Achieving Portfolio Diversification through Cryptocurrencies in European Markets

Background: Cryptocurrencies represent a specific technological innovation in financial markets that keeps getting more and more popular among investors around the world. Given the specific characteristics of the cryptocurrencies, this paper examines the possibility of their use as a diversification instrument. Objectives: This paper examines the direction and strength of the relationship between the selected cryptocurrencies and important financial indicators on the European Union market. Since cryptocurrencies are a novelty in the financial system, the empirical literature in this area is rather scarce. Methods/Approach: In order to assess diversification properties of cryptocurrencies for European traders, a comprehensive econometric analysis was carried out. The first part of the analysis refers to the estimation of the multivariate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model, whereas the second part focuses on wavelet transforms. Results: Bitcoin and Ripple proved as a possible diversification instrument on most of the observed European markets since corresponding coefficients of unconditional correlation are negative. Conclusions: The relationship between the value of the cryptocurrencies and selected indices is generally very weak and slightly negative, indicating that some cryptocurrencies can serve as a means of diversification. However, investors need to take into account the extreme volatility, exhibited in all existing cryptocurrencies

Istraživanje primjene metoda upravljanja financijskim rizicima u hrvatskim poduzećima - anketa na uzorku poduzeća

The aim of the research was to get information on usage of financial risk protection instruments in Croatian large and medium-sized companies, as well as to recognize existence of possible differences among characteristics of the companies that use and that do not use them. Survey research based on a telephone interview with financial or accounting managers from a stratified random sample of 101 Croatian companies in October and November 2004 was carried out. The stratification criterion was «number of employees». One stratum contained medium-sized companies that were defined as those with 51-250 employees, and the other one included companies with more than 250 employees. Approximately equal allocation with 50 large and 51 medium-sized enterprises from each of respective strata was applied. Methods of estimation used took into account the procedure of random sampling of units, so that margin of errors could be calculated. Considering normal approximation, in each strata the research result for the proportion, with 95% confidence level and coefficient of confidence z = 1.96, is within margin of error of maximum +/- 14,2%. The results of the survey research based on random sample of 101 Croatian companies shown that there is no statistically significant dependence between the firms’ size and usage of risk protection, so planned stratification was not stressed in further analysis. The research results were compared to the results of similar surveys from Europe and America. The common conclusions in all these studies were that financial managers are aware of the danger arisen from financial and other risks, but the financial policy in most cases is not precisely defined. Even if this policy is defined, it is formal and reactive, and very seldom proactive. Control functions and risk management seem to be quite centralized business functions in most of surveyed companies. There is a lack of systematic standardized «financial risk manager» function, and a well organized financial department seems to be an exception. According to the survey, financial risk protection instruments were used by two fifth of companies from the sample, and the same proportion of them wants to have additional education a about these instruments. Only one fifth of companies covered by the survey have got a kind of developed protection policy. The most often enterprises use financial risk protection services from banks, and in most cases they are satisfied or vary satisfied with these services. The surveyed enterprises worry the most about liquidity risks and currency risks, and interest rate risk is not the subject of such great concerns. This paper deals in details about various haracteristics (such as company size, activity, region, and size of market) of enterprises that are threatened to quite serious extent with various types of financial risks. Interviewees from 41 companies that use financial risk protection methods mentioned that the most often used protection instruments against liquidity risk were: cash flow investment analysis (70% out of 41), and analysis of assets, liabilities and sources (also 70%). Against currency risk surveyed companies most often use: currency futures (34%), selling prices policy (29%) and currency forward (27%). Against interest rate risk the most often applied protection instruments were: interest rate futures (12%) and interest rate management at the money market (10%). The reasons for not using the protection instruments are insufficient knowledge about them, prevailed perception that they are not efficient and that are too expensive. Contribution of this study comes out of the testing of hypothesis about dependence between characteristics of Croatian companies and the usage of financial risk protection instruments. The survey results show that the companies that are using these instruments are more often registered as share holding companies than as limited, they have significantly greater average yearly revenue, and their revenue is increasing more often according to previous year than in companies that are not using protection instruments. Also, companies using controlling approach tend to apply protection instruments in their business. Further, these companies very often use bank services to help them in protection. Last, but not the least, financial managers in companies with active financial protection policy have got higher education than in those companies that are not actively protecting themselves. Usage of financial risk protection instruments contributes the business success of a company. Only continuous and proactive informing about financial position of a company concerning its exposure to total risk may insure survival, keeping market position, and progress of a Croatian company in recognized turbulent environment of domestic transformations, market globalization, and the pressure for accepting rules of a game of international competitiveness. Finally, in the future the researchers and authors of the study paper plan to make a sample survey research based on deeper stratification of population of Croatian businesses, so to include three sizes of companies, concerning number of employees, and to include a kind of financial measure of company’s size, e.g. the factor of yearly revenue, as well, and than it would be possible to make more detailed analysis concerning different companies' features and usage of financial risk management instruments in Croatia.instrumenti upravljanja financijskim rizicima, anketno istraživanje, hi kvadrat-test neovisnosti; Levenov test jednakosti varijanci populacija, t-test razlike aritmetičkih sredina

