Economic and Business Review (EBR)
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Ocena naravne stopnje brezposelnosti v Sloveniji
No full textIn this article, we estimate the movement of natural rate of unemployment in Slovenia since 1997, as the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU). The estimates based on the Kalman filter method indicate a stable decline in the NAIRU from 1997 to the end of 2004, when the lowest NAIRU was detected during the period studied, somewhere between 4.5 and 5.1%. After 2005, a gradual increase in the NAIRU occurred, which came to a halt at the end of 2007. Since the second quarter of 2007, the actual unemployment rate has been at least 1 percentage point lower than the estimated NAIRU, which indicates that the overheating of the economy could be a factor contributing to the rising inflation during this period
Does a foreign subsidiary’s network status affect its innovation activity? Evidence from postsocialist economies
No full textQuestionnaire survey among 809 foreign subsidiaries in five post-socialist economies (East Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Croatia) is used to study determinants of innovation activity of foreign subsidiaries. Findings demonstrate that foreign subsidiaries are relatively independent as far as innovation activity is concerned, while at the same time subsidiaries with better access to foreign parent companies R&D results are more likely to innovate. Important differences are found in factors that determine product and process innovation: subsidiaries that invest more in R&D exhibit higher probability for product but not for process innovation; transfer of responsibilities from headquarters to subsidiaries is conducive to process innovation; market-seeking motivation of foreign investors has a negative impact on product innovation status
Financing constraints, credit rationing and financing obstacles: evidence from firm-level data in South-Eastern Europe
No full textFinancing constraints have been one of the major impediments to doing business in transition economies in general and South-Eastern Europe in particular. Utilizing firm-level survey data and extensive econometric modelling, the paper provides new evidence on financing constraints, credit rationing and financing obstacles for firms in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia and Montenegro. The findings suggest that these phenomena are prevalent in the SEE region, especially in the small business sector, a driving force of economic development in these countries. Based on the findings, a number of policy implications aiming at reducing financing constraints for the small business sector are derived
What determines the co-operative potential for firms in Western European and CEE border regions? A comparative micro-level analysis
No full textThe present article investigates whether Eastern European enlargement influences the co-operative potential of firms in the borderland between Western and Central Eastern Europe more than of other firms, i.e. of those not being located in the borderland. Based on theoretical arguments as well as empirical evidence, we build a micro-level framework of factors, which determine a firm’s likelihood of cross-border business co-operation. Using logistic regression, this framework is empirically tested and compared for two cross-sectional datasets of firms located in the border regions in Northern Bohemia (the Czech Republic) and Saxony (East Germany)
From technical and cost efficiency to exporting: firm level data from Slovenia
No full textThe paper investigates the influence of technical and allocative efficiency on export performance of Slovenian individual firms. The main contribution of the paper to the literature is the test on whether technical and allocative efficiencies, measured by data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier function (SFA), significantly influence the export orientation of individual firms. Our evidence suggests that firms which are more efficient than their competitors in industry are more export oriented and that technical efficiency is more significant for firms’ export orientation than allocative efficiency. The evidence also suggests that along efficiency export activity of individual firms is significantly influenced by size, capital intensity, profitability, wages and export orientation of the firms a year prior to investigation
Climate change and future adaptation
No full textThis paper provides a summary of the current scientific understanding of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the natural and anthropogenic drivers of changes in global climate. It presents an overview of observed changes in the climate system and their relationships with physical processes as well as an overview of projections for future climate changes. A summary of observed climate changes in Slovenia in the last decades is given and future projections are discussed. Europe has warmed by almost 1°C in the last century, faster than the global average. Precipitation has significantly increased in northern Europe, whereas drying has been observed in the Mediterranean. Continuing the observed trend, average precipitation as well as extreme precipitation are very likely to further increase in most of northern Europe whereas precipitation is very likely to decrease in the Mediterranean. The reduction of precipitation in summer in Slovenia is expected to have serious effects, e.g. more frequent droughts, with considerable impacts on horticulture and the availability of water. Adaptation can reduce vulnerability to climate variability and change. This paper also discusses the appropriate responses to climate change from the mitigation and adaptation points of view
How to cope with distance in the future?
No full textMobility is essential to life, human needs, and economic development. Diminishing oil reserves, a growing dependency on oil and global warming will all strongly impact on mobility. However, innovative solutions exist. To keep mobility affordable it is likely that fossil-oil-based mobility will not be substituted by just one technology. Secondand third-generation biofuels and electric vehicles are some of the best ways to be energy and CO2 efficient in a well-to-wheel view. In contrast, fuel cells do not seem to be an alternative. Original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and suppliers will be firmly impacted by this evolution. The fastest and most innovative of them can take advantage of these challenges and find new interesting business opportunities
The value of sharing advance capacity information under “zero-full” supply capacity availability
No full textThe importance of sharing information within modern supply chains has been established by both practitioners and researchers. Accurate and timely information helps firms effectively reduce the uncertainties of a volatile and uncertain business environment. We model periodic review, single-item, stochastic demand and stochastic supply where, in a given period, supply is either available or completely unavailable. In addition, a supply chain member has the ability to obtain advance capacity information (‘ACI’) about the future supply capacity availability. We show that the optimal ordering policy is a base stock policy with the optimal base stock level being a function of future capacity availability or unavailability given through ACI. In a numerical experiment we quantify the value of ACI and provide relevant managerial insights
Cutting as a continuous business process
No full textA review of state-of-the-art methods for cutting stock problem optimisation shows that the current methods lead to near-optimum results for the instantaneous optimisation of trim loss. Further optimisation of this activity would not bring a considerable improvement. Therefore, the paper treats cutting stock as a continuous business process and not as an isolated activity. An exact method for a general one-dimensional cutting stock problem is presented and tested. The method is mainly suitable for smaller orders. It is then applied to continuous cutting and used to develop a method for assessing cutting costs in consecutive time periods. The modified method finds a good solution over the whole time-span, rather than just local optima
