Administrative Barriers in the Field of Employment in the EU: Empirical Evidence from Croatia and Slovenia

Purpose: Administrative barriers to employment pose a problem in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) which have an essential role in the European economy, compared to large ones. The existing rigidity and inflexibility of the labor market have further slowed down their position in creating new jobs. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to evaluate the current state of administrative barriers to employment for SMEs in Croatia and Slovenia. Design/methodology/approach: Applying descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) on a survey data for 699 Croatian and 747 Slovenian SMEs. Findings: The empirical results on a sample of about 700 SMEs for both countries expose some differences between them. In respect of administrative barriers to employment for SMEs, the most noticeable problem in Croatia is associated to frequent changes in the regulation, while in Slovenia the most highlighted problem is associated to additional time and unnecessary number of documents. Moreover, the empirical results reveal significant differences concerning the perception of the extent of administrative barriers to employment between different groups of SMEs, whereby not all of the characteristics have the same implications on this perception. Practical Implications: The overall findings are important especially for economic policy makers, who need to consider the specific characteristics and needs of SMEs when preparing legislation. Originality/Value: The combination of primary research and comparative perspective represents the main originality and value of the paper.