Cluster Analysis of New EU Member States\u27 Pension Systems

The aging of European societies is reshaping their population pyramids. The increase in life expectancy and the decrease in the fertility rate lead to an increasing share of the elderly population. This leads to rising age-related expenditures, especially public pension expenditures to GDP. Consequently, economies are reforming their pension systems to make them more sustainable. Next to the aging-related challenges, the new EU members, eleven post-socialist economies: Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia share a similar history of restructuring of their pension systems and establishment of a multi-pillar system. The objective of this article is to examine the similarities and differences between the pension systems of the selected post-transition economies of the European Union to establish the basis for further research, simulations, and assumptions on the impact of future pension reforms. For that purpose, we apply Ward’s clustering methodology on three variable groups in three selected years: 1996, 2006, and 2016. The idea of clustering economies in three years with a 10-year gap is relevant since it reveals how the cluster structure is changing over time. Additionally, three periods represent three different phases in the pension systems’ development. Three groups of variables were used for cluster analysis. First, pension systems’ characteristics include average effective retirement age, pension expenditure, and replacement rate. Second, demographics encompass fertility rate, life expectancy at the age of 65, net migration rate, and old-age dependency ratio. Third, the macroeconomics and labour market variables refer to the GDP growth rate, real labour productivity, labour force participation rate, and the unemployment rate. Results of cluster analysis show that the composition of the countries in the extracted clusters changes significantly, both throughout the observed period and when looking at different variable groups. Our results revealed that the pension systems of economies with later retirement proved to be more sustainable, during the three observed periods, due to lower pension expenditures that are in turn positively reflected in the favourable economic conditions and their labour market

Održivi turizam na primjeru kuća za odmor : Diplomski rad

Turizam ima mnoge pozitivne, ali i negativne utjecaje na okoliš te je potrebno napraviti sve kako bi se smanjio masovni turizam i svi nedostaci koji s njim dolaze. U Hrvatskoj je turizam jedna od najvažnijih ekonomskih grana i to posebno u posljednjih nekoliko godina. Upravo iz tih razloga, bitno je planiranje budućeg razvoja turizma uskladiti s uvažavanjem načela održivog razvoja. Ovakvoj vrsti turizma cilj je smanjiti negativne učinke na okoliš, očuvati prirodu, obrazovati i educirati putnike i zaposlenike i dovesti do stvaranja boljih odnosa sa lokalnom zajednicom. Ovaj rad se odnosi na vlasnike kuća za odmor na području Splitsko-dalmatinske županije. Također, obrađuje se i povezanost ruralnog turizma i održivog razvoja te se daje uvid u značaj ruralnog turizma za ruralna područja. Kao jedan od načina kako da privatni iznajmljivači ozelene svoje poslovanje je eko certifikat. Na području Splitsko-dalmatinske županije razvio se eko certifikat Dalmatia Green koji želi pomoći iznajmljivačima da shvate važnost ekološkog odgovornog poslovanja. U istraživanju se došlo do zaključka da ispitanici nisu dovoljno upoznati s održivim turizmom ali su spremni poslovati u skladu s principima održivog turizma. Slažu se da održivi turizam povećava profitabilnost te da pozitivno utječe na okoliš.Tourism has many positive influences, but also has meaningful negative influences on environment and it is necessary to reduce the mass tourism and all the disadvanteges that come with it. In Croatia tourism has been a major economic driver for years but it’s even more so in the recent past. Precisely for these reasons, it is necessary to align the planning of future development of tourism with respect principles of sustainable development. This type of tourism aims to reduce the negative impacts on the environment, educate travelers and employees, and lead to better relationships with the local community. This paper refers to the owners of holiday houses on Split-Dalmatia County. As well, paper analyses the linkage of rural tourism and sustainable development and provides an insight into the importance of rural tourism for the development of rural areas. One of the ways in how the private owners green their business is eco certification. On Split-Dalmatia County, eco certification Dalmatia Green has been developed, that wants to help owners to understand the importance of ecological managment. The study concluded that respondents are not familiar enough with sustainable tourism but are willing to do business in accordance with the principles of sustainable tourism. They agree that sustainable tourism increases profitability and positively affects the environment

