INESS

Several existing competitiveness rankings assess factors like law enforcement, infrastructure, and tax law from a business perspective. However, these often lack an accessible, practical translation of how these factors impact the daily operations of small businesses. The Bureaucracy Index was launched in 2016 by the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS) to address this gap.

I recently overheard an interview in which the irrationality of Slovaks who refuse to buy more economically advantageous electric cars was criticized. Quite often, I encounter the fact that owners of electric vehicles fail to look at this problem through the eyes of the average driver. First, it is important to realize that the average Slovak drives either a second-hand car or his old car. In September alone, 5,000 individually imported cars were registered in Slovakia.

Russia\'s economic landscape is under strain. In this interview, Martin Vlachynsky, an analyst from INESS, sheds light on the complexities of Russia\'s current economic policies, their implications for businesses and ordinary citizens, and how the ongoing war continues to shape the country\'s financial reality.

The current process of negotiating salary increases for public servants should also be seen in the context of international comparisons. Slovakia spends the most on salaries in the whole V4, not only as a share of total public administration expenditure but also as a share of GDP. In these comparisons, Slovakia spends more than the EU average.

In its program statement, the government announced its intention to increase the progressivity of personal taxation. In the budget plan, it already speaks specifically of the intention to \"introduce 3rd and 4th personal income tax rates from 2025,\" which is expected to increase public revenues by EUR 78 million. A 3rd rate of 30% is to apply to annual personal income above EUR 80 000.

The EU recently adopted a directive to tackle the gender pay gap by introducing new bureaucratic obligations for employers. Similarly, the EU is pushing on other issues in the fight for gender equality, for example in the area of the low proportion of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects, which reaches 33%. Consequently, women make up the same proportion (33%) of employees in technical sectors.

On April 30, 2024 - almost exactly one year later - INESS, in cooperation with the Austrian Economics Center, organized the popular Free Market Road Show - and again on a highly topical subject. This year marks not only the 20th anniversary of Slovakia\'s EU membership but also our 20 years in the European Single Market, which recently celebrated its 30th birthday.

On April 17, 2024, INESS organized a roundtable on the upcoming analysis of high infant mortality in Roma communities. After the presentation of the analysis prepared by Matej Bárta, the participants discussed various aspects of the issue. Our ongoing project, supported by the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, aims to support and improve policies to reduce extremely high infant mortality with the help of educational change.

Yes, this comment is about European regulations. It started with curved cucumbers and today not a day goes by that I do not send a few swear words in the direction of the Belgian capital over some minor but all the more annoying interference in my life. Somewhere high above, noble intentions such as privacy, space for competitors, or less waste are floating around, but at the end of the day, Kafkaesque bizarreness falls out of it.

We all want higher wages for less work. This explains why the four-day working week is such a popular topic in the media. But it is even less of a justification for the emotions that run high when the subject is discussed. These, in turn, prevent rational argumentation and consideration of all the problems with this popular proposal.