In the new issue of Public Sector Economics, you can read a guest editors’ Introduction to the thematic section on the Economics of Ageing by Marijana Bađun and Šime Smolić. Velma Pijalović, Lejla Lazović-Pita, Almir Peštek and Danijela Martinović in the article The analysis of perceptions and attitudes related to ageing in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina analyse perceptions and attitudes of FBIH respondents in connection with the ageing population and possible associated problems. Carsten Colombier and Thomas Braendle in the article Healthcare expenditure and fiscal sustainability: evidence from Switzerland draw up a new set of healthcare expenditure projections for the particularly interesting case of Switzerland in order to better explore the fiscal sustainability challenge. Andrej Srakar and Mateja Nagode in the article Why are older informal carers in better health? Solving a causality problem focus on the relationship between the health status of the respondent and the decision to provide informal help to others as well as the intensity of the care. Wildmer Daniel Gregori in the article To what extent do fiscal spending rules affect budget composition? investigates the extent to which local budget composition reacts to variations in fiscal spending rules. Šime Smolić reviews the book Golden Aging: Prospects for Healthy, Active, and Prosperous Aging in Europe and Central Asia by Maurizio Bussolo, Johannes Koettl and Emily Sinnott.

On July 13, 2018, the Institute of Public Finance hosted a presentation of results from the research project Channels and effectiveness of fiscal devaluations, financed by the Croatian Science Foundation. Fiscal devaluation is a tax policy instrument that should mimic the effects of nominal exchange rate devaluation, i.e. improve external competitiveness and increase net exports of a devaluing country. In its basic form, it consists of a budget-neutral reduction in employers’ social security contribution rate and an increase in the value added tax. This research tried to fill some of the gaps in the existing literature and provide more reliable econometric estimates of the effectiveness of fiscal devaluations, along with exploring some specific channels through which fiscal devaluations are expected to work.