In the latest Press Release, Katarina Ott writes about the annual analysis of the economic and social situation in the country, presented on March 13th in Zagreb by the European Commission representation in Croatia. According to the analysis, Croatia is experiencing excessive economic imbalances and has made limited or no progress when it comes to the implementation of European Commission country-specific recommendations.

In the new Newsletter entitled Budget outturns of Croatian municipalities, cities and counties for 2016, Katarina Ott, Mihaela Bronić and Branko Stanić present the basic data on the budget outturns of all Croatian local government units in 2016. This analysis and the tables provided in the Excel format, allow all interested parties to get acquainted with the fiscal condition of their local government units in 2016 and make relevant comparisons with the situation in 2015 i 2014.

In the new issue of Public Sector Economics, you can read the article by Mirna Dumičić Effectiveness of macroprudential policies in Central and Eastern European countries, which provides an assessment of the effectiveness of macroprudential policies in CEE countries in mitigating financial stability risks, associated with excessive credit growth before the global financial crisis. Abdoulaye Ouedraogo, Mehmet S. Tosun and Jingjing Yang in the article Fertility and population policy examine the relationship between government policies towards fertility and the change in the total fertility rate using panel data on 133 countries over the 1976-2013 period. Pavel A. Yakovlev and Christina M. Orr-Magulick in the article On the road again: traffic fatalities and auto insurance minimums, using a longitudinal panel of American states from 1982 to 2006, claim that mandated auto insurance minimums may “over-insure” some drivers, lowering their incentives to drive carefully. Gordan Struić and Vjekoslav Bratić in the article Public participation in the budgetary process in the Republic of Croatia research the importance and economic effects of public participation in the Croatian budgetary process, identify legal instruments of that participation, and whether they can achieve goals of the IMF’s Fiscal Transparency Code.