Measuring financial literacy of university students

Defining and properly measuring financial literacy of students is a prerequisite for proposing education policy solutions. The main objective of this paper is to present a procedure of financial literacy assessment. The measure is based on the results of the survey conducted on a suitable sample of students at the University of Zagreb. It is developed using confirmatory factor analysis, which involves testing the validity of a measurement model. This model consists of four manifest variables: Knowledge, Attitudes, Behavior and Practical Knowledge, which are used to estimate a composite measure of financial literacy. The results of factor analysis were later used for obtaining the corresponding weights of indicators of financial literacy. The estimated measure indicates great heterogeneity in the level of financial literacy among students from different constituent units of the University of Zagreb

Similarity Assessment of the Pension Systems of the New European Union Member States

Recent macroeconomic and demographic trends have resulted in new challenges for pension systems. One of these challenges is to create a sustainable pension system while simultaneously providing adequate pension benefits for current and future pensioners. This research explores how similar are pension systems of eleven European Union countries by using hierarchical cluster analysis for year 2016. Variables representing pension systems, as well as demographic, macroeconomic and labour market data were used to cluster these economies. Three clustering solutions were generated using hierarchical clustering approach, one for each variable group. Given the number of observed countries, only two cluster solutions were considered. According to the characteristics of the pension systems, countries that have greater problems of unsustainability are recognized. A similar group of countries also forms the cluster characterized by unfavourable demographic trends that make it more difficult to maintain sustainability. Romania stands out from other economies, based on macroeconomic indicators, as it recorded faster economic growth, greater labour productivity growth and lower unemployment rate in 2016. The findings of this study provide a guideline for future pension reforms, since they indicate which countries’ experience could be valuable in defining certain policy measures. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

STATISTIČKA ANALIZA NEZAPOSLENOSTI U REPUBLICI HRVATSKOJ OD 2001.-2015. : završni rad

Pojam nezaposlenosti izgleda vrlo jednostavan pojam ali je vrlo kompleksan pojam. Najjednostavnije rečeno, nezaposlenost se može odnositi na spremnost pojedinca na prihvaćanje posla, odnosno to su osobe koje nemaju posao, a žele raditi. Nezaposlenost možemo klasificirati prema različitim kriterijima. Tradicionalna podjela nezaposlenosti razlikuje normalnu, strukturalnu, konjunkturnu odnosno cikličku nezaposlenost. Dugotrajna nezaposlenost ima značajne negativne psihološke i socijalne učinke. Podaci o nezaposlenima se prikupljaju putem popisa stanovništva, evidencija osoba prijavljenih zavodu za zapošljavanje i periodičnog anketiranja uzorka radne snage. Statistika je posebna znanstvena disciplina koja se organizirano bavi prikupljanjem i analizom informacija ili podataka te izvođenjem zaključaka na temelju tih podataka. Ona nam omogućava provođenje analize koja je bitna kako bi se razumio osnovni problem bilo kakvog istraživanja i na temelju toga donio zaključak. Kretanja na tržištu rada u RH su tijekom svih ovih godina vrlo nepovoljna. Analizirajući ukupnu nezaposlenost, u ovom radu razgradila se analiza nezaposlenosti po dobi, spolu i razini obrazovanja. Najveća nezaposlenost je bila 2002.godine i iznosila je 389741 nezaposlenih. Ako promatramo spol više ugrožena skupina su žene gdje je u svim godinama zabilježena veća stopa nezaposlenosti u odnosu na muškarce. Analizirajući dob zaključuje se da su najugroženije dobne skupine iznad 50 godina kao i mlađe dobne skupine. Najviše nezaposlenih je bilo sa srednjom stručnom spremom. Aktivne i pasivne politike zapošljavanja služe kako bi se riješio problem nezaposlenosti.Context of unemployment might seem simple but it is very complex. Simply said unemployment may indicate the readines of individual in accepting a job, a persone that doesn't have a job but wants to work. Unemployment can we classified by different criterion. Traditional dividement of unemployment differentiates normal, structural, conjuncture, relatively cyclical unemployment. Long term unemployment has significant psychological and social effects. Data of unemployed is gathered through census, records of people registered with the employment service and periodic survey sample workforce. Statistic is a special scientific discipline with organized deals with the collection and analysis of information or data and drawing inferences based on these data. It enables us to conduct analysis which is important in understanding the basic problem of any research and based on that coming to a conclusion. Labour market developments in Republic of Croatia are during these years are very unfavorable. Analysing total unemployment, in these study is divided by age, gender and grade of education. The biggest unemployment was during 2002. and it was 389741 unemployed. If we look by the gender the most endangered group are women where in all these years was recorded a bigger rate of unemployment compared to men. Analysing age the conclusion is that the most endangered age groups are above 50 and younger age groups. Most unemployed were with high school education. Active and pasive politics of employment served as solution to solving the problem of unemployment

