H51 - National Government Expenditures and HealthNávrat zpět

This paper deals with the topic of measurement of education services. The main part of output of education services is considered to be non-market in the Czech Republic and it is estimated a sum of related costs. Deflation has been traditionally done using input method i.e. recalculation of each component separately. The main drawback of this method is an assumption of direct correlation between changes in inputs and changes in output. Productivity can not be estimated therefore output methods based on direct volume measurement are now preferred for individual services. Methodology of direct volume measurement of education services has been developed in the paper. This approach is based on number of students in detailed breakdown weighted by costs in order to include changes in the structure of fields of study. Estimates are available since 2004 as data sources are available. Besides estimates of development of non-market output development of all education services is estimated.

Slovak Republic as well as many other OECD countries has faced significant increase of health expenditures in last decades. Sustainability of health care public component is therefore and mainly on the ground of ageing of population a political and scientific challenge for many countries. Paper pursues ex ante sustainability of health care system in Slovak Republic. By using modified models of International Labour Organization and European Commission and exogenous macroeconomic and population expectations we forecasts revenues, expenditures and also sustainability of the health care policy scenarios until year 2030. We identified possible changes in the income and expenditures policies for the Slovak health system, which can lead to improve balance of whole system by assumed population and macroeconomic scenarios.

The paper aims at the correspondence of the health care financing systems to the social models (welfare regimes) as defined in the social theory and policy, including the trends in the OECD and CEE countries and utilizing the lessons from typical countries. We compare the liberal, social-democratic, conservative and neo-liberal models of health care financing, mentioning the Communist model and the single-payer system as well. The National Health Service model may also today be considered as a viable, social-democratic model of the basic health protection. The social health insurance model was markedly modified by the transition to the universal health care provision to all residents and there are strengthening tendencies to the split-off of the health insurance from the social insurance system; the result might be a transition to the NHS model or, on the contrary, to the neo-liberal mandatory private insurance system. The choice of the health care financing is a question a political, economic and social choice and the particular solution is not seldom also substantially influenced by the stakeholders. That is why there are also substantial deviations of the paradigmatic reforms from the corresponding theoretical models.

Mental health has an economic impact on both individuals and societies. There is lack of information on total cost of mental illness in the Czech Republic, especially on social services financed by municipalities and private resources. In the health sector, the share of mental health expenditures is estimated to be 3-4 % of total health expenditures. In the social security system, mental illness is responsible for 3.3 % of total sick-days, 14.2 % of full disability pensions and 9.5 % of partial disability pensions. The estimated mental health expenditures amount 15 362 millions CZK in the health sector and from the social security in 2006, which makes 0.48 % of gross domestic product. If the level of expenditures on mental health is interpreted as an indicator of the society's commitment to mental health, then mental health has a relatively low priority in the Czech Republic.

This article focuses on common and different attributes of education and health from economic and social perspective. Education and health are not usually analyzed together so this could be considered to be an innovative approach. Article contains knowledge which reflects empirically known dependencies in the area of education and health determinants and relationships of education and health to human capital. It also emphasizes and argues for the importance of lifelong learning and availability of high-quality health care as economic development prerequisites. While the education and health is by its own nature bound to an individual and its investments, the question of equal chances to educate and consume health care is highly important in the modern society. Based on the identified attributes and relationships of education and health, the article shows their economic characteristic, social aspects and summarizes their importance for the economic development.

During the transition of the central planned economies to the market system unemployment has become one of the most serious problems. The article describes the current state of unemployment in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Using models of marginal effective tax rates developed by the OECD we discuss the influence of wage taxation, social security contributions and the benefit system on taxpayers' incomes and therefore on the motivation to work. The first part describes alternative indicators for measuring taxation of labor, analyses the methodology of measuring marginal effective tax rates and shows the calculated results. The next part discuses the influence of these effective tax rates and benefit systems on the taxpayers' net incomes and analyses possibilities of poverty traps for households, especially for low-wage taxpayers. The results show that efforts to reduce poverty hardly reduced work incentives in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.