In Slovakia, non-monetary transfers are often forgotten due to the contributions system – this is set up so that only self-employed know, with exaggeration, how expensive it is. Most employees have no idea that the employer pays an additional 35% to their gross wage. Therefore, they do not realize the value received when the state pays…
Which healthcare system in Europe provides the best value for money? Rankings of healthcare systems are rare, and those which would rate value for money for a long time have been non-existent. Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS) created a brand new index called Health for Money, which rates healthcare in 26 countries, taking money…
Crumbled and scattered parcels, inaccessible fields, frauds with farming subsidies, and problems with floods and droughts – this is the reality of Slovak agriculture. Extreme fragmentation makes it impossible to use land efficiently. Chaos in the relationships between owners and tenants complicates the work of municipalities, farmers, and government agencies. On average, one parcel of…
The Economics Olympiad was launched in 2017 with a participation of 4,000 high school students. This year, the competition enjoyed even more popularity with more than 5,300 contestants overall. On April 25, 2019, the national finals of 2018/2019 Economics Olympiad took place on the premises of University of Economics in Bratislava, where 50 young talented…
Nowadays, decision-makers are driven to come up with solutions to the issue of rising obesity rate. In Slovakia, the obesity rate has doubled in last 35 years. To begin with, the tax discussed does not focus on sugar as such, rather it focuses on sweetened drinks. In their paper, IFP claims that “High sugar consumption…
Unfortunately, innovation appears also in the field of taxation. Several East European countries have been flirting with various forms of a “retailer tax”. A tax similar (but not equal) to VAT, or the sales tax. Its proclaimed aim is typically to “punish” international retail chains, who have been repeatedly blamed for problems of local farmers…
Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS) has been organizing Free Market Road Show for a few years now. It is a unique series of conferences which has been organized in more than 30 capital cities across Europe and Caucasus. This year, it was the 11th conference to be held in Bratislava (Bratislava was one…
Slovakia was once the reform tiger that used to set the example that others would lkely follow. However, that time is now certainly over. With the rise of populism, Slovak politics has recently produced ad hoc a number of negative social measures introduced to buy the support of a specific group of voters. And this time, the measure employed is even…
When I first heard a Smer-SD party representative talking about the intention to set the minimum wage level in Slovakia at EUR 600, I did not pay much attention to it. It seemed like a bad joke. However, it quickly became a matter of interest for the media, necessary to address. This bad joke had to…
It was late 2018, when the Slovak government approved the free lunch program for all children attending elementary schools. The supporting argument was that this measure is outreaching to poor kids who had not been targeted by previous lunch subsidies. Currently, approximately 60 thousand children receive free lunches. However, the number of poor kids who…
The Western world has come together to mourn over the newest Oxfam study. According to their calculations, 26 billionaires own as much as the rest of the people on Earth. As renowned economist Deirdre McCloskey once wrote in her commentary to Piketty’s book on inequality: “The conviction [that capitalism is seriously defective] is acquired at age…
Long announced “retail chain tax” is taking its final shape in Slovakia. The law passed the first round of voting in the parliament and is awaiting the second voting in November. The government’s intention is to lower the market power of large international retail chains. Unfortunately, the alleged problems are mostly made-up. Instead, this tax…
