The pandemic period has not been kind to some patients’ relationship with health professionals. A period of information uncertainty, spawning hoaxes. The patient with his own opinion and his own information falls under a crooked gaze. However, ignoring or even ridiculing “patients with an opinion” is not a sustainable or effective strategy. Patients with a…
After two pandemic years, we have once again managed to prepare, in cooperation with foreign partners, an in-person international round of the Economics Olympiad. The event was organised by the Czech Institute of Economic Education (INEV), in cooperation with the Hungarian Economic Association and with support from the Visegrad Fund. On 6 - 9 September,…
When people say “innovative improvement”, they immediately think of cars that don’t need to be driven; medicines that cure an incurable disease or vegetables that taste like meat. But an important innovation can also be a relatively unremarkable thing, such as shortening time. For example, to get from point A to point B, or to…
The current social package worth more than a billion euro has definitively confirmed that Slovak government is going kamikaze in the area of public finances. After all, the money is “lying on the pavement” (even though we already have the highest corporate tax rate in all of Eastern Europe), so what’s the problem? Even before…
In Slovakia, we have a problem with the drain of the brightest young people to foreign universities. If we want to solve this problem, we need to know the causes. And we can only know these if we understand how higher education works and what its real added value is. The traditional perception is that…
I dare to write that the health financing situation is becoming increasingly muddled. With all three health insurance companies (allegedly) starting to cut their losses, the problem of financing Slovak healthcare has moved up a notch. Of course, it is too early to be scared, but from a systemic point of view, any future financial…
History repeats itself. Unfortunately, 2022 is no exception. The pandemic and the ensuing war have raised fears about food sufficiency, which politicians around the world have turned into old-fashioned solutions. What people do not like to hear is that many measures not only do not address food security but may make it even worse. Protectionism,…
The pandemic, war and heavily criticized graduation exams have not deterred young people interested in economics from taking part in this year's Economics Olympiad. Interest in economic topics grows every year, which was evident in the fifth year of the Olympiad, which attracted a record number of students from all over Slovakia. The fifth year…
Last July, the European Commission presented a proposal for a directive aimed at reforming the taxation of energy products and electricity. This proposal is part of the European Union’s (EU) efforts to reduce emissions and air pollution. In its official position, the EU argues that the current taxation set-up favors the use of fossil fuels and that…
Teachers’ salaries are a topic every year. This time, however, it is different. In addition to internal arguments about the state of education, external developments – inflation and the public deficit – also play an important role. We describe how to approach teachers’ pay rises in this context in the new INESS publication, Teachers’ Pay…
The demographic shift, i.e., the transition of the baby boomers to retirement age, is one of the biggest challenges of the future for Europe. There will be a huge shortage of doctors, nurses, carers and many other professions. Three weeks ago, however, an unexpected historical event occurred. The Russian invasion has already driven over two…
In Slovakia, the risks that private schools can pose to poor children are being debated. In particular, one such critic of private schools from Centre for Educational Analysis writes that “however, several studies show that instead of improving the quality of all schools, the unregulated establishment of private schools can deepen educational inequalities”. In this commentary,…
