No abstract

The goal of this paper is to determine if there is product market integration in the euro area (EA). The paper employs LM and RALS-LM unit root tests with two breaks on the relative price series, constructed using the seasonally adjusted monthly Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), from 1996:01 to 2017:05. The analysis shows EA-accession related breaks in price series for most of the EA11 countries, but, apart from Malta, no such breaks for the later-EA-joiners. However, there are breaks in both EA and non-EA countries at the time of EA formation. There is also evidence of greater product market integration and less adverse effects after negative shocks in the EA12. However, unit root analysis points to a conclusion that EA membership is not a sufficient condition for product market integration and integration is not necessarily related to being an EA member.

The positive relationship between product market efficiency (PME) and productivity has been established in the existing literature. An important component of productivity is the PME, which is significantly affected by the quality of institutions. Weaker quality of institutions, higher levels of corruption and lower efficiency of product markets have been confirmed in countries that share similar characteristics with Croatia. The results show a positive relationship between the quality of institutions and PME while the link between corruption control and PME is negative. Exports and taxes were also significantly correlated with PME. The text additionally comments on the direction of this connection. The link between PME, institutional quality and corruption is particularly commented on in the context of Croatia and Slovenia as these are two areas that share a common past of approximately 500 years. To improve the PME, a prerequisite for greater productivity and consequently economic growth, it is necessary to change the institutional framework.

This paper examines the success of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in inducing cleaner production in the EU based on the fi rst two trading periods. It fi lls a literature gap by constructing a measure of clean production and conducting an ex-post macro-level analysis of the EU ETS impacts in EU15 compared to EU12. Results of panel regression analysis robustly show that EU ETS in both EU12 and EU15 (i) has positive impact on clean production of regulated industries, (ii) does not induce spillovers of cleaner technologies and processes to non-regulated industries, and (iii) does not affect clean production at the national level. In addition, share of renewables in energy consumption has a positive and crisis a negative impact on the clean production. Results support further tightening and broader coverage of EU ETS regulation and provision of funds from the EU ETS for development of renewable energy technologies.

Nezaposlenost kao jedan od važnih ekonomskih problema zaokuplja pažnju brojnih istraživača, posebice od globalne financijske krize koja je uzrokovala visoke i trajne stope nezaposlenosti u Europskoj uniji (EU). Cilj ovoga rada je utvrditi značajne makroekonomske odrednice nezaposlenosti u EU. U tu svrhu u radu je provedena dinamička panel analiza za svih 28 članica EU u razdoblju od 1995. do 2016. godine. Sveobuhvatnošću provedene analize utemeljene na ekonomskoj teoriji, koja uključuje svih 28 zemalja članica EU kroz do sada najduži promatrani period promatranja, ispitivanje homogenosti odrednica unutar EU te odrednice nezaposlenosti mladih, ovim radom se doprinosi postojećoj literaturi. Analizom je potvrđena značajnost jaza proizvodnje, investicija, realne dugoročne kamatne stope, inflacije i nezaposlenosti u prethodnom razdoblju kao odrednica nezaposlenosti u čitavoj EU, pri čemu su samo realna kamatna stopa i nezaposlenost iz prethodnog razdoblja robusne u svim modelima. Odrednice nezaposlenosti u starim i novim zemljama članicama pokazale su se relativno homogenima. Stopa rasta proizvodnje ima značajan negativan učinak samo na nezaposlenost mladih. Veza jaza nezaposlenosti i jaza proizvodnje dodatno je istražena statičkom panel analizom te se zaključuje kako je Okunov zakon u EU valjan, odnosno postoji negativna veza između jaza nezaposlenosti i jaza proizvodnje.

The goal of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of the environmental taxes and emissions trading in achieving cleaner production, that is, higher production per unit of emissions in the European Union (EU). The hypothesis of the paper is that the combined use of taxes and emission permits yields synergistic benefits in addition to their individual contributions. The paper uses panel analysis on the EU27 data from 2005 to 2012. The analysis does not robustly find positive effects from the interaction of these policy instruments, but it confirms that there are no negative ones. Additional interesting results are that, on average, (i) the effects of both instruments on production cleanliness are more beneficial at the regulated industries than at the national level, (ii) emissions trading is more effective than taxes, (iii) both instruments are more effective in the EU15 than in the EU12, and (iv) crisis did not significantly affect production cleanliness in the EU.

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the impact of zombie companies on the performance of healthy companies, economies, and economic sentiment (ESI) in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe between 2008 and 2016. Zombie companies are companies whose sustainability is uncertain and whose competitiveness is very limited, and such companies can potentially transfer losses to the companies they are associated with. In this paper, they are defined as companies with negative return on assets, negative net investments and interest rates coverage below 1.5. The results of the panel model with fixed effects show that the market congestion by zombie companies has a negative effect on productivity and profit per employee, a positive impact on investments and no impact on employment growth of healthy companies. Dynamic panel model results suggest that market congestion by zombie companies does not have a significant impact on the GDP of selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe while there is a positive relation with ESI. By analyzing the zombie companies issue in the Central and Eastern Europe countries, and their impact on ESI in general this paper contributes to the existing body of literature.

The goal of this paper is to determine the impact of transition on the total factor productivity (TFP) Zb. rad. Ekon. fak. Rij. • 2016 • vol. 34 • no. 2 • 271-308