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Purpose: This paper aims to examine the impact of information and communication technologies and their availability in the Central and Eastern European countries that are members of the EU on regional value chains and regional supply chain management and logistics in CEECs in the context of the growing e-commerce industry. Methodology: We used a balanced data panel of 11 countries over 9 years (2011-2019) to examine the impact of ICT indicators on regional supply chains. The analysis included the ordinal Spearman rank correlation coefficient and the panel GMM method, which accounts for endogeneity. We implemented the Arellano-Bond estimator within the GMM framework, considering the ordinal nature of the dependent variable. This approach allowed for an effective analysis of the complex relationships in the data, considering the panel structure and the individual country observations. Results: The findings indicate that the hypothesis claiming that the integration of digital technologies in supply chains in CEEs leads to statistically significant improvements in efficiency, controllability, and cost- effectiveness, cannot be rejected. Enhanced communication, collaboration, and overall logistics performance have led to increased customer satisfaction. Additionally, the study shows a positive correlation between ICT infrastructure and logistics performance, emphasizing the crucial role of digital innovations in shaping supply chain dynamics. Conclusion: The study supports the hypothesis that integrating digital technologies into supply chain management in Central and Eastern Europe is associated with enhanced efficiency, resilience, and economic integration through value-added export. These insights offer pathways to foster economic integration in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Croatian Regional Value Chains (RVCs). We use the value chain approach to study supply chains, examining data specifically for Croatia and its proximate trading partners in the European Union, as well as some other European countries. The value added in Croatian exports is statistically related to the value added in the exports of Croatian trading partners. We argue that Croatian RVCs are organized around regional production centers, with proximity to production capacity, raw materials, and customers as driving factors, and thus most of the value added originates in these RVCs. This paper emphasizes the advantages of representing trade through value added over traditional gross trade statistics and highlights the robustness of RVCs in Croatia to global shocks and transportation reliability issues. We conclude that despite its small absolute size, the Croatian economy is dynamically well-integrated into the EU RVCs, which is crucial for increasing business efficiency and competitiveness, notwithstanding the constraints of relatively low returns to scale. Overall, this study contributes to a better understanding of RVCs in Croatia and their potential benefits for Croatia in the global production organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research question and the most important issue in this paper relates to the determination of CO2 emission drivers in EU and the possibility of its reduction in the era of the fourth industrial revolution. EU strategies and economic policies are directed toward sustainable development, with special emphasis on reducing CO2 emissions towards carbon neutrality. The method used in this research is the Panel Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) two-step dynamic estimator on 27 EU countries in the period 2012–2019. The research resulted with the following findings: innovation activity, industrial structure and development, human capital, and institutional framework; these are all statistically associated with CO2 emission levels in a negative manner, thus, contribute significantly to the reduction in CO2 emissions. Following the empirical results, it may be concluded that reaching sustainable development goals requires the EU to enhance innovation activity, technological development, reshape its industrial structure, create high-quality human capital, and increase the quality of its public institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structures (SEIS) was deployed on Mars in November 2018 and began science operations in March 2019. SEIS is the primary instrument of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission, which was launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The acquisition and control (AC) electronics is a key element of SEIS. The AC acquires the seismic signals of the two sets of seismic sensors with high resolution, stores the data in its local nonvolatile memory for later transmission by the lander, and controls the numerous functions of SEIS. In this article, we present an overview of the AC with its connections to the sensors and to the lander, as well as its functionality. We describe the elements of the acquisition chains and filters, and discuss the performance of the seismic and temperature channels. Furthermore, we outline the safety functions and health monitoring, which are of paramount importance for reliable operation on Mars. In addition, we analyze an artefact affecting the seismic data referred to as the "tick-noise" and provide a method to remove this artefact by post-processing the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal bathing water, as a common good, is an economic resource of public health interest. Predictive models of coastal bathing water contamination are needed for timely prevention of pollution, warning of bathers, and activation of municipal services and utilities in case of contingencies, as well as institutional mechanism designs for common good management purposes. The goal of this research is to identify the variables that would improve predictive models of coastal bathing water bacterial contamination. The microbiological quality of coastal bathing water is affected