Volume 14 (2015): Edizione 4 (January 2015)

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of individual types of taxes on the economic growth by utilizing regression analysis on the OECD countries for the period of 2000–2011. The impact of taxation is integrated into growth models by its impact on the individual growth variables, which are capital accumulation and investment, human capital and technology. The analysis in this paper is based on extended neoclassical growth model of Mankiw, Romer and Weil (1992), and for the verification of relation between taxation and economic growth the panel regression method is used. The taxation rate itself is not approximated only by traditional tax quota, which is characteristic by many insufficiencies, but also by the alternative World Tax Index which combines hard and soft data. It is evident from the results of both analyses that corporate taxation followed by personal income taxes and social security contribution are the most harmful for economic growth. Concurrently, in case of the value added tax approximated by tax quota, the negative impact on economic growth was not confirmed, from which it can be concluded that tax quota, in this case as the indicator of taxation, fails. When utilizing World Tax Index, a negative relation between these two variables was confirmed, however, it was the least quantifiable. The impact of property taxes was statistically insignificant. Based on the analysis results it is evident that in effort to stimulate economic growth in OECD countries, economic-politic authorities should lower the corporate taxation and personal income taxes, and the loss of income tax revenues should be compensated by the growth of indirect tax revenues.

This paper presents an analysis of quality, customer satisfaction and business performance in food industry. The main objective of the research is to determine the influence of quality on customer satisfaction and on business performance and competitiveness. In particular, this paper answers the following research question: Does the quality of a product result in a satisfied customer and thereby in a well-performing business? Customer satisfaction is defined as the satisfaction of the customer with a product and the business performance as a capability to generate profit. Therefore, satisfaction was examined by the means of a survey using questionnaires, and the performance was measured by financial data. We managed to find a correlation between the main factors, although partial results were due more factors mostly statistically insignificant.

The paper analyses public subsidies aimed to enhance development and innovation in the Slovakian private sector. The paper reviews theoretical approaches of the necessity of public support to research and development activities in order to increase private investment in research and development. An overview of research and development support tools in Slovakia is presented. The analytical part of the work is oriented on a comparative analysis of two granting agencies in Slovakia [Agency for Research and Development (ARD) and Agency of Operational Program Research and Development (OPRD)]. Special attention is given to direct public financial support. Logit analysis showed a relationship between success of grant applicants and their characteristics. We find that the following have impact on success of the application: Age of the company, amount of the grant required, legal form of the company, and the agency to which the application for grant was submitted. Applicants with legal form Ltd. (limited liability company) have a higher chance of receiving grant than other legal forms. The highest chance of success has a request for a grant of up to 500.000 €. According to the results of our analysis, the chance to obtain a grant decreases with each passing year.

The income theory of money was conceived in the 19th century, and in the first half of the 20th century it formed the backbone of all the main monetary approaches of the time. Yet, since it did so mostly implicitly rather than explicitly, and since the later developments moved economic theory in a different direction, the income theory of money is hardly remembered at present. While mainly accounting for the origins of the approach, I am also offering a brief comparison with the present mainstream economics and I shortly address the question of the possible future of the theory too. The income theory of money explains how nominal prices are formed by interaction of nominal expenditures streams with real streams of goods sold. While various ideas leading to this theory were expressed already by John Law, Richard Cantillon, and Jean-Baptiste Say, it is perhaps only Thomas Tooke whom we might want to call the originator of the theory. Within the Classical School of Political Economy, Tooke's ideas were further elaborated by John Stuart Mill. The theory reached a momentous formulation in the works of Knut Wicksell, in many respects a similar exposition was delivered also by Friedrich Wieser. The recognition of the theory was impaired by a change of the main-stream paradigm as well as by a surge in emphasis laid on the quantitative modelling in economics. Yet, there are certain fundamental questions of the monetary theory which the general equilibrium style models cannot cope with, while the income theory of money can, at least to a certain degree. This might give the theory some hope for the future.

In paragraph 3 of its Article 3, the Treaty on European Union (TEU) requires the EU to go after the goal of a highly competitive social market economy for the first time. It is noticeable in the aforementioned Treaty clause that although it deals with the EU internal market, its authors burdened it with a mission that is far more socially-oriented than market-oriented. However, is „a highly competitive social market econo-my“ of today a meaningful goal and does the EU in its present form have the project and powers to achieve such an objective? The paper is a combination of economic and legal -political analysis through which the authors try to answer three main questions: What is the contemporary meaning of the term “social market economy” in the both economic and EU-law academic theory? Can the EU within the powers conferred to it positively fulfill such an objective, or can it just approach it by weakening the still pre-vailing tendency towards liberalization and deregulation brought about by the construc-tion of the EU internal market and by the promotion of its freedoms?

The purpose of this paper is to test hysteresis of the Romanian labour force participation rate, by using time series data, with quarterly frequency, covering the period 1999Q1-2013Q4. The main results reveal that the Romanian labour force participation rate is a nonlinear process and has a partial unit root (i.e. it is stationary in the first regime and non-stationary in the second one), the main breaking point being registered around year 2005. In this context, the value of using unemployment rate as an indicator for capturing joblessness in this country is debatable. Starting from 2005, the participation rate has not followed long-term changes in unemployment rate, the disturbances having permanent effects on labour force participation rate.