A hotel sustainability business model: evidence from Slovenia

This research explores and develops a hotel sustainability business model (HSBM) to study the sustainability orientation of the Slovenian hotel industry. Based on a comparative analysis of the existing sustainability and triple bottom line models, the usual content of a three-line HSBM (economic, environmental and sociocultural) was extended to include customer satisfaction, environmental education and power to implement changes. Financial, marketing and tourism sustainability experts investigated best practices in sustainability measurements and gathered appropriate sustainability indicators; expert opinion and the Delphi method refined and reduced an initial 79 indicators to 36 operational indicators, able to fulfil the HSBM's sub-categories within the extended triple bottom line. The HSBM's concept was used to study the sustainability of Slovenian hotel firms to reveal how important these indicators are for hotel managers and do they monitor them. Results indicated strong importance and measurement of economic and marketing indicators, such as profitability and customer satisfaction. Following the socialist tradition, companies recognise the importance of human resources, but the importance of environmental education and awareness building, biodiversity, and the establishment of partnerships with stakeholders to implement sustainable tourism development are neglected. Economic performance was, for example, monitored by 66% of respondents, environmental performance by 28% and social performance by 42%.     

Spillover effects of a minimum wage increase – evidence from Slovenia

This article Analysis the effects of a large increase in Slovenia’s minimum wage in March 2010 on the wage distribution using an administrative matched employer–employee panel database. We find that the minimum wage hike increased the concentration of low-paid workers, creating a much more pronounced spike at the minimum, particularly in market services, and for the young, the least educated and those with the least work experience. Our analysis also shows that the March 2010 minimum wage increase also produced sizeable spillover effects. The spillover effects were higher among young and older workers, especially for wage levels near the new minimum wage. The results are based on a difference-in-differences approach comparing changes in wages during the control and treatment periods as experienced by workers in the wage group immediately above the level of the new minimum wage and workers in wage groups higher up in the wage distribution.     

Budget consolidation in a small open economy: a case study for Slovenia

In this article, we use the macroeconometric model SLOPOL10 to calculate simulations of the development of the Slovenian economy until 2030. Starting from the present favourable prospects of the European economies, the forecast is very optimistic but it can nevertheless be improved by optimal fiscal policies as calculated using the OPTCON2 algorithm. If a negative shock to world trade of a size comparable to the Great Recession occurs, it will entail a decline in GDP and a slow recovery. In this case, optimal fiscal policies should not act in an expansionary way as the effectiveness of fiscal policy with respect to output and employment is rather limited in a small open economy like Slovenia. Instead, the goal of budget consolidation will call for a more restrictive fiscal policy, at least if the shock is temporary.     

A New EU Member Country on the Road to the Euro Area: Monetary and Fiscal Policies for Slovenia

Slovenia was the first of the ten new EU member states to enter the Euro Area on January 1, 2007. It was an explicit objective of Slovenian policy-makers to introduce the euro as early as possible. Slovenia was participating in the exchange rate mechanism ERM-II since June 2004. This paper analyses whether the choice of participating in the ERM-II soon after EU accession was the best strategy in terms of the macroeconomic performance. It is shown that a better overall economic performance could have been achieved under a crawling peg regime allowing a depreciation of the Slovenian tolar (SIT) before introducing the euro in 2007. The worst policy results are obtained when the exchange rate is totally fixed at an early stage of EMU integration. The labor market performance can be significantly improved by cutting income taxes and social security contribution rates.      

Macroeconomic Consequences of the Adoption of the Euro: The Case of Slovenia

On 1 January 2007, Slovenia adopted the euro as the first of the ten new EU member states. By means of simulations with SLOPOL6, a macroeconometric model of the Slovene economy, this paper examines the macroeconomic consequences that can be expected from this event. It is shown that after a short period of minor turbulences related to the introduction of the euro, the adoption of the euro brings about higher real GDP growth, a higher GDP level, more employment, lower inflation, a lower price level and improved public finances in the medium run. On the other hand, the current account deteriorates. Financial support from the Province of Carinthia, Klagenfurt University and the Jubilaeumsfonds of the Austrian National Bank (project no. 12166) is gratefully acknowledged. The opinions presented need not be those of the Austrian National Bank.     

Endogenous gradualism and the Slovenian puzzle

We use EBRD transition index to classify transition countries into gradualist and orthodox reformers. When comparing this classification with records of economic and political reforms before the breakdown of socialism, an apparent historical regularity emerges. Countries where transition was to an extent »endogenous« were more likely to choose a gradualist strategy, whereas countries where a strict socialist regime was upheld until its breakdown, were more likely to decide for an orthodox »big-bang« approach to transition. Some political economy explanations for this regularity are suggested.The second part of the paper explores Slovenia's experience in some detail. We present the discussion on the benefits and pitfalls of its gradual approach to reforms, showing that gradualism may slow down important structural reforms in the second phase of transition and thus negatively affect competitiveness and the long-run growth performance of a country. Moreover, since the gradualist approach to transition has increased institutional rigidity and created a kind of political economic equilibrium, an »endogenous« changeover to a more dynamic reform agenda is unlikely. We report on the recent more ambitious structural reforms agenda introduced in the country and conclude that it amounts to merely a »gradual move away from gradualism«. We conclude by offering some tentative political economy interpretations of these developments.     

Worker displacement during the transition: Experience from Slovenia1

The Slovenian transition created labor displacements that were bigger than those experienced in North America in the 1980s. In Slovenia, probability of both layoffs and quits fell with worker tenure, firm profitability and expected severance costs. Individuals facing a higher probability of displacement accepted slower wage growth than otherwise comparable workers. The incentives to avoid displacement were strong – workers that actually were displaced faced a slow process of transiting out of unemployment with only one‐third finding re‐employment. Correcting for selection, real wage losses for displaced workers are comparable to those reported for displaced workers in North America.     

The economic effects of health care systems on national economies: an input-output analysis of Slovenia

This paper estimates the size of the economic impact generated by the Slovenian health care sector on the national economy in the 2009–2014 period. The study separately calculates output, income, employment, value-added and import multipliers for the Slovenian health care sector based on input-output analysis covering 49 sectors. Initially, values of simple output multipliers for all years are estimated. When the re-circulation of final demand through households is added to the direct and indirect economic effects, the values of total output multipliers considerably exceeds 2. The results suggest that an additional million EUR of final demand in the health care sector will, based on different scenarios, increase the total employment by 20 to 30 units. Moreover, the type II employment multipliers imply that under the best-case scenario one employee in the health care sector creates an additional 0.7 unit of employment in remaining structures of the observed economy. Stability evaluation of the derived multipliers suggests that the domestic health care sector may reduce volatilities in production, income and employment and consequently act as an important shock absorber in the economy.     

Prevalence of key developments in trade of agro-food producers in the new member states of the European Union

The ten new member states (NMS-10) of the European Union (EU) have contributed to an enhancement in the agro-food trade among the EU-25 members. Intra-industry trade (IIT) represents only a minor part of NMS-10 trade in agro-food products. Their trade in agro-food products is specialized to different countries in terms of economic distance, factor endowments and/or degree of competitiveness of their agro-food sectors. The borderless EU markets are likely to influence the increase of IIT with implications for the EU trade policy, since more than one-third of agro-food trade in the EU-25 members is represented by NMS-10.