Razvoj zdravstvenog turizma ponajviše je definiran globalnim zdravstvenim trendovima, koji osim promjena odnosa potrošača prema zdravlju, uključuju personalizaciju zdravstvenih usluga, implementaciju ...novih tehnologija i inovacija te održive medicinske prakse. Dodatno, ponuda zdravstvenog turizma se intenzivirala uslijed COVID-19 pandemije i stoga zdravstveni turizam ima veliki potencijal postati jedan od vodećih turističkih proizvoda. Sukladno navedenim razvojnim potencijalom, ali i trendovima na koje pružatelji usluga moraju odgovoriti, cilj rada je istražiti ukupnu faktorsku produktivnost lječilišta i specijalnih bolnica za medicinsku rehabilitaciju u Hrvatskoj tijekom razdoblja 2016. - 2021. Time će se utvrditi je li se u promatranom periodu promijenila produktivnost navedenih zdravstvenih ustanova, koje pružaju pretežito lječilišne usluge i na međunarodnom tržištu te koji su uzroci mogućih promjena. U tu je svrhu korištena analiza omeđivanja podataka (AOMP) i Malmquist indeks produktivnosti (MI). U promatranom je razdoblju ukupna faktorska produktivnost rasla za 1,63% godišnje kao rezultat pozitivnih tehnoloških promjena u prosjeku od 0,55%, dok je tehnička djelotvornosti porasla za 0,42%. Stoga se zaključuje kako su ustanove zdravstvenog turizma, inovacijama poboljšale usluge u skladu s navedenim trendovima, uz istodoban rast relativne tehničke djelotvornosti, koji pak ukazuje na poboljšanje djelotvornosti upravljačkih tijela u istim tim ustanovama.
The development of health tourism is primarily defined by global health trends, which, apart from changes in consumer attitudes towards health, include the health services personalization, implementation of new technologies and innovations as well as sustainable medical practices. The supply of health tourism has additionally intensified during COVID-19 pandemic, and thus health tourism has a great potential to become one of the leading tourism products. In accordance with mentioned developmet potential and trends to which the service providers must respond, the objective of the paper is to investigate the total factor productivity of natural spas and special hospitals for medical rehabilitation in Croatia during the period 2016-2021. This will determine whether the productivity for a given health facilities, which provide mostly medical services on the international market, has changed in the observed period, and what are the causes of possible changes. For this purpose, data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Malmquist productivity index (MI) were employed. In the observed period, total factor productivity was increased annualy by 7.96% as a result of positive technological changes of 0.55% on average, while technical efficiency was enlarged for 0.42%. Therefore, it is concluded that the analyzed health tourism facilities improved the provided services through innovations in line with the mentioned trends, with concurrent growth of relative technical efficiency, which in turn implies the enhancement of the management effectiveness in those same facilities.
This research explores the interconnectedness between tourism infrastructure, recreational facilities and tourism development. It analyses their importance in, and compliance with the current phase ...of tourism development in the destination (TALC). Attention has been given to the tourist board managers' perception of infrastructural management and key limitation for their involvement in the management process. Finally, the role of the private sector in the development of infrastructure and facilities in destination has been explored. The semi-structured questioner has been repeatedly sent to 312 tourist board managers in Croatia, leading Southern Mediterranean destination. The research applies qualitative and quantitative analysis. There is a significant correlation between TALC and number of arrivals, overnights, the current state of the infrastructure and facilities. Findings suggest growing demand and expectations regarding infrastructure and facilities in the examined destination can be related to a destination position in TALC. The compliance level between the stage of the tourism development and state of the infrastructure and facilities varies especially between destinations in initial and maturing phases of tourism development. The destinations position in TALC is correlated with the importance of specific types of infrastructure and facilities for a specific destination. Due to mostly financial limitations, managers are not willing to take responsibility for the development of tourism infrastructure. Their expectations regarding private sector involvement vary, considering the type of infrastructure, facilities and destinations position in TALC. Research provides supply-side perspective and new insights into the infrastructural development - TALC relation, and delivers tourist board managers attitudes toward the private sector involvement.
