Ekonomski aspekti lokalnog upravljanja otpadom: Češka Republika i Slovačka

This paper provides data from our long-term research about municipal waste management in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Three issues are the covered – scale and results from contracting out, impact of competition of costs (the relationship between the unfair competition and municipal waste cost in the Czech Republic), and economies of scale in the Czech Republic. From the point of view of forms of waste management service, despite the methodological problems, the research does not confirm priority of contracting out and suggests that the decisions about the best form of local service provision should respect local conditions and not any universal pattern. The authors also show that lack of competition is one of the main causes of the limited results obtained by contracting. The specific data from the South Moravian Region and the Pardubice Region have shown that results of competitive environment analysis could be affected by the existence of cartel. The results of the analysis of the economies of scale in waste management in the Czech Republic indicate that the bottom of the cost curve is to be found at about 2,000 inhabitants. Moreover, the cost curve in the Czech Republic is not a classic U-shaped curve. The U-shaped curve appears only for small municipalities, and disappears for larger settlements.U radu se prezentiraju podaci dugoročnog istraživanja lokalnog upravljanja otpadom u Češkoj Republici i Slovačkoj. Tri su pitanja u žarištu interesa: raširenost i rezultati vanjskog ugovaranja (contracting out), učinci natjecanja na troškove (odnos između nepoštenog natjecanja i troškova lokalnog otpada u Češkoj Republici) te ekonomija razmjera u Češkoj Republici. S gledišta oblika zbrinjavanja otpada, usprkos određenim metodološkim problemima, naše istraživanje ne potvrđuje da je vanjsko ugovaranje najbolje rješenje, već sugerira da odluka o obliku pružanja te lokalne usluge treba uvažiti lokalne uvjete a ne neko univerzalno rješenje. Također smo pokazali da je jedan od glavnih faktora koji dovode do graničenih rezultata vanjskog ugovaranja – manjkavost tržišnog natjecanja. Podaci iz dviju regija, Južne Moravske i Pardubica, pokazuju da rezultati analize natjecateljskog okruženja mogu biti iskrivljeni zbog postojanja kartela. Rezultati analize ekonomije razmjera u upravljanju otpadom u Češkoj Republici pokazuju da je donja točka krivulje troškova već na razini 2.000 stanovnika. Štoviše, krivulja troškova u Češkoj Republici nije klasičnog U-oblika. Krivulja U-oblika pojavljuje se jedino kod malih jedinica, dok kod većih nestaje

Inclusion by Co-Production of Social Housing: The Slovak Experience

The field of social housing is one of many subjected to the potentials of co-production. Specifically, the Sustainable Development Goals target 11.1 is “By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums”. The current Slovak “State Housing Policy Concept to 2020”, among others, defines specific objectives, e.g. increasing or at least maintaining the same share of public expenditure on housing, introducing a new housing allowance, and supporting the development of the non-profit sector in housing provision. The goal of this article is to investigate to what extent co-production – as joint working of the public, private for profit and private not-for profit sectors – has the capacity to address the gap in the provision of social housing in the Slovak Republic. Using the method of case study, the scale and forms of co-production in social housing are investigated and the key factors and barriers of co-production in this area are analysed. The authors suggest that co-production of social housing is the most efficient method of delivery of social housing, improves sustainability, and helps to include the beneficiaries into society. However, this approach requires extra energy from the stakeholders – especially from public officials – and is thus still rarely used in practice