In the new issue of Public Sector Economics, you can read an article by Vladimir Arčabić Fiscal convergence and sustainability in the European Union, which analyses fiscal convergence and sustainability in the EU using data on government debt, revenues and expenditures. The article won the first prize in the regular category of the 2018 Prof. Dr. Marijan Hanžeković Trust competition. Ozana Nadoveza Jelić and Margareta Gardijan Kedžo in the article Efficiency vs effectiveness: an analysis of tertiary education across Europe deal with tertiary education efficiency and effectiveness across 24 European Union countries in four sub-periods between 2004 and 2015. Ivana Draženović, Marina Kunovac and Dominik Pripužić in the article Dynamics and determinants of emigration: the case of Croatia and the experience of new EU member states analyse the emigration flows from Croatia and other new EU member states to the core EU countries after their EU accession. Branko Stanić in the article Determinants of subnational budget/fiscal transparency: a review of empirical evidence provides a review of empirical research on the factors determining the budget/fiscal transparency of subnational governments. Predrag Bejaković reviews a United Nations’s report Working Together: Integration, Institutions and the Sustainable Development Goals, World Public Sector Report 2018.

The Institute of Public Finance hosted a presentation of results from the research project Application of Microsimulation Models in the Analysis of Taxes and Social Benefits in Croatia, financed by the Croatian Science Foundation. Microsimulation models of the fiscal system simulate personal income taxes, social security contributions and social benefits. These models enable an ex ante evaluation of a potential reform of fiscal instruments and its effects on the distribution of disposable income, work incentives as well as budgetary revenue and expenditure. As opposed to other EU countries, where the microsimulation models are regularly utilised in the analyses of taxes and social benefits, these models have been only recently introduced in Croatia. Therefore, a microsimulation model of the Croatian system of taxes and social benefits (miCROmod) was developed within the project. Also, miCROmod has been employed in the analyses of personal income tax, child benefits, making work pay instruments and local social benefits in Croatia.

The results of the research were presented by Slavko Bezeredi (Institute of Public Finance), Martina Pezer (Institute of Public Finance), Ivica Rubil (The Institute of Economics Zagreb) and the project leader Ivica Urban (Institute of Public Finance).