Sustainability of the Slovenian Pension System: An Analysis with an Overlapping-generations General Equilibrium Model

The article presents an analysis of welfare effects in Slovenia, an analysis of macroeconomic effects of the Slovenian pension reform and an analysis of effects of the pension fund deficit on sustainability of Slovenian public finances with a dynamic OLG general equilibrium model. It has been established that while young generations and new generations will lose from the pension reform, even complete implementation of the reform might not be sufficient to compensate unfavourable demographic developments. The level of expected deficit of the PAYG-financed state pension fund seems to be most worrying. Financing the pension system with VAT revenues as an extreme case could result in more sustainable public finances, since GDP and welfare levels ought to increase, yet this might be infeasible to implement politically, given that the generations of voters would have their welfare decreased. In addition, the present pension system is intransparent and tremendously complicated and should primarily be made more comprehensible to the public.general equilibrium models, macroeconomic effects, OLG-GE, PAYG, pension system, sustainability of public finances, Slovenia, welfare analysis

Transitioning to an Integrated Renewable Energy System in the Dutch North Sea

The North Sea has long been the energetic backbone of the surrounding countries and its hydrocarbon resources have enabled economies to grow. however, faced with an unsustainable level of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as with the deple-tion of hydrocarbon resources, the North Sea is described as a ‘sea in decline’. The coming decades will see two parallel developments in the North Sea: major invest-ments will be needed to decommission disused hydrocarbon assets while at the same time renewable energy projects will be developed. The question that arises is what legal barriers such a transition entails and how the integration of a renewable energy system in the North Sea should be regulated