codification of procedural rights in administrative relations that are recognized as European principles of good administration. Furthermore, there is a normative issue to be addressed between a more or less centralized general codification, with common minimum standards applying in any kind of administrative relation, and the admissibility of special procedural rules adapted to the specifics of individual administrative areas. A comparative analysis of the Slovenian General Administrative Procedure Act and eu standards regarding principles of administrative procedures is conducted in order to identify the role of principles, such as the right to be heard, the right of access to information, and the right to legal protection, on the national level. An additional analysis of the case law of the Slovenian Constitutional Court shows that the general codification of respective procedural rights is indispensable in pursuing the principle of the equal protection of rights. The Slovenian case can serve as a model for other, especially Eastern European, countries. The author argues that there is a need for general codification, which should not be overly detailed, but which should still serve the basic objectives of administrative procedures, namely ensuring substantive rights and the most important legal interests of the parties, in addition to guaranteeing effective protection of the public interest. At the same time, special rules should be allowed as exceptions in order to regulate sector-specific aspects, while nonetheless ensuring that such rules remain in compliance with European and constitutional procedural principles.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4940462
Scientific network analysis takes at input large amounts of bibliographical data that are often incomplete. This leads to the introduction of different measurement errors in the scientific networks, which, in turn, influence the results of scientific networks analyses. Different authors have been studying the effects of measurement error on the results of network analysis, but these studies mostly rely on data gathered by survey questionnaires or on the study of incomplete data that are shown as random processes and emerge in unweighted undirected networks. This article aims at overcoming the limitations of these studies in three directions. First, we introduce measurement errors to network data following three most frequently present and well-known problems often present in bibliographic data: multiple authorship, homographs, and synonyms. Second, we apply missing data mechanisms to the identified incomplete data sources in order to link the latter with the probability of their occurrence. Third, we apply the incomplete data sources to different types of scientific networks and study the effects of measurement error in both, the weighted directed (i.e., citation) network and the weighted undirected (i.e., co-authorship) network. The results show that the most destructive incomplete data source is the problem of synonyms; it influences the accuracy and the robustness of the network structural measures the most. On the other hand, the multiple-authorship problem does not influence the results of network analysis at all.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4584110
During the e-government era the role of technology in the transformation of public sector organisations has significantly increased, whereby the relationship between ICT and organisational change in the public sector has become the subject of increasingly intensive research over the last decade. However, an overview of the literature to date indicates that the impacts of e-government on the organisational transformation of administrative structures and processes are still relatively poorly understood and vaguely defined. The main purpose of the paper is therefore the following: (1) to examine the interdependence of e-government development and organisational transformation in public sectororganisations and propose a clearer explanation of ICT's role as a driving force of organisational transformation in further e-government development; and (2) to specify the main characteristics of organisational transformation in the e-government era through the development of a new framework. This framework describes organisational transformation in two dimensions, i.e. the 'depth' and the 'nature' of changes, and specifies the key attributes related to the three typical organisational levels.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4289966
The paper has two purposes – first, to examine the dimensionality of employee satisfaction and, second, to identify the impact of the groups of factors on employee satisfaction. The measurement of satisfaction of all employees in the Slovenian Police based on the comprehensive on-line questionnaire. Factor analysis was used to formulate the facets of satisfaction. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed to identify the predictors of three facets of employee satisfaction. Three facets of employee satisfaction were determined and the influence of three types of factors (demographic, job-related and organizational-support-related factors) on them was investigated. The results show that worst assessed facet was (1) salary and security, whereas no significant differences were found between two other facets, namely (2) relationships and leadership and (3) tasks and working conditions. The three factors influenced employee satisfaction with different levels of intensity.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4313518
This article continues on a number of previous studies by other scientists in investigating secondary education efficiency by applying a non-parametric methodology. In this respect, the purpose of the article is to review some previous studies on measuring the efficiency of public (secondary) education sector as well as some conceptual and methodological issues of a non-parametric approach. Most importantly, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique is presented and then applied to a wide range of EU and OECD countries, including Slovenia and Croatia, to evaluate the technical efficiency of secondary education. The empirical results show that technical efficiency in secondary education varies significantly across the great majority of EU and OECD countries. Both Slovenia and Croatia show a relatively high level of technical inefficiency in their secondary education as they respectively only rank in the third and fourth quartiles among selected countries. Therefore, rationalising public secondary education spending is strongly recommended with possible redirecting of some excessive resources to the tertiary education sector.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4397486
The paper attempts to measure relative efficiency in utilizing public education and R&D expenditures in the new EU member states in comparison to the selected EU (plus Croatia) and OECD countries. As resources allocated to education and R&D sector are significantly limited, a special emphasis should be given to their efficient use regarding the institutional and legal constraints. By applying non-parametric methodology, i.e. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a relative efficiency is defined as the deviation from the efficiency frontier which represents the maximum output/outcome attainable from each input level. An analysis of (output-oriented) efficiency measures shows that among the new EU member states Hungary, Estonia and Slovenia seem to be good benchmark countries in the field of primary, secondary and tertiary education, respectively. On the other hand, Cyprus and again Hungary dominate in the field of R&D sector, even if for different reasons. The empirical results also suggest that, in general, new EU member states show relatively high efficiency in tertiary education, while lag well behind in theR&D efficiency measures.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3926958