Despite the unfavourable situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic restrictions in 2020-2021, we were able to hold the fourth edition of the Economics Olympiad, the first comprehensive nationwide competition in economics and finance for high school students in Slovakia. What is more, we were happy to welcome a record number of high school…
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…
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…
When we talk about wages in Slovakia, we refer to gross wage. From an economic point of view, however, it is a fictitious value created by accountants. It represents an arbitrarily set point between the two key values: net wage and labor costs. Today’s gross wage is, in fact, only a “semi-gross wage”. It lacks employer-paid…
The low productivity of agriculture and the coronavirus crisis have sparked a discussion about promoting self-sufficiency in agri-food products in Slovakia. Many hope that it is self-sufficiency that will guarantee twice as many cattle grazing on the pastures, tons of Slovak organic meat or eggs from happy free-range hens on the supermarket shelves. However, what…
The Slovak education system has a number of problems but the generally low teacher salary is not one of them. Those who claim the opposite refer to an international comparison: the share of teachers’ wages in wages of university-educated people. Even the government reform plan says that this share reaches 88% on average in the…
Who is the Oracle of Omaha? Warren Buffet, of course. Without any doubt, the name of this investor can easily be included among world celebrities such as Lionel Messi or Arnold Schwarzenegger. The former has a nose for football, the latter for breath-taking action movies – and Buffet has a good nose for investing. It is…
When it comes to real life problems, adults usually start reminiscing about their school days with a bit of bitterness. Sometimes, they blame teachers that had failed at teaching, and on other occasions they blame themselves for not paying more attention. The skills that are missing the most often are usually those related to Economics and…
