The Income Tax Reform in Slovenia: Should the Flat Tax Have Prevailed?

In 2007 Slovenia launched a comprehensive reform of its tax system. This article presents an analysis of several envisaged tax reform scenarios, including the flat tax proposal, with a dynamic general equilibrium model of the Slovenian economy, linked to a microsimulation model. We focus mainly on the macroeconomic and welfare aspects of the proposed scenarios, thus capturing the overall effect on individual taxpayers and the government budget. The main characteristics of the model are presented along with the results of different reform scenarios, including the one that finally passed the parliament and now forms part of Slovenia’s tax system. Our results suggest that options other than the flat tax system are better suited to the country’s long-term economic development.flat tax; general equilibrium model; income inequality; macroeconomic effects; personal income tax; Slovenia; tax reform; welfare analysis

R&D and Economic Growth in Slovenia: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Approach with Endogenous Growth

In the article, we model R&D as a major endogenous growth element in a small open economy general equilibrium framework and consider several R&D policy scenarios for Slovenia. Increase of the share of sectoral investment in R&D that is deductible from the CIT and increase of government spending on R&D turned out to be the most effective policy measures. While the former policy measure is still in part followed by an undesired dividend increase, the increase of government spending on R&D boosts long-run productivity in the economy, thus increasing the future value of firms, which is reflected in a desire dividend increase. The households that would gain more utility from such policy scenarios are those with more skilled and highly skilled labour, but not the very top earners in the economy.endogenous growth; general equilibrium modelling; R&D; Slovenia

Corporate Risk Management in Slovenian Firms

In today’s competitive environment the modern firm increasingly focuses on identifying, measuring and managing various risk exposures. Risk management is interwoven with the firm’s business strategy and impacts considerably on its competitive position. Thus, management should develop an integrated approach to address it. Although hedging using derivatives accounts for just one part of such an approach, the article solely covers financial risk management using derivatives. Namely, it is found that even Slovenian blue-chip firms still have room to improve as they have only recently started to use derivatives. The article reviews some of the most interesting characteristics and practices of modern Slovenian financial risk management departments and provides a practically oriented case-study which describes the important steps a risk manager must take to hedge commodity price exposure.risk management, derivatives, corporate finance, hedging accounting, reporting, supervision, auditing

Use of Simulation Models for the Tax Reform in Slovenia

In 2007 Slovenia launched a comprehensive reform of its tax system. To estimate the different proposals (including a flat-tax proposal) and their overall effect on individual taxpayers and government budget a static micro-simulation model was constructed and combined with a computable general equilibrium model. It uses a large, comprehensive database (6% of the population) provided by relevant ministries and government agencies and proved to be a reliable tool during implementation of the reform. In the paper, the main characteristics of both models are presented along with the results of different reform scenarios, including those which finally passed the parliament and now form part of the Slovenian tax system.tax reform, personal income tax, income inequality, microsimulation, CGE

Labour Market Reforms in the Context of Political Power Theory: The Case of Slovenia

The rigidity of labour market has several important negative economic consequences: it stifles job creation, increases discrimination of those it is actually aimed at protecting (young, women and low skilled), hurts the unemployed, slows down economic restructuring and damages its global competitiveness. But reforms are slow and often marked with disputes among partners in the collective bargaining process. Afraid of social security loss, unions usually oppose the reform, while governments usually give in to the union pressures and negative image of reform consequences created by unions and assisted by media. The characteristics of the labour market and labour market reform with respect to bargaining among power groups are examined both theoretically and empirically in the case of Slovenia.labour market flexibility, re-election process, reforms, Slovenia

Distribution of personal income tax changes in Slovenia

Slovenia belongs to a group of EU member states that have reduced their personal income tax burden during the current financial and economic crisis. The latest changes, introduced in the personal income tax system during the last two years, have primarily reduced the tax burden on low-income taxpayers. However, this was only the last step in a series of personal income tax reforms since 2004 that have on average reduced the tax burden on all taxpayers. Using an exclusive database of taxpayers and utilising a general-equilibrium modelling platform, we assess the consequences of these reforms at both the micro and the macro level. From a macroeconomic point of view, the initial positive consequences of higher private consumption and welfare are declining over time due the increased budget deficit and reduced investment.general equilibrium model; income inequality; macroeconomic effects; microsimulation; personal income tax; Slovenia; tax reform

The Income Tax Reform in Slovenia: Should the Flat Tax Have Prevailed?

In 2007 Slovenia launched a comprehensive reform of its tax system. This article presents an analysis of several envisaged tax reform scenarios, including the flat tax proposal, with a dynamic general equilibrium model of the Slovenian economy, linked to a microsimulation model. We focus mainly on the macroeconomic and welfare aspects of the proposed scenarios, thus capturing the overall effect on individual taxpayers and the government budget. The main characteristics of the model are presented along with the results of different reform scenarios, including the one that finally passed the parliament and now forms part of Slovenia’s tax system. Our results suggest that options other than the flat tax system are better suited to the country’s long-term economic development

Income redistribution through taxes and social benefits: the case of Slovenia and Croatia

The article analyses the redistributive effect attained by personal income tax, social security contributions and social benefits in Slovenia and Croatia. The redistributive effect is decomposed first to reveal progressivity and horizontal inequity effects, and further to show contributions of different tax and benefit instruments. Even though both countries started from the same socioeconomic background two decades ago, the current results reveal divergence that is a consequence of diverse development during this period. The results indicate that Croatia experienced significantly higher pre-fiscal income inequality and lower redistributive effect than Slovenia. Horizontal inequity effects, though, were higher in Slovenia than in Croatia. In both countries, the means-tested social benefits exerted an over-proportionate influence on vertical effects, suggesting a strong impact of the welfare state on income position of their residents, but also induced a large amount of horizontal inequity. In Slovenia, the non-means-tested benefits slightly increased income inequality

Education and Economic Growth in Slovenia: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Approach with Endogenous Growth

In the article we model education and human capital as major endogenous growth elements in a small open economy general equilibrium framework and consider several policy scenarios for Slovenia. Decrease of the PIT rate and increase of government spending on education turned out to be the most effective policy measures. It is important, though, to understand its transitory dynamic. Namely, as education expenditure is increased, certain amount of labour is temporarily withdrawn from its productive use and put into the educational system. Higher skill upgrade of labour requires longer and higher short-term labour force decrease, but also provides us with higher long-term growth. The households that would gain more utility from such policy scenarios are those with more skilled labour and thus higher income level