by many variables. This research is an analysis of the following determinants: precipitation amount, seawater temperature and salinity, as well as few indicators of anthropogenic pressure on the environment such as registered population, registered tourist overnight stays and the amount of generated municipal waste, all possibly directly or indirectly affecting the bathing water quality in 17 coastal municipalities in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. The analysis showed that rainfall, as an instrumental confounder variable, influences salinity and seawater temperature by increasing groundwater discharge and bringing contamination i.e. increasing enterococci and Escherichia coli concentrations in coastal bathing water. Population as the conjectured independent variable, representing the anthropogenic cause of pollution, was once again falsified as a statistically significant determinant. For further research, longer-term sampling (preferably year-round) at micro-locations of comparable hydrogeological characteristics is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective decision-making is subject to the impossibility of aggregating the preferences of individuals into a social welfare function, the impossibility of aggregating ordinal preferences into a social decision-making function, and the impossibility of aggregating preferences according to mutually incomparable criteria. These problems, for which there are formal theorems of evidence, could have significant consequences for society as for example in case of public health decision-making. Ethical issues, as can be seen from current examples of scarce vaccine allocation, exacerbate the methodological impossibility of aggregating preferences. However, without some form of social aggregation of preferences, or social decision making rules, the public sector, and thus public health systems, cannot perform their activity. This paper will try to summarize some of the problems that arise due to the current way of allocating scarce goods in health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern sovereign money is accepted as an institution in virtue of the collective intentionality of the acceptance of the sovereign status function declaration it being the official currency of a country. A status function declaration may not create money it may only create a currency. How does one test the fact that an official currency also has all the properties of money? We propose a rather simple test based on the Granger causality of the acceptance of a currency in virtue of money if, and only if, the allocation function of its market interest rate is not rejected. This condition is fulfilled if the interest rate is its genuine allocator. This is the case if the changes in quantity cause the change in the interest rate as a price of money i.e. its true opportunity cost. We find that market interest rate changes are Granger caused by changes in quantities of traded euros on the overnight banking market but not by changes in the quantity of traded Croatian kuna. Thus, the Croatian kuna is only the domestic currency of Croatia, and the euro is its true money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stock and flow pollution differentiation is the basis for efficient pollution-abatement mechanism designs. The focus of our research has been marine pollution from land-based sources. Stable isotope analysis of groundwater is an acknowledged method for karst aquifer characterisation. We have tested whether stable isotopes of water, when used as a proxy for groundwater dynamics in the karst, could also be used as an indicator of marine pollution differentiation in terms of flow and stock pollution. The focus has been on two close coastal locations characterized by differences in terms of open and closed sea as well as anthropogenic pressure. A static Estimated General Least Squares (EGLS) statistical model described the closed bay location suggesting stock pollution. For a good description of the open sea location, we have had to resort to dynamic Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) statistical modelling, indicating flow pollution. Stable isotopes of groundwater together with appropriate statistical tools have proved to be a useful tool of marine pollution differentiation into stock or flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested the validity of the traditional hypothesis of a causal effect between rainfall occurrence, groundwater discharging into the sea, and marine microbial contamination. For groundwater characterization, we used the 18O isotope. This stable isotope, together with 2H, proved to be a useful physical, naturally occurring tracer primarily due to its abundance variations at different stages of water cycle. Test locations include Bakar Bay and selected adjacent Rijeka city beaches (Croatia). To test for statistical associations, we used the Panel Data Pairwise Granger Causality test. At examined locations, we found statistically significant relationships between the amount of rainfall and the abundance of 18O isotope in groundwater, as well as relationships between the abundance of 18O isotope in groundwater and faecal bacteria concentrations. Accordingly, 18O isotope, when used as an indicator for the functioning of karstic groundwater systems, may also be used as predictor of faecal contamination of bathing waters in associated karst littoral areas. We believe this physical method could be a valuable addition to present methods of predicting microbiological contamination and economic allocation of stock and flow pollutants in scarce common pool resources such as fresh water basins, springs and beaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the art of photography, the phenomenon of vignetting means blurring of an image at its periphery compared to its centre. Vignettes are a form of road pricing independent of travel distance. Their usage in Croatia was recently rejected while in Europe, the number of countries using them, is