Croatia and the SET-Plan： Intents and Results

Energy efficiency and environment protection are the international concern. European Union, under its energy and climate policy, adopted goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, and increasing the proportion of European energy which comes from renewable sources up to 20% by 2020. Until 2007, the development of these technologies in the European Union （EU） was undertaken in a dispersed, fragmented, sometimes even competing way. The Strategic Energy Technology Plan （SET-Plan） is the pillar of the EU＇s energy and climate policy aiming at development of affordable, clean, efficient, and low emission energy technologies through coordinated research. Croatian accession to the EU required meeting the main challenges as the other member states, involving increase in energy efficiency and renewable energy used as some of the basic components of sustainable development. Funding projects in the area of ecology and energy preservation, odds and prospects for public bodies and Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund （FZOEU） involvement in financial support of the projects, additional sources of funding etc., are some of the numerous questions this paper is aiming to address in order to assess the Croatian absorption capacities for the SET-Plan as one of the most important EU strategies.     

The Diversity of Farmers' Risk Management Strategies in a Deregulated New Zealand Environment

In this paper, the results of a nation-wide survey of New Zealand sheep and beef farmers are presented. Multivariate statistical techniques are used to identify groups of farmers who differ in their risk management practices. Five groups are identified. They are labelled income risk reducers, capital managers, part-timers, debt and market risk managers, and production managers. These groups differ in their perceptions of risk sources and in some farm and farmer characteristics. Reasons for these differences are identified and discussed in the context of deregulation.     

Women's higher education in the 21st century: From ‘women friendly' towards women's universities

This article is based on the idea that gender issues are crucial when discussing the future of the university. They determine the way we situate and contextualise this important institution and the very idea of the university. In this context traditional and alternative ideas of the university, including feminist and women's alternatives, are assessed. The article also explores current transformations of the universities and how they will influence women.     

The influence of gender on the effectiveness of probability markers in advertising

The results of two studies reveal that gender plays a moderating role on the effects that the use of probability markers (hedges – e.g., possibly, could help; and pledges – e.g., definitely, without a doubt) in advertising copy has on consumers' attitudes towards the brand advertised and purchase intentions. Women, as comprehensive processors, are not particularly sensitive to probability markers, which function as heuristic cues. Men, on the other hand, display higher levels of sensitivity towards probability marker usage; more precisely, their responses show preference towards the use of hedges over both pledges and no probability markers in advertising copy. Interactions with product category involvement, buying motivation (hedonic or utilitarian), and familiarity with the brand advertised are also explored.     

Expected earnings growth and the cost of capital: an analysis of accounting regime change in the European financial market

This study focuses on the relation between the cost of equity capital and earnings expectations when the properties of accounting that determine earnings vary across different regulatory regimes. More particularly, it addresses the European setting where different types of GAAP regime have continued to function in the presence of the gradual harmonization of the underlying legal framework, and where the adoption of internationally recognized accounting standards by certain firms has anticipated the requirement for International Financial Reporting Standards. On the basis of estimates of the cost of equity that are implied by analysts' earnings forecasts, the article provides evidence that financial market integration may have already contributed to mitigating the economic consequences of accounting diversity, and that switching to IFRS could have a short lived impact on capital markets. Moreover, based on firm level transparency and disclosure rankings provided by Standard and Poor's, it is shown how the quality of financial reporting conditions the implied cost of equity under different GAAP.     

Proportionate Growth and the Theoretical Foundations of Financial Ratios

The article proposes a theoretical framework for understanding financial ratios, showing that the multiplicative character of the financial variables from which financial ratios are constructed is a necessary condition of valid ratio usage, not just an assumption supported by evidence. Also, by assuming that firm size is a measurable statistical effect, the article offers an informed reappraisal of the limitations of financial ratios, particularly the well–known limitation of proportionality. The article is divided into two parts, one where ratio components are viewed as deterministic vari– ables and the other where they are random. Such an approach allows the characteristics of ratios to be more easily understood before generalizing the relationship between ratio components to encompass randomness. In the second part, when variability introduced by firm size is treated as a random effect, it is shown that if the accounting variables Y and X used to calculate a financial ratio Y/X are exponential Brownian motion, and if continuous growth rates are equal and proportionate to firm size, this may lead to ratios which are asymmetric but which do not necessarily drift.     

Choice Consistency and Preference Stability in Test-Retests of Discrete Choice Experiment and Open-Ended Willingness to Pay Elicitation Formats

This study tests the temporal stability of preferences, choices and willingness to pay (WTP) values using both discrete choice experiment (DCE) and open-ended (OE) WTP elicitation formats. The same sample is surveyed three times over the course of two years using each time the same choice sets. Choice consistency is positively correlated with choice certainty and choice complexity. The impact of choice complexity fades away in time, most likely as a result of learning and preference refinement. Although the OE WTP values remain stable over a time period of 2 years as in previous stated preference studies, DCE based WTP measures differ significantly, suggesting their use in benefits transfer may be limited.     

Disparities in the financial performance of agricultural entities according to the legal form: the case of Slovakia

Financial management in agricultural enterprises is affected by a range of factors that are not present in other sectors. One of the factors that affect the performance of enterprises is the legal or organizational form of the business. In Slovakia, the specific structure of farms is different from that of almost any other member state of the European Union. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the disparities in the financial performance of agricultural enterprises according to the legal form. We analysed and compared two groups of agricultural entities, agricultural cooperatives and business companies, for the period from 2005 to 2014. Based on an analysis of the differences using mathematical and statistical methods, we can conclude that the legal forms are distinguished in all monitored parameters and our hypothesis on the differences in economic performance of agricultural entities according to legal form was confirmed.     

Sustainable tourism management in Crikvenica,Croatia: An assessment of policy instruments

Tourism industries often create negative impacts on the environment, society, culture, and sometimes even on the economy. However, few countries are using economic, regulatory or institutional policy instruments for tourism management. This paper explores the potential use of eight such instruments for managing more sustainable tourism in the coastal town of Crikvenica, Croatia. First, the dominant negative impacts of tourism in Crikvenica are identified and indicators are developed in order to measure such impacts. Second, the policy instruments are assessed based on three criteria: (1) their effectiveness in mitigating the previously identified impacts and hence in improving the sustainability of tourism (2) their acceptability to stakeholders (3) their economic and technical feasibility. The paper concludes that there is a great deal of scope for the use of such policy instruments in tourism management. Nevertheless, not every instrument examined satisfies all three criteria. For instance, financial incentives (e.g. subsidies) are seen as effective and highly acceptable but economically unfeasible.