The aim of this paper is to explore financing of the social welfare homes for the elderly and infirm in Croatia. Apart from the legislative framework, the state expenditures for 1) operation of homes ...founded by the Republic of Croatia, 2) operation of decentralised homes (homes for which the founding rights were passed by the Republic of Croatia to the regional self-government units, i.e. the City of Zagreb and 3) homes users who are not able to pay for their accommodation, even with the help of their families or selling their own real property. The paper shows that the state expenditure for homes in 2014 amounted to almost 250 million HRK, with most of the expenditure covered the losses incurred by decentralised homes. The price of accommodation in these homes is below the market price, which results in demand that surpasses the supply by far. Apart from the price, the accommodation criteria which are currently unclear and uneven should be reconsidered. It is of crucial importance that those who do not have another solution get accommodation in state-owned homes, to reduce the waiting lists, and that the state participates in the payment of the price only for the most financially disadvantaged. The priority in financing homes should be an adjustment of revenue and expenditure on the annual level, in order to make the system long-term fiscally sustainable.
Apart from influencing the quality of life, occupational injuries and illnesses can pose a large economic burden to a society. There are many studies that estimate the costs of occupational injuries ...and illnesses in highly developed economies, but the evidence for other countries is scarce. This study aimed to estimate the financial costs of occupational injuries and illnesses to Croatian government and employers in 2015. Workers were excluded due to the lack of data. Costs were estimated by analysing available data sources on occupational health and safety. Financial costs were grouped in several categories: medical costs, productivity losses, disability pensions, compensation for physical impairment, administrative costs, and legal costs. Unlike in other studies, the costs of compliance with occupational safety and health regulations were also investigated. In 2015, financial costs to employers were twice higher than costs to the government (HRK 604.6 m vs HRK 297 m). Employers additionally covered around HRK 300 m of compliance costs. Taking into account that financial costs of occupational injuries and illnesses are significant, even without including the costs to workers, policy makers should put additional efforts into their prevention. A prerequisite is transparency in Croatian Health Insurance Fund’s expenditures, as well as more detailed data on lost days from work by industries, causes of injury etc. Organisations in charge of occupational health and safety and policy makers should observe relevant statistics in monetary terms too.
Due to the government's modest role in taking care of aging adults, as well as a rapidly aging demographic and a high share of home ownership, Croatia is an interesting case for private long-term ...care (LTC) financing. This study uses a qualitative survey through interviews (N = 21) with specialists from the financial industry to examine the prospects for developing LTC insurance (LTCI) and reverse mortgages. The most important obstacles to developing reverse mortgages and LTCI are an emotional attachment to real estate and strong family ties. However, inadequately regulated and nontransparent housing and LTC markets, the weak rule of law, poor financial literacy, low trust in financial institutions, and the perception of government as the savior of last resort pose additional challenges. Combined insurance products with clearly defined benefits are the products showing the most market potential.
This paper provides a review of empirical research on the link between financial intermediation by banks and economic growth. Special attention is paid to the issues of causality, non-linearity, time ...perspective, financial intermediation proxies, and interaction terms. The review shows that there are still quite a few unresolved issues in empirical research, which causes scepticism towards prioritizing financial sector policies in order to cause economic growth. Progress in the finance and growth literature is slow and researchers seem to go round in circles. A possibly fruitful direction for future empirical research is the relationship between government and banks, especially from the standpoint of political economy.
The goal of this paper is to investigate why Croatia has a large number of disability pension beneficiaries. Approximately one quarter of Croatia's retired population is receiving a pension based on ...disability. After a presentation of the most important facts and figures, the following possible determinants of disability pensions in Croatia are considered: health status, conditions of work, socioeconomic status, war, and institutions. Simple before-after comparisons suggest that institutional reforms had a strong impact on the number of disability pension beneficiaries. Furthermore, the granting of disability pensions has been plagued by corruption, which shows the importance of informal institutions as well. Future research should focus on microdata in order to find specific social and health care policy measures to alleviate the effect of socioeconomic and health factors on the incidence of disability.
In this paper, we use the SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) Wave 6 dataset to look into the socio-demographic, health, well-being, financial and work-related predictors of ...intended early retirement in Croatia. We estimate logit regression models. Based on our research, early retirement seems to be more appealing to people who work in the private sector, who have poor quality of life, who are less educated, or report poor health status. Amending the pension system in terms of making early retirement a less attractive choice is not enough. Many Croatian employees would be ready to work longer if they had better jobs, education, and health. These are the policy areas where Croatia needs large improvements.
Cilj je ovoga rada pokazati moguće učinke političke korupcije na javne investicije, s posebnim osvrtom na Hrvatsku. Na početku rada promatra se korelaciju izmeðu javnih investicija i korupcije u ...zemljama Europske unije. Potom se prelazi na slučaj Hrvatske, pri čemu se razmatra kvaliteta infrastrukture, veličina kapitalnih javnih rashoda, nepravilnosti u javnoj nabavi, uloga države u sektoru graðevinarstva i učinci političke korupcije na javne kapitalne projekte. Rad pokazuje da zemlje s visokim javnim investicijama imaju i veću (političku) korupciju. Unatoč visokom udjelu javnih kapitalnih rashoda u BDP-u, Hrvatska ima infrastrukturu koja je u lošem stanju. Sudeći po veličini i strukturi javnih investicija te slabim mehanizmima kontrole, u Hrvatskoj na području javnih kapitalnih projekata postoji dosta prilika za političku korupciju, za koje postoje jake indicije da se i iskorištavaju. Umjesto u nove, vrlo vidljive, projekte, nositelji vlasti trebali bi usmjeriti više pozornosti i novca u održavanje i poboljšanje postojeće infrastrukture, jer u Hrvatskoj milijarde kuna metaforički i doslovno otječu. Fokusiranje na suzbijanje političke korupcije imalo bi znatne učinke na racionalizaciju proračunskih rashoda i na ekonomski rast.
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