increasing. The economic question of using vignettes as a primary source of revenue for the financing of Croatian highways was blurred by economically peripheral but politically sensitive welfare transfer issues. There has been no visible attempt to push the discussion back into the field of economics by using purely economic criteria such as: opportunity cost of usage, "sunk costs", marginal costs, and total costs recovery. The paper aims at un-vignetting (un-blurring) the issue and re-focusing it towards economic arguments. The approach taken is a deductive-nomological argument based on opportunity costs of usage. The conclusion is straightforward: the vignettes are Pareto efficient since they make the society in general and the consumers in particular ultimately better off even after taking into account compensations. The opportunity costs of usage of congestion-free roads are zero. The optimal quantity-dependent price is then also zero. Since zero price does not recover costs, a differential pricing scheme needs to be put in place: one that does not depend on distance travelled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To develop a new method of health-economic analysis based on a marginal approach. Methods We tested the research hypothesis that a detailed comparative a priori incremental cost-effectiveness analysis provides the necessary input for budget impact analysis about the proper order of introduction of new therapies, and thus maximizes the cost-effectiveness bounded by the total budget constraint. For the analysis we chose a combination therapy for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 1 (GT1) infection, which was approved by the European Medicine Agency in 2015. We used the incremental cost-effective approach to assess the increase in the percentage of patients achieving sustained virological response (SVR) and the expenditure per additional SVR modulated by the new therapy's market entrance dynamics. Patient subpopulations were differentiated by their response to previous treatment, presence of cirrhosis, and HCV GT1 subtype. Final parameters were estimated by Monte Carlo simulations. Results The new combination therapy had high efficacy, shorter duration, and was better tolerated than alternative interventions. The research hypothesis was confirmed: gradual introduction of the new therapy on the market, based on a priori incremental cost-effectiveness analysis, would result in average increase in successfully treated patients by 20%-40%, while additional costs would approximately be between 8%-40%, ie, €21 000-52 000 per additional patient achieving SVR. Conclusion We showed the new combination therapy to be cost-effective for certain patient subpopulations, especially for experienced cirrhotic HCV GT1 patients. Results of the analysis are in agreement with the latest recommendations for HCV patients' treatment in Croatia. This economic evaluation could serve as a starting point for negotiations between pharmaceutical industry and insurance companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The officially proclaimed foreign exchange policy of the Croatian National Bank (CNB) is a managed float with a discretionary right of intervention on the Croatian kuna/euro foreign exchange (FX) market in order to maintain price stability. This paper examines the validity of three monetary policy hypotheses: the stability of the nominal exchange rate, the stability of exchange rate changes, and the exchange rate to inflation pass-through effect. The CNB claims a direct FX to inflation rate pass-through channel for which we find no evidence, but we find a strong link between FX rate changes and changes in M4, as well as between M4 changes and inflation. Changes in foreign investment Granger cause changes in monetary aggregates that further Granger cause inflation. Changes in FX rate Granger cause a reaction in M4 that indirectly Granger causes a further rise in inflation. Vector Autoregression Impulse Response Functions of changes in FX rate, M1, M4, and CPI confirm the Granger causalities in the established order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixty years ago, Samuelson's "Pure Theory of Public Expenditure" expounded the classification of goods, and Bain's "Economies of Scale, Concentration and the Condition of Entry in Twenty Manufacturing Industries" expounded the structure-conduct-performance paradigm. To the present day, rivalry in and excludability from consumption classify goods, and subadditivity and irreversibility in production classify market structure. Opportunity costs of production in the form of prospective sunk costs incentivise investment and production, and the sunk costs themselves induce subadditivities, specialization and convexity of the marginal rate of technical substitution. Opportunity costs in consumption are determined by the marginal costs of replacement. In light of the recent Nobel price award to Jean Tirole, we revisit some of the forgotten discussions and clarify some of the terminology under a more economic framework of opportunity costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Croatian long-lasting fisheries problem still vivid one year after the Croatian admission to the EU is overfishing in a "common pool resource". After the questionable success of previous policies, the new EU Integrated Maritime Policy devolves some of the mechanisms of the Common Fisheries Policy to the member states. This gives Croatia the opportunity to set policies that reflect its own interests: to rebuild its fish stocks, its fishing fleet and the supporting fish processing, services, and shipbuilding industries. This may be achieved without direct command and control governmental intervention used in the past. The institutionalisation of fishing rights in the general form of Transferable Fishing Concessions and in particular as it is known in the EU: Individual Transferable Quotas, creates a new asset, with benefits to entrepreneurs and entire industries. They may be used as a collateral