{"title":"Book review: Financing of Organised Crime / Michael Levi, Ognian Shentov and Boyko Todorov (eds.)","authors":"P. Bejaković","doi":"10.3326/FINTP.39.3.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3326/FINTP.39.3.5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":30016,"journal":{"name":"Financial Theory and Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76664473","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The development level assessment and categorization of Croatian local and regional units is based on the value of the development index which is the main instrument of Croatian regional policy. The development index is a composite indicator calculated as a weighted average of five socio-economic indicators. The goal of this paper is to analyze the uncertainty and sensitivity of the development index that arise from the procedures and indicators used in its construction. This analysis is then used to propose useful guidelines for future impovements. The methodology of the Croatian regional development index has been critically reviewed, revealing problems of multicollinearity and the existence of outliers. An empirical and relatively more objective multivariate approach for weight selection has been proposed. The uncertainty and sensitivity analysis were conducted using Monte Carlo simulations and variance-based techniques. Instead of a unique point estimate for the development level of territorial units an alternative confidence interval approach was considered.
{"title":"Development index: analysis of the basic instrument of Croatian regional policy","authors":"Ana Perišić, Vanja Wagner","doi":"10.3326/FINTP.39.2.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3326/FINTP.39.2.4","url":null,"abstract":"The development level assessment and categorization of Croatian local and regional units is based on the value of the development index which is the main instrument of Croatian regional policy. The development index is a composite indicator calculated as a weighted average of five socio-economic indicators. The goal of this paper is to analyze the uncertainty and sensitivity of the development index that arise from the procedures and indicators used in its construction. This analysis is then used to propose useful guidelines for future impovements. The methodology of the Croatian regional development index has been critically reviewed, revealing problems of multicollinearity and the existence of outliers. An empirical and relatively more objective multivariate approach for weight selection has been proposed. The uncertainty and sensitivity analysis were conducted using Monte Carlo simulations and variance-based techniques. Instead of a unique point estimate for the development level of territorial units an alternative confidence interval approach was considered.","PeriodicalId":30016,"journal":{"name":"Financial Theory and Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90269670","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 2011, in the aftermath of the economic crisis, Poland increased its value added tax rates. Despite an already large VAT policy gap, further rate differentiation was used to address distributional concerns and to protect the most vulnerable households. We find that the changes to the VAT rate structure hardly improved the overall progressivity of the VAT and the tax system as a whole. While providing only minimal relief to the poor, taxation of food products at a super reduced rate greatly subsidized the richer households. With a small change to the income tax structure, the government could have secured more progressivity at a lower cost in terms of revenue foregone.
{"title":"In pursuit of tax equity: lessons from VAT rate structure adjustment in Poland","authors":"Artur Świstak, S. Wawrzak, A. Alińska","doi":"10.3326/FINTP.39.2.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3326/FINTP.39.2.1","url":null,"abstract":"In 2011, in the aftermath of the economic crisis, Poland increased its value added tax rates. Despite an already large VAT policy gap, further rate differentiation was used to address distributional concerns and to protect the most vulnerable households. We find that the changes to the VAT rate structure hardly improved the overall progressivity of the VAT and the tax system as a whole. While providing only minimal relief to the poor, taxation of food products at a super reduced rate greatly subsidized the richer households. With a small change to the income tax structure, the government could have secured more progressivity at a lower cost in terms of revenue foregone.","PeriodicalId":30016,"journal":{"name":"Financial Theory and Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78792402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The interdependence between the regulatory capital ratio and macroeconomic indicators, with reference to the phenomena cyclicality and pro-cyclicality is a widely emphasized disadvantage of the capital adequacy concept. Redesign of the aforementioned concept towards the countercyclical capital requirements is a kind of recognition of the creators of the Basel standards of the previous oversights in its development. This paper aims to explore empirically the direction, intensity and significance of endogenous and exogenous determinants of the changes in banks’ capital buffers by taking into consideration both the impact of the macroeconomic properties and the bank-specific characteristics of South-Eastern Europe. More than 80 commercial banks in the period from 2000-2010 have been encompassed by the research. Use of a dynamic panel analysis led to the conclusion that the bank capital buffers decreased during the observed period, with the exception of certain years during the economic expansion, which confirms the appropriateness of regulatory requirements considering the countercyclical capital buffers. Nevertheless, it might be that capital building and spending in the future will not follow the pattern from the last decade due to the specificities of the observed period, as well as the banking sector ownership transformations, economic and credit growth as well as asset prices growth in the post-transitional period, and finally, the real crisis which spilled over onto the financial sectors.