Održivi turizam na primjeru kuća za odmor : Diplomski rad

Turizam ima mnoge pozitivne, ali i negativne utjecaje na okoliš te je potrebno napraviti sve kako bi se smanjio masovni turizam i svi nedostaci koji s njim dolaze. U Hrvatskoj je turizam jedna od najvažnijih ekonomskih grana i to posebno u posljednjih nekoliko godina. Upravo iz tih razloga, bitno je planiranje budućeg razvoja turizma uskladiti s uvažavanjem načela održivog razvoja. Ovakvoj vrsti turizma cilj je smanjiti negativne učinke na okoliš, očuvati prirodu, obrazovati i educirati putnike i zaposlenike i dovesti do stvaranja boljih odnosa sa lokalnom zajednicom. Ovaj rad se odnosi na vlasnike kuća za odmor na području Splitsko-dalmatinske županije. Također, obrađuje se i povezanost ruralnog turizma i održivog razvoja te se daje uvid u značaj ruralnog turizma za ruralna područja. Kao jedan od načina kako da privatni iznajmljivači ozelene svoje poslovanje je eko certifikat. Na području Splitsko-dalmatinske županije razvio se eko certifikat Dalmatia Green koji želi pomoći iznajmljivačima da shvate važnost ekološkog odgovornog poslovanja. U istraživanju se došlo do zaključka da ispitanici nisu dovoljno upoznati s održivim turizmom ali su spremni poslovati u skladu s principima održivog turizma. Slažu se da održivi turizam povećava profitabilnost te da pozitivno utječe na okoliš.Tourism has many positive influences, but also has meaningful negative influences on environment and it is necessary to reduce the mass tourism and all the disadvanteges that come with it. In Croatia tourism has been a major economic driver for years but it’s even more so in the recent past. Precisely for these reasons, it is necessary to align the planning of future development of tourism with respect principles of sustainable development. This type of tourism aims to reduce the negative impacts on the environment, educate travelers and employees, and lead to better relationships with the local community. This paper refers to the owners of holiday houses on Split-Dalmatia County. As well, paper analyses the linkage of rural tourism and sustainable development and provides an insight into the importance of rural tourism for the development of rural areas. One of the ways in how the private owners green their business is eco certification. On Split-Dalmatia County, eco certification Dalmatia Green has been developed, that wants to help owners to understand the importance of ecological managment. The study concluded that respondents are not familiar enough with sustainable tourism but are willing to do business in accordance with the principles of sustainable tourism. They agree that sustainable tourism increases profitability and positively affects the environment

