Abstract:The paper assesses the characteristics of tax wedge, employment and unemployment rate in the EU and by using linear regression analysis with panel-corrected standard errors on the sample of twenty-seven EU Member States over 1999-2008 period analyzes whether the tax wedge affects the employment growth. The empirical estimates have shown that, with regard to employment and unemployment rate, the EU Member States can be classifi ed into two groups. The fi rst group is characterized with high tax wedge, low employment and high unemployment rate, whereas the second group has the alternative characteristics. The negative tax wedge-employment relation was confi rmed in the panel regression analysis, showing that an increase in tax wedge for one percentage point decreases the employment growth in the EU-27 by around 0.04 percentage points, ceteris paribus. The empirical estimates suggest that the EU-27 should continue with the trend of reducing tax wedge, as this would increase employment growth and employment rate and decrease unemployment, especially in Member States with high tax wedge.

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Firms are driving forces of economic and social development; therefore it is important to understand what is their primary goal or purpose. The aim of the paper is twofold. First, the paper presents baseline theoretical concepts on the firms' purposes. Secondly, the paper presents the results of the empirical study in Slovenia with which we tried to determine how firms' purposes are perceived by their managers and how they see their responsibility to owners and other stakeholders. The empirical study was based on a survey that was sent to the management of 1400 Slovenian mediumsized and big companies, of which about one third responded. The survey questionnaire was pre-tested through interviewing five top managers in five Slovenian firms with different ownership structure. On the basis of the empirical study it is possible to conclude that, on average, Slovenian firms put the interests of all stakeholders before the interests of only shareholders. So it seems that the majority of managers follow the stakeholder approach in the governance model.

The article studies the relationship between ownership structure and performance of the Slovenian join stock companies, with special focus on the comparison of performance of state-and privately-owned joint stock companies and ownership concentration. The empirical analysis employs firm-level annual financial reports data and data on ownership structure of all Slovenian join stock companies for the 2005-2017 period. Using panel regression analyses we find that Slovenian state-owned joint stock companies are less profitable than their privately-owned counterparts. In contrast, we do not observe statistically significant relationship between ownership concentration and firm performance. The empirical findings point on the need of further actions in improvement of corporate governance of state-owned firms in Slovenia.

Abstract:The paper examines the issue of fl exicurity in the EU Member States and studies the association between fl exicurity policy components (i.e. employment protection legislation, lifelong learning programs, active and passive labour market policies) and labour and total factor productivity growth in 20 EU Member States over the 1991-2008 period. The empirical analysis pointed on the existence of large differences in the level of implementation of fl exicurity policies across EU Member States, by which the least successful are NMS, especially with regard to active labour market and lifelong learning programs. As regards the relation between fl exicurity variables and productivity growth, panel regression estimates showed that active labour market policies and participation in lifelong learning programs have a statistically signifi cant positive association with labour and total factor productivity growth. On the other hand, rigid employment protection and high expenditures for passive labour market policies negatively relate to productivity growth.

The paper examines the issue of labour taxation of Croatian worker in comparison to workers in OECD and EU Member States. By using hierarchical cluster analysis it studies the relations between tax wedge and labour market outcomes, whereas with panel regression analysis, performed on data for 39 countries during 2000-2008 period, estimates the impact of tax wedge on unemployment rate. The empirical estimates show that Croatia classifies among countries with higher unemployment and lower employment rate, characterized with higher tax wedge. Furthermore, the estimates of the regression analysis showed that the tax wedge at all three wage levels (i.e. 67 %, 100 % and 167 % of average wage) has a significant positive impact on unemployment rate. This signifies that Croatia, as other studied countries, should continue with reduction of tax wedge, as this would alleviate unemployment problems and stimulate job creation.

This paper tackles the question of fiscal sustainability in current times

Abstract:In the immediate period before adoption of euro many debates in Slovenia deal with fulfillment of Maastricht criteria. Slovenia has never had any significant problems with Maastricht fiscal criteria, but this does not mean that it has long-term sustainable fiscal situation. The purpose of this analysis is analyze (non)sustainability of Slovenia's fiscal stance. The methodology is based on objective analysis of long-term public finance's stability/sustainability. The analysis shows that Slovenia exceeded several times the level of sustainability in previous years. In next period the circumstances could only worsen unless necessary fiscal reform and other policy measures (especially reform of public-debt management) are introduced.