Journal of Economics - Obsahy ročníkov

We study the relationship between market size and the number of firms in several healthcare professions in Slovakia to provide new evidence about their entry decisions and the toughness of competition on the market. The local market size that would support the entry of the first general practitioner was estimated at 1,400 inhabitants. This threshold equaled 1,700 inhabitants for the first pharmacy to enter and 2,300 for pediatricians. The population would have to more than double for the second professional to enter. To support the second firm, the population per firm in the market would have to increase by 30% for pharmacies, 25% for general practitioners, and almost 40% for pediatricians. However, after the entry of the second firm, the intensity of competition did not change, except for pediatricians. The results were robust to spatial interactions. Our estimates of spatial interactions showed negative (but decreasing) spatial spillover effects for pharmacies, general practitioners, and dentists between 1995 and 2010. In this period, competitive effects prevailed and outweighed demand spillovers. We document that the demand effect continued to grow after 2010 and in 2017 outweighed the competition effect for pharmacies. We show that an increase in the total number of pharmacies since 2010 led to diffusion into smaller markets and that the number of markets without a pharmacy decreased.

For some time, the focus of the empirical analysis has been oriented towards sectors linked to the so-called New Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0). Nevertheless, the agriculture will always be one of the important sectors in each national economy. It is also a sector that underwent many extensive structural changes in the last two decades. The aim of our paper is to look in closer details on various indicators for this sector, notably its current position, its economic linkages to other domestic or foreign industries or generated effects on employment or value added. Our analysis is based on the input-output methodology. The results confirm overall weakening of the domestic linkages, especially on the demand side, and strengthening of the import flows. Also from a supply side point of view, the importance of agriculture as a supplier to other sectors is declining. The agricultural sector has also been losing strength in job creation. However, in terms of value added and gross product value indicators, our results confirm the important role of agriculture in the Slovak economy.

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of fiscal rules in terms of government expenditure and tax revenues with and without the threshold effect of the budget deficit over the period 1995 – 2019 in 9 emerging European countries, as the frequency and severity of the implementation of fiscal rules vary according to the level of the budget deficit. To achieve this objective, the study firstly examines this relationship using the fixed and random effect methods without considering the threshold effect of budget deficit. Secondly, the study employs the panel threshold method proposed by Hansen (1999) to examine this relationship with the threshold effect of budget deficit, which is different from previous studies. Based on the panel threshold estimation, the results reveal that there are two threshold levels of budget deficit on government expenditure and a single threshold level of budget deficit on government tax revenue. Depending on these thresholds, the effect of fiscal rules on government expenditure and tax revenue varies significantly. This suggests that fiscal rules are more effective in ensuring fiscal discipline when the budget deficit is high and less effective when the budget deficit is low.

The paper introduces the proposal of the measurement model for insurance and reinsurance contracts in accordance with the new standard IFRS 17 Insurance contracts that will be effective as of January 1, 2023. The Standard does not contain formulas, but it is principle-based, which is why the selected method of general model measurement is a scientific benefit for the measurement of the insurance product. The application of the GMM method is not the same as that of the insurance company and the reinsurance company perspective, despite the same chosen actuarial assumptions. The scope of changes, which the new Standard offers, is comprehensive and brings new challenges, even for scientific purposes.