STATISTIČKA ANALIZA NEZAPOSLENOSTI U REPUBLICI HRVATSKOJ OD 2001.-2015. : završni rad

Pojam nezaposlenosti izgleda vrlo jednostavan pojam ali je vrlo kompleksan pojam. Najjednostavnije rečeno, nezaposlenost se može odnositi na spremnost pojedinca na prihvaćanje posla, odnosno to su osobe koje nemaju posao, a žele raditi. Nezaposlenost možemo klasificirati prema različitim kriterijima. Tradicionalna podjela nezaposlenosti razlikuje normalnu, strukturalnu, konjunkturnu odnosno cikličku nezaposlenost. Dugotrajna nezaposlenost ima značajne negativne psihološke i socijalne učinke. Podaci o nezaposlenima se prikupljaju putem popisa stanovništva, evidencija osoba prijavljenih zavodu za zapošljavanje i periodičnog anketiranja uzorka radne snage. Statistika je posebna znanstvena disciplina koja se organizirano bavi prikupljanjem i analizom informacija ili podataka te izvođenjem zaključaka na temelju tih podataka. Ona nam omogućava provođenje analize koja je bitna kako bi se razumio osnovni problem bilo kakvog istraživanja i na temelju toga donio zaključak. Kretanja na tržištu rada u RH su tijekom svih ovih godina vrlo nepovoljna. Analizirajući ukupnu nezaposlenost, u ovom radu razgradila se analiza nezaposlenosti po dobi, spolu i razini obrazovanja. Najveća nezaposlenost je bila 2002.godine i iznosila je 389741 nezaposlenih. Ako promatramo spol više ugrožena skupina su žene gdje je u svim godinama zabilježena veća stopa nezaposlenosti u odnosu na muškarce. Analizirajući dob zaključuje se da su najugroženije dobne skupine iznad 50 godina kao i mlađe dobne skupine. Najviše nezaposlenih je bilo sa srednjom stručnom spremom. Aktivne i pasivne politike zapošljavanja služe kako bi se riješio problem nezaposlenosti.Context of unemployment might seem simple but it is very complex. Simply said unemployment may indicate the readines of individual in accepting a job, a persone that doesn't have a job but wants to work. Unemployment can we classified by different criterion. Traditional dividement of unemployment differentiates normal, structural, conjuncture, relatively cyclical unemployment. Long term unemployment has significant psychological and social effects. Data of unemployed is gathered through census, records of people registered with the employment service and periodic survey sample workforce. Statistic is a special scientific discipline with organized deals with the collection and analysis of information or data and drawing inferences based on these data. It enables us to conduct analysis which is important in understanding the basic problem of any research and based on that coming to a conclusion. Labour market developments in Republic of Croatia are during these years are very unfavorable. Analysing total unemployment, in these study is divided by age, gender and grade of education. The biggest unemployment was during 2002. and it was 389741 unemployed. If we look by the gender the most endangered group are women where in all these years was recorded a bigger rate of unemployment compared to men. Analysing age the conclusion is that the most endangered age groups are above 50 and younger age groups. Most unemployed were with high school education. Active and pasive politics of employment served as solution to solving the problem of unemployment

PRIMJERENOST MIROVINA U REPUBLICI HRVATSKOJ

Umirovljenici danas čine jednu od najranjivijih kohorti u Republici Hrvatskoj, s izrazito niskim primanjima u odnosu na prosjek vlastite cjeloživotne zarade, ali i u odnosu na rastuće troškove života. Cilj ovog rada je utvrditi razinu primjerenosti mirovina u Republici Hrvatskoj prema trodimenzionalnom pristupu koji obuhvaća procjenu zadržavanja dohotka, siromaštvo i socijalnu isključenost te duljinu života u mirovini. Proučava se veći broj indikatora kako bi se mogle identificirati slabosti sustava i područja koja zahtijevaju daljnje analize i reforme. Usporedba sa zemljama članicama Europske unije smješta Hrvatsku na začelje prema većini indikatora razine mirovinskih primanja, a uz to su hrvatski umirovljenici izloženi i većem riziku od siromaštva, nego umirovljenici većine ostalih zemalja. Iz tog je razloga unaprjeđenje hrvatskog mirovinskog sustava kroz ostvarivanje primjerenih mirovina u srži Nacionalnog plana oporavka i otpornosti za razdoblje od 2021. do 2026. godine. Nalazi rada upućuju na zaključak da primjerenost mirovina treba biti veći prioritet dugoročnih reformi hrvatskog mirovinskog sustava od održivosti sustava, a mirovinske reforme trebaju biti praćene i reformama na tržištu rada i povezanim dijelovima financijskog sustava