The European Commission has presented a proposal for The Digital Markets Act (DMA). Its goal is to create fair and competitive digital markets in the EU. It aims to achieve this by introducing new ex ante regulations that will automatically apply to so-called "gatekeepers". The gatekeepers are to be large internet platforms that meet selected…
In a new joint publication entitled Economic Analysis of Digital Markets Act, prepared by four think tanks: INESS (Slovakia), CETA (Czech Republic), IME (Bulgaria), and LFMI (Lithuania), we point out the shortcomings of the DMA and highlight the possible unintended consequences of this regulation. In addition, we also suggest a way to modify the proposed…
Some respected economists identified the issue of consolidation in Slovakpublic budget already in 2022 as a third-order problem. From an analytical point of view, he is, of course, right. A one-year deficit of 10% of GDP is nothing compared to a permanent two to five per cent deficit in the pension system with a declining…
The Slovak Minister of Finance claims a tax and contribution burden on self-employed people should be increased in order to be “fair“ in comparison to employees. Why can’t we put a sign of equality between these two statuses? Why doesn’t the term “fair“ make sense? A remuneration of a self-employed person has two economic components…
A few days ago, there was this movie on TV, in which a hero gains superpowers by unlocking the hidden potential of his brain. You know, it’s like “a human uses only XY percent of their nerve cells“, and a right injection or a pill can wake up the rest. I understand that the hero-individual,…
Polystyrene, wood, reinforcement steel, and other materials have not only become expensive, but their lack in warehouses indicates that the increase of prices will continue. It is similar with notebooks, bicycles, or maize. Container transport prices have quadrupled since last autumn. The DJ Commodity Index has increased by 86 % over the last year which…
In Slovakia, we have a long-term problem with adult education. On average, only 4.5% of adults are involved in the lifelong learning process, while the OECD average is around 11%. How to solve this problem? For the last decade, we have been trying to solve this problem in Slovakia by means of the EU funds.…
Over the last 15 years, income inequality has increased by 14 % in both Denmark and Sweden. I assume you haven't read or seen this information anywhere. Much more popular are articles on income inequality in "bad" countries, such as the United States or the United Kingdom. Likewise, you might not have noticed the information…
When you ask a good economist to name the most precious capital, their answer will be “human capital”. Large oil field, steel production capacity, or a number of tractors produced do not make the company rich. The company grows rich thanks to skilled people in the right place, their excellent skills and ability to adapt to…
Governments around the world reacted to the pandemic situation in similar fashion. Costly economic stimulus packages popped out, undermining the role of decentralized reaction from the bottom and strengthening state’s role in economy. European Union introduced the EUR 750 billion worth Next Generation EU package. Next Generation EU and its crucial part, Recovery and Resilience…
One of the basic economic lessons is that the first slice of bread will bring you the highest utility. Definitely, you will be better off than with the second slice, or the third which is rather more likely to bring costs. The law of diminishing marginal utility applies generally to all human action, including the…
The Slovak society has recently experienced number of front-page stories about patients who were refused payment for innovative, highly expensive drugs by health insurance companies. The stories which attracted a lot of emotions and stirred the public are vanguard of much bigger future troubles in public healthcare. Scientific progress has been offering new drugs which are…
