Ekonomski Inštitut

Klimatske promjene predstavljaju jedan od vodećih globalnih izazova. Unatoč jasnim znanstvenim dokazima te brojnim međunarodnim i nacionalnim inicijativama usmjerenim na suzbijanje klimatskih promjena, stavovi i percepcija stanovništva o ovom problemu razlikuje se među europskim državama. Premda stanovnici općenito izražavaju visoku razinu zabrinutosti, njihova spremnost na promjenu ponašanja i aktivno sudjelovanje u mjerama zaštite okoliša ovisi o brojnim čimbenicima. Cilj ovog istraživanja jest utvrditi razinu percepcije zabrinutosti zbog klimatskih promjena među građanima te istražiti povezanost zabrinutosti za klimatske promjene s različitim čimbenicima koji utječu na spremnost građana na promjene u ponašanju. U radu se istražuju razlike između građana koji izražavaju zabrinutost i onih koji ne izražavaju zabrinutost zbog klimatskih promjena, kao i utjecaj tih razlika na njihovo sudjelovanje u aktivnostima i mjerama usmjerenima na ublažavanje klimatskih promjena, uključujući korištenje obnovljivih izvora energije. Rezultati ukazuju na pozitivnu vezu između zabrinutosti za klimatske promjene i sudjelovanja u mjerama i aktivnostima vezanim za ublažavanje klimatskih promjena. Građani općenito iskazuju nisku spremnost za aktivno sudjelovanje u mjerama zaštite okoliša i ublažavanje negativnih utjecaja na okoliš. Zabrinuti građani za stanje okoliša pokazuju veću sklonost sudjelovanju u aktivnostima i mjerama provedenim s ciljem ublažavanja klimatskih promjena, a osobito u projektima obnovljivih izvora energije, dok su nezabrinuti građani u manjoj mjeri skloni sudjelovanju u takvim aktivnostima. Nadalje, rezultati ukazuju na negativnu vezu između zabrinutosti građana za klimatske promjene i povjerenja u lokalnu i nacionalnu vlast u pogledu njihove učinkovitosti u provođenju klimatske i energetske politike. Ovi nalazi ukazuju na potrebu za povećanjem transparentnosti i jačanjem povjerenja građana u lokalne i nacionalne institucije odgovorne za provedbu okolišnih politika. Analiza socio-demografskih čimbenika je pokazala da muškarci i osobe mlađe životne dobi pokazuju veću razinu zabrinutosti zbog klimatskih promjena od žena i osoba starije životne dobi. Nasuprot tome, istraživanje ne ukazuje na postojanje statistički značajnih razlika u brizi o klimatskim promjenama kod građana obzirom na regiju u kojoj žive, stupanj obrazovanja i radni status ispitanika. Rezultati ovog istraživanja ukazuju na složenost odnosa između zabrinutosti za klimatske promjene i spremnosti za sudjelovanje u mjerama zaštite okoliša. Ključne riječi: klimatske promjene, lokalne jedinice, građani, stavovi

The paper analyses the effect of different forms of corruption on entrepreneurship in a sample of Central and Eastern European countries: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The contribution of this paper is twofold. The paper contributes to the existing literature through panel data analysis of the effect of various forms of corruption on new business density rates in the 2006-2020 period. The types of corruption included in the analysis cover judicial, legislative, executive, and public sector corruption, and political corruption index as the aggregate measure. The results show that not all corruption types have the same effect on entrepreneurship. Aggregate measure of political corruption adversely affects formal entrepreneurship. However, three particular types of corruption – public sector corruption, legislative corrupt activities and judicial corruption – have opposite effects. While public sector corruption and legislative corrupt activities harm the new business density rate, it is shown that larger judicial corruption is positively related to the number of newly registered firms.

Novac i kriminal usko su povezani. Ta poveznica može se promatrati s nekoliko važnih aspekata, sociološkog, ekonomskog, kriminološkog, ali i političkog. Ovaj rad ima za cilj rasvijetliti ekonomski i kriminološki aspekt ovih dviju kategorija te produbiti spoznaje o tome kako novac utječe na kriminal i obrnuto. Navedena rasprava može biti polazišna osnova za raspravu o ‘cijeni kriminala’ u hrvatskom društvu, koja je aktualno podcijenjena u hrvatskom akademskom prostoru. Također, ekonomski status pojedinca nezanemariva je etiološka odrednica u počinjenju određenih oblika kriminala te se ista mora izučavati holistički – ne isključivo kroz kriminološke okvire, već i kroz ekonomsku prizmu s obzirom na to da je i kvaliteta kaznene politike neodvojiva od materijalnih resursa koji se u istu alociraju. U tom će se smislu autori osvrnuti i na recentnu debatu o univerzalnom osnovnom dohotku koji potencijalno može imati važan utjecaj na prevenciju kriminala, ali i boljitak društva u cjelini. Isprepletene ekonomske i kriminološke perspektive u diskursu kriminala nisu česta pojava u hrvatskom akademskom prostoru, stoga se autori nadaju kako će predmetni rad dati poticaj multidisciplinarnom izučavanju kriminala u Republici Hrvatskoj.

