ANALYSIS OF THE REGIONAL EFFICIENCY IN CROATIA USING FISCAL INDICATORS – A NONPARAMETRIC APPROACH

The uneven economic growth of Croatian counties points to the need for an analysis of their relative efficiency. Among other things, it would be interesting to focus the research on indicators under the dominant influence of fiscal policy. This is exactly the subject of this paper, and the research covers the period from 2002 to 2015 and includes six indicators which are to a greater or lesser extent related to fiscal policy measures. The dynamic analysis is conducted empirically, using the nonparametric method of data envelopment analysis (DEA), at the county level at which are also given the guidelines for necessary improvements, which is novel in comparison to previous literature. The obtained results of 21 counties’ efficiency confirmed the hypothesis of significant inter-county disparities and the leading position of the City of Zagreb in the sense of selected indicators, also pointing to inefficiency sources among which the most prominent is the number of employees of local and regional self-government units. The results should serve the economic policy makers in the efforts to improve fiscal decisions with the aim of reducing regional differences.