{"title":"Cyclicality of bank capital buffers in South-Eastern Europe: endogenous and exogenous aspects","authors":"A. Novokmet","doi":"10.3326/FINTP.39.2.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3326/FINTP.39.2.2","url":null,"abstract":"The interdependence between the regulatory capital ratio and macroeconomic indicators, with reference to the phenomena cyclicality and pro-cyclicality is a widely emphasized disadvantage of the capital adequacy concept. Redesign of the aforementioned concept towards the countercyclical capital requirements is a kind of recognition of the creators of the Basel standards of the previous oversights in its development. This paper aims to explore empirically the direction, intensity and significance of endogenous and exogenous determinants of the changes in banks’ capital buffers by taking into consideration both the impact of the macroeconomic properties and the bank-specific characteristics of South-Eastern Europe. More than 80 commercial banks in the period from 2000-2010 have been encompassed by the research. Use of a dynamic panel analysis led to the conclusion that the bank capital buffers decreased during the observed period, with the exception of certain years during the economic expansion, which confirms the appropriateness of regulatory requirements considering the countercyclical capital buffers. Nevertheless, it might be that capital building and spending in the future will not follow the pattern from the last decade due to the specificities of the observed period, as well as the banking sector ownership transformations, economic and credit growth as well as asset prices growth in the post-transitional period, and finally, the real crisis which spilled over onto the financial sectors.","PeriodicalId":30016,"journal":{"name":"Financial Theory and Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78863414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The main objective of this paper is to construct high-frequency composite indicators of financial stress for Croatia that will enable the monitoring of the total level of financial stress and its components on the domestic financial market. Emphasis is put on the choice of variables appropriate for small, open, highly euroized economies characterised by bank-centric financial systems dominantly owned by foreign banks, shallow financial markets and dependence on foreign capital.
{"title":"Financial stress indicators for small, open, highly euroized countries: the case of Croatia","authors":"Mirna Dumičić","doi":"10.3326/FINTP.39.2.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3326/FINTP.39.2.3","url":null,"abstract":"The main objective of this paper is to construct high-frequency composite indicators of financial stress for Croatia that will enable the monitoring of the total level of financial stress and its components on the domestic financial market. Emphasis is put on the choice of variables appropriate for small, open, highly euroized economies characterised by bank-centric financial systems dominantly owned by foreign banks, shallow financial markets and dependence on foreign capital.","PeriodicalId":30016,"journal":{"name":"Financial Theory and Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77721735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: O zdravstvu iz ekonomske perspektive / Maja Vehovec (ed.)","authors":"Anto Bajo","doi":"10.3326/FINTP.39.2.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3326/FINTP.39.2.5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":30016,"journal":{"name":"Financial Theory and Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82647915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Research on bank financial intermediation in a country's narrower territorial units is scarce, in both domestic and international literature. Banks are almost the only financial intermediaries in narrower territorial units and their role is substantial, ranging from participating in regional development to the successful running of their own business. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to examine the characteristics of the financial intermediation of banks in the counties of the Republic of Croatia, both through a comparison between their economic development levels and the general presence of financial intermediation, and a more specific analysis of their deposit and credit policies. The article uses hierarchical and non-hierarchical (k-means) cluster analyses to identify relatively homogeneous groups of counties based on sets of indicators of: economic environment, financial development and infrastructure and, at a more detailed level, the deposit and credit policies of banks. The research results suggest heterogeneity and diversity of bank policies across the counties and sets of indicators. Differences have been observed between developed and developing counties, as well as in approaches to banks' deposit and credit policies. The paper's findings encourage further research into these issues.
{"title":"Characteristics of bank financial intermediation in Croatian counties","authors":"Jakša Krišto, I. Mandac","doi":"10.3326/FINTP.39.1.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3326/FINTP.39.1.3","url":null,"abstract":"Research on bank financial intermediation in a country's narrower territorial units is scarce, in both domestic and international literature. Banks are almost the only financial intermediaries in narrower territorial units and their role is substantial, ranging from participating in regional development to the successful running of their own business. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to examine the characteristics of the financial intermediation of banks in the counties of the Republic of Croatia, both through a comparison between their economic development levels and the general presence of financial intermediation, and a more specific analysis of their deposit and credit policies. The article uses hierarchical and non-hierarchical (k-means) cluster analyses to identify relatively homogeneous groups of counties based on sets of indicators of: economic environment, financial development and infrastructure and, at a more detailed level, the deposit and credit policies of banks. The research results suggest heterogeneity and diversity of bank policies across the counties and sets of indicators. Differences have been observed between developed and developing counties, as well as in approaches to banks' deposit and credit policies. The paper's findings encourage further research into these issues.","PeriodicalId":30016,"journal":{"name":"Financial Theory and Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91155120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Since the country’s independence, the Croatian tax system has undergone numer- ous tax changes, but it was with the tax reform enacted in 1994 that its foundations were laid. Marking its 20th anniversary in 2014, the Institute of Public Finance, the Faculty of Economics and Business Zagreb and Faculty of Economics Rijeka jointly organized a conference to discuss and understand the economic implica- tions of tax reforms from different standpoints. The book entitled Tax Reforms: Experiences and Perspectives, edited by Helena Blažic, Katarina Ott and Hrvoje Simovic, is a collection of sixteen papers presented at the aforementioned confer- ence held in Zagreb on June 20th, 2014. Beside the papers, the book contains a foreword written by the editors, the conference program, information about the organizers and a list of donors, making a total of 293 pages.