U današnjem sve složenijem i međusobno povezanijem svetu, organizacije i sistemi u različitim sektorima suočavaju se sa nivoima rizika bez presedana, u rasponu od finansijske nestabilnosti do ekoloških katastrofa i pretnji po sajber bezbednost. Kako učestalost i intenzitet ovih rizika rastu, postaje ključno ne samo da se identifikuju potencijalne ranjivosti, već i da se testira i izmeri otpornost sistema suočenih sa ovim izazovima. Otpornost na rizik se odnosi na sposobnost Sistema, bilo da se radi o organizaciji, infrastrukturi ili zajednici, da predvidi, apsorbuje, prilagodi se i oporavi od ometajućih događaja dok nastavi da efikasnofunkcioniše. Predmet rada je analiza koncepta otpornosti na rizik, naglašavajući važnost testiranja okvira i metodologija za procenu robusnosti sistema u različitim scenarijima rizika. Kroz sveobuhvatno testiranje rizika, zainteresovane strane mogu bolje razumeti snage i slabosti svojih trenutnih strategija, omogućavajući im da donesu informisane odluke o upravljanju rizikom, ublažavanju i prilagođavanju. Glavni zaključak u radu je da interna revizija može u znacajnoj meri da doprinese da se poboljšaju sposobnosti organizacija za testiranje otpornosti na rizik tako što jesnije definisati dizajn i implementaciju internih procedura i internih kontrola, kao i tako sto ce da generise pravovremene i jasne rezultate testova otpornosti.

Investments in research and development (R&D) and human capital affect economic growth by influencing total factor productivity (TFP) and competitiveness (exports). The determinants of this influence were analysed on a cointegrated panel of seven large countries and separately on five medium-sized or small countries. The results show that TFP and exports per unit of R&D or per unit of human capital mainly depend on the interconnection of these two factors, but also on capital per employee, the control of inflation, the foreign trade share in GDP, oil prices, digitalisation, electrification, the concentration of development activity related to the share of military expenditures in GDP, energy efficiency and ecological protection in the national economy. In medium-sized or small countries, the influence of regulation is greater, while the effect of development activities related to military expenditures is much smaller than in the large countries.

An analysis of the Urban Development Fund's influence on sustainable urban development and the Slovenian economy reveals crucial findings. With a 100 million euro investment in sustainable urban projects, the fund can yield substantial economic impacts. Construction projects are predicted to boost demand in the contractor sector, positively affecting key economic indicators like value added, employment, and government revenue. Similarly, directing 100 million euros toward small and medium-sized enterprises is expected to generate favourable economic outcomes, including increased employment, value added, R&D investment, and government revenue. This recurring effect promises substantial long-term financial gains. The study also evaluates the fiscal aspects, recognizing that the costs of fund operations are outweighed by revenue increases. Efficient allocation to small and medium-sized enterprises enhances these benefits. In summary, the Urban Development Fund's investments hold the potential to significantly benefit sustainable urban development and the broader Slovenian economy, fostering economic growth and bolstering government revenue over time.

The aim of this article is to empirically evaluate the compliance of four different monetary policy rules in the DSGE model with empirical characteristics of a small open economy. The small open economy is represented by Croatia, while the large foreign sector is represented by the euro area without Croatia. The new Keynesian small open economy DSGE model with four monetary policy rules is calibrated. Since the essential characteristic of a small open economy is the exogeneity of foreign variables, to empirically test the effects of shocks in a small open economy, the structural vector autoregression (SVAR) model with block exogenous restrictions is estimated and euro area variables are treated as exogenous. The impulse response functions analysis points to the conclu sion that fixed exchange rate suits the best to the empirical impacts of analysed shocks in Croatia. The results of the research are important in the context of recent accession of Croatia to the euro area and the monetary policy design in small open economies.

In this paper a heuristic approach, which solely relies on risk parameter estimation, is pursued to estimate the efficient benchmark in the Croatian stock market. Optimisation method focused on risk parity is employed allowing investors to diversify risk by relying on equal risk contribu tion to achieve optimal portfolio diversification. Six different benchmarks related to risk parity method variations and covariance matrix estimations are examined in order to compare their performance with the capitalization-weighted counterpart. This allows insight regarding the po tential sources of differences in their risk-reward characteristics. Results in this study are based on 28 out-of-sample estimations in the period from April 2005 to March 2019. The findings do not show evidence of risk parity method being able to provide exposure to rewarded risk factors in the Croatian stock market. Moreover, regarding the diversification of unrewarded risks even the benchmark portfolio with the lowest reported volatility is more volatile than the CROBEX bench mark. However, if only expansion sub-period is analysed all examined benchmarks outperform the CROBEX benchmark with the factor risk parity portfolio based on two or more components reporting the lowest volatility. Overall the results show that risk parity portfolios do outperform the equally-weighted benchmark and that assuming equal correlations of portfolio constituents or applying statistical shrinkage method for their estimation yields better results than relying on the principal components analysis.

Sustainability has emerged as one of the major challenges of the 21st century, influencing the operations of governments, businesses, and other economic stakeholders. The significant effects of climate change, environmental degradation, and increasing social inequalities have led companies to alter their practices, placing greater importance on achieving sustainable development goals rather than focusing solely on financial results. The aim of this paper is to analyze sustainability reporting on the example of the Republic of Serbia. Sustainability reporting is one of the most important instruments of modern corporate governance, since it contributes to strengthening investor confidence, improving corporate transparency, and also providing support to global initiatives aimed at achieving sustainable development goals. The paper employs a mixed-methodological framework that incorporates an analysis of relevant academic literature, consideration of the regulatory frameworks of the European Union and the Republic of Serbia, as well as a review of sustainability reports published by selected companies operating in Serbia. The research results indicate that Serbia is still in the initial phase of development of sustainability reporting, but also that there is significant potential for improving practice in this area, especially through harmonization with European regulations and further development of institutional capacities.