The population is ageing, which has many social and economic implications, and one of them is an increase in demand for institutional long-term care for the elderly. Therefore, the aim of this paper ...is to analyse the change and to detect whether there are differences between twelve selected OECD countries in the period 2014-2019 in regard to the values of total factor productivity of long-term care system for the population aged 65 and over these countries. The Malmquist – DEA performance measure, under the assumption of the variable returns to scale (BCC model) and by using the input-oriented model, has been used to obtain the patterns of productivity change. The number of long-term workers and the number of beds in residential long-term care facilities are selected as input variables, while the number of long-term care recipients has been used as an output variable. According to obtained results, the total factor productivity in selected OECD countries increased by 1.023% in the analysed period. The increase is mainly a consequence of a 1.018% increase in technical efficiency, which emphasises an increase in managerial relative efficiency. Results obtained for Turkey indicate the highest productivity increase, accompanied by both a rise in technical efficiency and in technological change. Additionally, an increase in technical change that reflects a catch-up effect and a modest increase in technological change, indicating a lack of innovation altogether, resulted in an average productivity increase of 1.02% over the analysed period.
Motivation to open a for-profit nursing home is the same as motivation to start any other business, and it seems that, due to various demographic and social changes, the interest in this sector, ...especially in developed countries, will increase in the future. In that context, this research aims to analyze the efficiency of for-profit nursing homes with a focus on Croatian for-profit nursing homes from 2015 to 2019. In order to estimate different kinds of efficiencies, precisely to estimate technological change, which can’t be estimated through windows DEA, and technical efficiency changes, the Malmquist -- DEA performance measure was chosen for this analysis. The results show that for-profit nursing homes in our sample experienced an increase in the total factor productivity by 12.67 % in the analyzed period, where the decline in technical efficiency (-0.21 %) was compensated by an increase in technological change (13.16 %). Although technological innovation shifted the relative efficient frontier to a higher level, for-profit nursing homes in our sample were far from the best production frontier, highlighting managerial inefficiency.
Purpose: The consolidation of the banking market in Croatia is characterized by a decreasing number of banks, especially small banks. The inability to remain in the market is often the result of the ...inability to maintain sustainable efficiency over time. Therefore, the main aim of the study was to determine whether small banks can successfully participate in the efficiency race with large banks. Furthermore, it was essential to clarify whether the efficiency gap arises from technical or scale efficiency. Finally, we also analyse how the COVID-19 pandemic crisis has affected efficiency and the difference between large, medium, and small banks. Design/methodology/approach: The efficiency development of the Croatian banking sector over eight years is examined using the Malmquist - DEA performance measure under the assumption of variable returns to scale (BCC model) and using the input-oriented DEA model. We use the intermediary approach for defining input and output variables, and the study covers the period from 2013 to 2020. Data are taken from ORBIS database. Findings: Banks in Croatia increased their total factor productivity by 2.2% on average, mainly due to an increase in technological change (1.93%), implying innovation and new banking services. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic crisis has further accelerated the race for efficiency. Indeed, the results show that the improvement in efficiency was more remarkable than the average of the period studied, especially in terms of technical efficiency (1% in 2020 compared to the mean of the period of 0.28%), but also due to technological efficiency (2.02% in 2020 compared to the mean of the period of 1.93%). Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic crisis affected efficiency in different ways with respect to the size of banks. Large banks improved their total factor productivity by 7.19%, small banks by 2.64%, and medium-sized banks reduced it by 1.38%. In addition, large banks achieved efficiency improvements due to technological change, while small banks focused on both technical (1.70%) and technological (0.98%) efficiency improvements. Research limitations/implications: One of the limitations of the paper was that during period some takeovers were conducted in Croatian banking sector and therefore some banks were omitted from sample. Additionally, ORBIS database does not cover some data that could be better as indicators of outputs. Therefore, future research on this topic could include other input-output variables such as assets/labor and revenue (income). Our results suggest that innovation in the delivery of banking services is critical to maintaining the race for efficiency. Therefore, our results may lead managers to focus on technological change in the long run, but especially in times of crisis. Managers of small banks should focus on both managerial and technological improvements.Originality/value: This study primarily makes an empirical contribution to the topic of efficiency in the banking sector. We have analysed the impact of the COVID -19 pandemic crisis on banking efficiency, with particular attention to the size effect, which, to our knowledge, has not yet been thoroughly studied. Future research could build on this study by taking into accountother input-output variables and sample of CEE countries.
