College major choice and ability: why is general ability not enough?.

The choice of college major is one of the most important decisions students make. In this paper we study the impact of ability on college major choice, using a data set for full-time students enrolled in four-year business and economics programs offered by the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana. We distinguish between general and major-specific ability, which measure different dimensions of cognitive ability. We show that both measures are important in explaining individual decisions and that misleading results can follow from observing only commonly employed general ability. We also find important gender differences as males are more likely to base their major choice on the ability to complete the coursework, while females are more likely to decide according to unobserved preferences.college majors, ability, gender differences;

Retirement Decisions in Transition: Microeconometric Evidence from Slovenia

In this article, we analyse old-age retirement decisions of Slovenian men and women, eligible to retire in the period 1997-2003. In comparison to established market economies, we find relatively high hazard rates of retirement that decline with age. This unusual pattern can partly be attributed to weak incentives to work, inherent in the design of the pension system and reflected in predominantly negative values of accruals, and to transition-specific increase in wage inequality in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This is reflected in low wages and relatively high pensions of less productive (skilled) workers and vice versa. We find that the probability of retirement decreases with option value to work and net wages, although the response to the former, when controlling for the latter, is rather weak. Our results also imply that less educated individuals and individuals with greater personal wealth are more likely to retire.option value; retirement decisions; transition

Estimating Explaining Reallocation's Apparent Negative Contribution to Growth

We explain a puzzle from two recent meta-analyses that cover 25 countries and claim to show that inputs systematically move from higher-value to lower-value activities despite strong aggregate labor productivity growth (ALP). These papers use variants of the Baily, Hulten and Campbell (1992) decomposition of ALP to show that the reallocation covariance term is negative in all but two countries and the reallocation between term is negative in nine countries and weakly positive in most others. We decompose ALP using three micro-level data sets from Chile, Colombia, and Slovenia and show the same puzzle holds. We show that the ALP between term can be decomposed into a term related to reallocation and a term related to the change in the total number of .ms, the latter of which often works to reduce the total between term in our data. We also show these ALP patterns can arise because of heterogeneity in labor and capital, unobserved output prices, or capacity utilization, but controlling for them only marginally helps to explain away the ALP reallocation puzzles in our micro-level data sets. We show that there is no puzzle when one decomposes aggregate productivity growth in the terms of National Accounts, as inputs in the aggregate move from low to high value activities in 36 of our 39 country-year observations. We conclude that there is a fundamental difference in re- allocation measured by the ALP decomposition and that measured by the decomposition of National Accounts growth.

Innovativeness and intangibles in transition: the case of Slovenia

The article presents the micro data on intangibles for Slovenia during the period 1994–2005 using an augmented method by Corrado et al. and analyses the role of intangibles in the Slovenian economy during the transition. By examining the organisational, information and communication technologies (ICT) and research and development (R&D) component of intangibles, we observe a decrease in the value of R&D capital that was to some extent offset by an increase in the value of ICT capital. We find that organisational workers had higher productivity than the average worker. The dynamic of change was gradual during the transition. The capitalisation of intangibles implied an average 4.5% increase of gross domestic product (GDP) for the new member states. Nonetheless, a worrying convergence can be observed between the tangible and the intangible capital. One can thus expect the intangibles have an important role in the future growth in Slovenia and across the European countries, but only if proper attention is devoted to them in terms of policy measures and regulation

Pass-on trade: Why do firms simultaneously engage in two-way trade in the same varieties?

This paper documents that a large fraction of trade flows at the firm level consists of simultaneous imports and exports in identical products, narrowly defined at the 8-digit product classification, which we call Pass-On Trade, POT. We use data on imports and exports at the firm–product level for Slovenian manufacturing firms in the period 1994-2008, to show that, on average, 70 percent of all exporting firms engage in POT. This corresponds to more than 50 percent of all exported products. Thus, imported products that are exported again by the same firm is a statistical regularity of trade of Slovenian manufacturing firms. We document that the use of POT is increasing in firm size, product diversification, multinational status as well as firm productivity and profitability. We offer and explore empirically a number of explanations for POT. Among possible explanations, we find evidence on the importance of firms’ multinational networks and demand complementarities between firms’ own and POT products. The latter confirms the theoretical explanations for ‘Carry-Along Trade’ (CAT) as developed by the recent work of Bernard et al (2010, 2012)

Porezni tretman dohotka u ugovorima o izbjegavanju međunarodnog dvostrukog oporezivanja koje je zaključila Republika Hrvatska

Sama pojava meðunarodnog dvostrukog oporezivanja kao i njegove negativne posljedice koje nastaju za poreznog obveznika vrlo su znaèajne te uz pozornost specijaliziranih praktièara i teoretièara privlaèe pozornost i drugih osoba koje su na tom podruèju laici. Razlog tome jest velika moguænost nastanka te pojave, a pogotovo kod nas u Hrvatskoj zbog èinjenice ¹to jako puno osoba iz na¹e zemlje svoje ¾ivotne prilike imaju usmjerene prema inozemstvu. U svrhu izbjegavanja meðunarodnog dvostrukog oporezivanja, Republika Hrvatska je normirala metode za njegovo izbjegavanje pomoæu dva instrumenta i to putem unutra¹njih propisa te putem meðunarodnih ugovora

Sport Tourism Centres from Top Athletes’ Perspective: Differences among Sport Groups

Background: Sport tourism plays an important role in the tourism industry and consequently in the economy. Sport tourism centres as providers of sport services need to be familiar with the basic needs of their customers and tailor their services accordingly. Objectives: The aim of the paper is to determine the models for customizing sport tourism services to address the needs specific for an individual sport. Methods/Approach: A questionnaire has been created and sent electronically or physically to top athletes from Slovenia, Central and Eastern Europe. Respondents were mainly from Slovenia and mostly representatives of national sports federations. The Mann Whitney and the Kruskall-Wallis tests were applied in order to test differences among sport groups. Results: The conducted Mann-Whitney non-parametric tests show that representatives of different sport groups have different perspectives on sport tourism services. Conclusions: The results of the study can be used by sport tourism centres in the process of tailoring their services, planning marketing activities or developing strategic projects