for fishers during the investment cycle, a source of information, an incentive for monitoring of competitors, and a source of windfall profits. Therefore, we argue that Transferable Fishing Concessions could enable the internalisation of negative externalities across Croatian Adriatic fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a system of external financial reporting by operating segments, specific for it's inclusion of the the dissaggregation criteria for the purposes of internal segment reporting, is put forward. The proposed system describes an informational basis for the required aggregation of homogeneous items needed for external reporting purposes. Therefore, the goals of harmonized financial reporting by business segments may simultaneously be achieved together with the goals set by internal and external reporting. The paper encourages the application of a new concept of harmonised external and internal financial reporting according to operating segments. These new reports offer a preview of business processes and account for responsibilities in managing operating segments, uncovering contributions of individual business segments to the total financial result of the entity. Improving the theoretical knowledge from the practical experience of the lodging industry, an assessment model of external and internal segment reporting harmonisation was created and tested on a sample including some well known international corporations and some Croatian entities, whith securities listed on stock-exchanges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze a panel of 147 countries over a 21-year period. We used the Generalized Method of Moments First Differences panel estimation method and found that there is a statistically significant positive association between terrestrial protected areas and protected species. There is strong evidence of a positive statistical relationship between the Human Development Index and protected species under the condition of efficient nitrogen use as an instrumental variable. We support the revision of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis by claiming that in the 21st century it need not be strictly U-shaped, but that a rise in environmental protection measures is present across the board. The final contribution of the paper is the idea that protecting the habitat of endangered species is commensurate with increasing human welfare through income, health and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transportation sector is the lifeblood of an economy. It is divided into three principal categories, i.e., modes of transportation: air, land, and water. This paper analyzes the post-financial crisis value added data for the Croatian economy (2008–2015) by analyzing the dependence of three categories of the transportation sector on the cumulative of all other sectors, and on the manufacturing sector in particular. The value added of the three categories of the transportation sector is progressively dependent on the value added of the cumulative industry. This may be due to the progressive dependence of the gross national product on transport because of specialization and division of labor resulting in economies of density due to network and agglomeration effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research problem this paper is concerned with is the effect of tourism on solid waste generation in Croatia's coastal area. We are aware of the fact that this has not been thoroughly addressed, especially considering tourism's share in the Croatian economy and the pressure it generates on sustainable coastal management. This is of particular importance considering the governing complexity of coastal areas. Thus, we ask a simple question regarding the role of the tourism industry in the solid waste generation in the Croatian coastal area: Do tourists generate relatively more solid waste than the domestic population? The falsifiable hypothesis is stated in terms of the difference in the production of communal waste between domestic population and tourists, taking into account local idiosyncratic factors, when such a difference is recoverable through statistical analysis of measurable tourist presence in panel data. The first hypothesis is thus: The amount of solid waste produced by local residents in Croatian coastal municipalities diverges significantly in statistical terms from the amount of solid waste produced by tourists. The second hypothesis is: The amount of waste-streams is influenced by local idiosyncrasies of coastal settlements, their economic structure, per capita GDP and/or cultural background of local people. Our dataset is a panel of 160 municipalities in the Croatian coastal area spanned across a time period of 12 months during 2019, giving us a total of 1920 panel observations. We performed a Panel Estimated Generalized Least Squares cross-section fixed effects analysis with Panel Corrected Standard Errors on domestic population and tourist overnight stays and their solid waste generation. We used the above mentioned method to achieve better results with higher significance, and lower Standard Errors than comparable methods. We complemented the analysis with a dynamic Panel Generalized Method of Moments First Differences test. Results show a relatively larger relative impact of tourist overnight stays on municipal solid waste generation than what is to be expected from the locals only. Our different methods of analysis ended with non-contradicting results. The number of tourist overnight stays in some municipalities shadows the overnight stays of the local population as an indicator of solid waste generation, exacerbating the problem of sustainability of waste disposal. We conclude that the relative waste disposal impact of the tourists is at least 22% greater and possibly up to 55% greater than the one of local inhabitants, contradicting some other research. We also found evidence of possible Environmental Kuznets Curve behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]