The population is ageing, which has many social and economic implications, and one of them is an increase in demand for institutional long-term care for the elderly. Therefore, the aim of this paper ...is to analyse the change and to detect whether there are differences between twelve selected OECD countries in the period 2014-2019 in regard to the values of total factor productivity of long-term care system for the population aged 65 and over these countries. The Malmquist - DEA performance measure, under the assumption of the variable returns to scale (BCC model) and by using the input-oriented model, has been used to obtain the patterns of productivity change. The number of long-term workers and the number of beds in residential long-term care facilities are selected as input variables, while the number of long-term care recipients has been used as an output variable. According to obtained results, the total factor productivity in selected OECD countries increased by 1.023% in the analysed period. The increase is mainly a consequence of a 1.018% increase in technical efficiency, which emphasises an increase in managerial relative efficiency. Results obtained for Turkey indicate the highest productivity increase, accompanied by both a rise in technical efficiency and in technological change. Additionally, an increase in technical change that reflects a catch-up effect and a modest increase in technological change, indicating a lack of innovation altogether, resulted in an average productivity increase of 1.02% over the analysed period.
Introducing market mechanisms to the health systems of transition countries in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe (CESEE) after 1990, has not met expectations and the biggest changes are yet ...to come. The main objectives of this paper are to compare health systems' efficiency of CESEE countries and in the second stage to analyze whether the different ownership of health care providers is associated with the health system efficiency. Therefore, the relative technical efficiency of decision making units (DMUs), i.e. health system in CESEE countries, is obtained from the BCC model using data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique. The analysis of efficiency level of health systems in CESEE countries offers valuable information on possibilities for improving the efficiency. Furthermore, analyzing the impact of different ownership of health care providers on the efficiency is an important step towards improvement of the health system, on the basis of which it is possible to define the desired state as well as the way to achieve it.
Iako prevladava javno financiranje, za sustave visokog obrazovanja europskih zemalja privatno sufinanciranje postaje sve značajnije. Sagledavajući individualne i društvene koristi i troškove visokog ...obrazovanja, nositelji socijalne, obrazovne i ekonomske politike imaju zadaću odrediti optimalan omjer udjela privatnih i javnih izdataka, s ciljem poticanja ekonomskog rasta i razvoja. Pritom bi trebali raspolagati s dovoljno informacija o smjeru i intenzitetu utjecaja pojedinačnih troškova, ali i državnih potpora na broj studenata. Nedostatak navedenih informacija izražen je u zemljama Srednje i Istočne Europe, uslijed njihova prelaska na tržišnu ekonomiju. Stoga je cilj ovog istraživanja na navedenom uzorku zemalja ispitati utjecaj neto troškova studiranja na potražnju za uslugama visokog obrazovanja. Rezultati višestruke linearne regresije pokazuju kako školarine i javne potpore, kao pokazatelji neto troškova studiranja, zatim BDP po glavi stanovnika i broj diplomiranih studenata pozitivno utječu na relativan broj upisanih studenata. Prevladao je neizravan utjecaj školarina, koje na temelju učinka ponude pozitivno utječu na zavisnu varijablu.
Health care systems face pressure to increase the quality of health care at the same time with pressure to reduce public spending. The attempt to overcome the gap between needs and opportunities can ...be resolved through the introduction of public-private partnerships. Goals of this study are to investigate variation of the number, form and efficiency of private providers of general/family medicine services in primary health care and the contribution of socioeconomic and demographic environment on those variations, among counties. Socioeconomic and demographic factors are identified as independent variables that influence the health care need and utilization and consequently the decision of private entities to engage in the provision of health care services. This study extended previous studies because it has introduced socioeconomic and demographic variables. This may shed same new lights on the relationship between private providers of health service and efficiency of providing health service in primary health care. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Time series models that are commonly used in econometric modeling are autoregressive stochastic linear models (AR) and models of moving averages (MA). Mentioned models by their structure are actually ...stochastic difference equations. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to estimate difference equations containing stochastic (random) component. Estimated models of time series will be used to forecast observed data in the future. Namely, solutions of difference equations are closely related to conditions of stationary time series models. Based on the fact that volatility is time varying in high frequency data and that periods of high volatility tend to cluster, the most successful and popular models in modeling time varying volatility are GARCH type models and their variants. However, GARCH models will not be analyzed because the purpose of this research is to predict the value of the exchange rate in the levels within conditional mean equation and to determine whether the observed variable has a stable or explosive time path. Based on the estimated difference equation it will be examined whether Croatia is implementing a stable policy of exchange rates.
PDF
