Several Eastern European countries have been flirting with various forms of a “retailer tax.” This tax is similar (but not equal) to the value added tax (VAT) and the sales tax. The proclaimed aim of the tax is to “punish” international retail chains, who have been repeatedly blamed for problems of local farmers and the local fo...
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The tax policy public discussion in Slovakia has been overwhelmed by a single topic during the last three months – the retailer tax. After a presidential veto, the law was voted on again in the national parliament and passed with a narrow margin of 78 in favor (out of 76 needed).
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The Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS) first introduced its Bureaucracy Index in Slovakia in 2016 to draw the attention to the amount of red tape a small entrepreneur has to overcome on a daily basis just to do business.
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There are hundreds of international commemorative days (Wikipedia lists almost 800), varying from the International Beer Day through the Hobbit Day, up to more the serious world AIDS Day or Pneumonia Day.
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Last week, 25 think tank professionals from 23 different organizations in 19 different countries across Europe gathered together in the “capital of Europe” for a Think Tank Essentials training. At first glance, Brussels may seem like an odd venue. As the seat of many offices of the European Union, the city can seem very bureaucr...
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The Leveraging Indices for Free Enterprise Policy Reform, or “LIFE,” project was designed to promote policy reforms that demonstrably move the needle on economic policy, measured by marginal change in a specific prominent ranking or index. Such indices include the Doing Business Index by the World Bank Group, the Economic Freedo...
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Business owners in Slovakia spend 164 hours annually navigating the country’s daunting regulatory web. That number comes from the Institute of Economic and Social Studies’s (INESS) latest Bureaucracy Index. Since its start in 2006, INESS has advocated for more economic competition in Slovakia. For years, this Atlas Network partn...
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Thinking big is important for the cause of economic freedom, and achieving real wins is what thinking big is all about. Argentina wasn’t the only place our partners thought big and won. Here are nine more countries where Atlas Network invested successfully in recent victories for economic freedom by our independent, local partne...
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Populist parties preaching nationalism and protectionism received over 8 percent of the total vote in Slovakia’s 2016 parliamentary elections. The majority of these votes came from the younger generation, participating in elections for the first time. This populist appeal stems from many of the false promises the parties have ma...
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Twenty participants from 17 think tanks in 10 countries from around Europe gathered in Bratislava, Slovakia, July 20-23, 2017, to participate in Atlas Network’s annual Think Tank Essentials Workshop in Europe. This course is part of Atlas Network’s robust coaching and training programs under Atlas Leadership Academy.
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Modern Slovakia is like night and day compared to its years under communist rule, before the 1989 Velvet Revolution hastened the end of communist control, ultimately dissolving the Soviet Union in 1991. The nation has forged its own path since its Velvet Divorce separated Slovakia from the Czech Republic only two years after tha...
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Small entrepreneurs in Slovakia spend 140 hours annually — about 17.5 full working days — navigating the country’s complex regulatory red tape. That’s one of the startling findings from the new “Bureaucracy Index” launched by the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS), an Atlas Network partner based in Slovakia. Those...
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For the past two years, Slovakia has placed 29th out of 189 measured global economies in the World Bank Group’s “Doing Business” rankings. The country has stellar ratings for registering property and ranks highest in the world for the ease of trading across borders, but these are counterbalanced by much lower ratings for crucial...
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The inaugural Europe Liberty Forum, held June 8–9 in London and co-hosted by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), focused on spreading the ideas of freedom to millions in the United Kingdom, Europe, and beyond. “Think tanks should make life of all established political parties uncomfortable,” said Member of Parliament Dougla...
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The cost of government is often a mystery for ordinary taxpayers, whose money is taken and funneled into an endless array of programs and expenses with opaque accountability. A new tax and budget calculator website, created by the Austrian Economics Center and the F. A. v. Hayek Institute, Atlas Network partners based in Austria...
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Economic inequality is a continual theme among the progressive left and their favorite academics, like French economist Thomas Piketty and his popular tome calling for global redistributionist taxation to correct this perceived problem. Economists who have examined both the data and underlying theory carefully, though, have foun...
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Conference presentations are too often one-sided, with a speaker and a crowd of listeners who don’t interact much apart from perhaps a few token exchanges during a Q&A session. Atlas Network sought to introduce an innovative format at the 2015 Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner by hosting an Un-Conference session, which brings a wor...
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To achieve tangible, real-world impact in the think tank world, measuring the outcomes and results of our work is a key ingredient of the equation. In order advance this goal, Atlas Network has proposed using reputable international rankings or indices and then objectively assessing the results of think tanks’ work as they try t...
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The Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS), based in Bratislava, Slovakia, is dedicated to scaling back the high taxes levied on its citizens. When speaking with young people throughout the country, INESS found that many Slovaks incorrectly believed that social benefits given to the Romani (a minority group within Slov...
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The Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS), an Atlas Network partner, just released the English version of The 2014 Universe of Public Expenditures, a poster with a graphical representation of all public expenditures financed by taxes and contributions in the state of Slovakia. The highly detailed graphic allows citize...
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Slovakia’s Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS) produces a tool to help explain to people where their taxes go and what they are actually contributing to for public services…a cash register receipt. This is part of the Price of the State project by INESS, an Atlas Network partner. The most recent receipt revealed som...
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