How hard does the tax bite hurt? Croatian vs. European worker

The main objective of this paper is to analyse the tax burden in Croatia and to find out whether and how the size and the structure of total labour costs affect the functioning of the labour market. The tax wedge, together with employment and unemployment rates, is brought into play to classify EU countries and Croatia into clusters using K-means and hierarchical clustering. The results show that Croatia is classified among countries with a high tax wedge and a high unemployment rate. The same holds when, instead of the tax wedge, personal average tax rate is considered. However, in Croatia most of the tax burden is borne by the employees, not by the employers. Thus, the average Croatian industry worker bears a relatively high tax burden, which is exacerbated when the newly introduced “crisis tax” and increased VAT are taken into account.tax burden, tax wedge, (un)employment, cluster analysis, Croatia, EU

FutureFarm vision

This paper defines the first version of a vision of Future Farming project and also a knowledge management system used by European farms which will be designed and developed by the Future Farm project. An important part of the vision is a definition of external drivers and their influence on farm business in future. Paper is looking on a situation in three periods: short (2013), middle (2020) and long-term (2030). Our vision expects that the farming system will continuously converge to the situation of two types of farm: an industrial farm, which will guarantee both the food safety and the food security for European citizens, and multifunctional farms focused on environment protection. The recommendation proposes an architecture based on communication of interoperable services, so called Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), for easy integration of different levels and components of farm management.Farming, external drivers, future vision, knowledge management, SOA, Farm Management,

Vision Statements and Road-Map Methodology for Knowledge Management Adoption

The present paper describes the strategy of introducing future knowledge management system at farms. The FUTUREFARM and PREZEM projects strive to apply new knowledge management methods in arable farming where they guarantee an easy adaptation of the farming sector to the everchanging conditions in short, middle and long-term perspective. The knowledge management methods have to be put into practice on strategic, tactic and operational planning levels. Based on the project analysis and workshops with farmers, the paper brings an outline of the main goals and obstacles for new knowledge management methods adoption and furthermore defines the target groups and relevant methods of dealing with them.Knowledge management, adaptation, arable farming, Farm Management, GA, IN,

Prefarm Systems and economical analysis of practical experiences

The system of Precision farming guarantees a detail monitoring of data and information necessary for a successful decision in a crop production. The system is designed for a data collection from several sources. The data are collected by a service company and also directly by farmers. The paper also analyses the economical efficiency on the base of Medlov Farm. Next development is currently running under projects Prezem and AgriSensor.GPS, GIS, precision farming, economical analysis, monitoring, Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

How hard does the tax bite hurt? Croatian vs. European worker

The main objective of this paper is to analyse the tax burden in Croatia and to find out whether and how the size and the structure of total labour costs affect the functioning of the labour market. The tax wedge, together with employment and unemployment rates, is brought into play to classify EU countries and Croatia into clusters using K-means and hierarchical clustering. The results show that Croatia is classified among countries with a high tax wedge and a high unemployment rate. The same holds when, instead of the tax wedge, personal average tax rate is considered. However, in Croatia most of the tax burden is borne by the employees, not by the employers. Thus, the average Croatian industry worker bears a relatively high tax burden, which is exacerbated when the newly introduced “crisis tax” and increased VAT are taken into account

Twitter as a formal and informal language learning tool: from potential to evidence

Twitter can be used as a language learning tool and this potential has been identified by a number of scholars. This chapter presents an overview of the identified potential of Twitter as a language learning tool and presents an overview of different studies carried out to provide evidence of language learning using Twitter in different contexts. It concludes that, although there is evidence of language acquisition in formal contexts, more research is needed to inform how Twitter is used in informal settings

Empirical assessment of stabilization effects of fiscal policy in Croatia

The aim of this paper is to assess the stabilization effects of fiscal policy in Croatia in a structural vector autoregression framework as proposed by Blanchard and Perotti (2002). Empirical studies of fiscal policy effects show that results are contradictory and do not unanimously agree, except for one fact: a positive government spending shock has a positive effect on output. This study inspects the effects of government spending and tax shocks on a set of macroeconomic variables (output, prices, interest rates, private consumption, private investment, employment and wages). Results prove that the fiscal transmission mechanism in Croatia works mainly in a Keynesian manner. Output reacts negatively to a tax shock and positively to government spending shock. The output multiplier is above 2 at impact and the effect is significant throught the whole time span. The negative effect of the tax shock is mostly driven by indirect (not direct) taxes, while the positive effect of a government spending shock is influenced by government consumption and government investment, but the effect of the latter is more significant when private consumption and private investment responses are observed

Book review: Tax Reforms: Experiences and Perspectives

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Empirical assessment of stabilization effects of fiscal policy in Croatia

The aim of this paper is to assess the stabilization effects of fiscal policy in Croatia in a structural vector autoregression framework as proposed by Blanchard and Perotti (2002). Empirical studies of fiscal policy effects show that results are contradictory and do not unanimously agree, except for one fact: a positive government spending shock has a positive effect on output. This study inspects the effects of government spending and tax shocks on a set of macroeconomic variables (output, prices, interest rates, private consumption, private investment, employment and wages). Results prove that the fiscal transmission mechanism in Croatia works mainly in a Keynesian manner. Output reacts negatively to a tax shock and positively to government spending shock. The output multiplier is above 2 at impact and the effect is significant throught the whole time span. The negative effect of the tax shock is mostly driven by indirect (not direct) taxes, while the positive effect of a government spending shock is influenced by government consumption and government investment, but the effect of the latter is more significant when private consumption and private investment responses are observed