{"title":"Tax Reforms: Experiences and Perspectives","authors":"Ana Grdović Gnip","doi":"10.3326/fintp.39.1.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3326/fintp.39.1.5","url":null,"abstract":"Since the country’s independence, the Croatian tax system has undergone numer- ous tax changes, but it was with the tax reform enacted in 1994 that its foundations were laid. Marking its 20th anniversary in 2014, the Institute of Public Finance, the Faculty of Economics and Business Zagreb and Faculty of Economics Rijeka jointly organized a conference to discuss and understand the economic implica- tions of tax reforms from different standpoints. The book entitled Tax Reforms: Experiences and Perspectives, edited by Helena Blažic, Katarina Ott and Hrvoje Simovic, is a collection of sixteen papers presented at the aforementioned confer- ence held in Zagreb on June 20th, 2014. Beside the papers, the book contains a foreword written by the editors, the conference program, information about the organizers and a list of donors, making a total of 293 pages.","PeriodicalId":30016,"journal":{"name":"Financial Theory and Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77730552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper contributes to the literature by using propensity score matching to test for causal effects of starting to export on firm performance in Croatian manufacturing firm-level data. The results confirm that exporters have characteristics superior to those of non-exporters. In the main sample specification there is pervasive evidence of self-selection into export markets, meaning that firms are successful years before they become exporters. Using multiple firm performance indicators, panel and cross section data models together with various sample specifications there is scant evidence on learning-by-exporting which holds true only in a few cases. On the other hand, higher sales growth is found to be a more conclusive distinguishing characteristic of new exporters. As in similar studies, we find that a part of the results depends on the number of export starters in the estimation sample.
{"title":"The direction of causality between exports and firm performance: microeconomic evidence from Croatia using the matching approach","authors":"Miljana Valdec, Jurica Zrnc","doi":"10.3326/FINTP.39.1.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3326/FINTP.39.1.1","url":null,"abstract":"This paper contributes to the literature by using propensity score matching to test for causal effects of starting to export on firm performance in Croatian manufacturing firm-level data. The results confirm that exporters have characteristics superior to those of non-exporters. In the main sample specification there is pervasive evidence of self-selection into export markets, meaning that firms are successful years before they become exporters. Using multiple firm performance indicators, panel and cross section data models together with various sample specifications there is scant evidence on learning-by-exporting which holds true only in a few cases. On the other hand, higher sales growth is found to be a more conclusive distinguishing characteristic of new exporters. As in similar studies, we find that a part of the results depends on the number of export starters in the estimation sample.","PeriodicalId":30016,"journal":{"name":"Financial Theory and Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74617538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article we analyze the expected risk of pension funds with different risk profiles in the proxy life-cycle model of investments for the 2nd pillar pension scheme in Croatia. The benefits of implementing proxy life-cycle investments, compared to the previous model of mandatory pension funds investments, are clearly visible in the total expected amount of accumulated savings from the risk/return perspective. However, those benefits are partially diminished by the fact that the expected risk of a pension fund with the lowest risk profile is not substantially different from the expected risk of a pension fund with a medium risk profile, due to the lack of diversification. Additionally, we analyze the robustness of the proxy life-cycle model to a sudden and severe market shock, where we determine the presence of risk for those members who choose to switch to a pension fund with a lower risk profile at an unfavorable moment.
{"title":"Risk analysis of the proxy life-cycle investments in the second pillar pension scheme in Croatia","authors":"Ena Kovačević, Mladen Latković","doi":"10.3326/FINTP.39.1.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3326/FINTP.39.1.2","url":null,"abstract":"In this article we analyze the expected risk of pension funds with different risk profiles in the proxy life-cycle model of investments for the 2nd pillar pension scheme in Croatia. The benefits of implementing proxy life-cycle investments, compared to the previous model of mandatory pension funds investments, are clearly visible in the total expected amount of accumulated savings from the risk/return perspective. However, those benefits are partially diminished by the fact that the expected risk of a pension fund with the lowest risk profile is not substantially different from the expected risk of a pension fund with a medium risk profile, due to the lack of diversification. Additionally, we analyze the robustness of the proxy life-cycle model to a sudden and severe market shock, where we determine the presence of risk for those members who choose to switch to a pension fund with a lower risk profile at an unfavorable moment.","PeriodicalId":30016,"journal":{"name":"Financial Theory and Practice","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85136479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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