Suchergebnisse

In 2005 the relations of EU and Western Balkan countries were passed from "External Relations" to "Enlargement" policy. As WB countries make steps forward in the future membership of the EU, the diversity in society within the WB is expected to further increase. The aim of this paper is to find out the relationship between cultural diversity and ethnic fractionalization from one side and governance, competitiveness and human development from the other side. The paper opted to explore the ethnic diversity within the Western Balkan countries based on the latest data of census for each country and on the Distance Adjusted Ethno-Linguistic Fractionalization Index proposed by Kolo (2012). Furthermore, it compared the economic performance of these countries with the indicators of the ethnic diversity. Even though the literature argues that cultural diversity has negative impact on countries' performance, the study finds out that highly homogenous societies in WB are no more prone to good governance, global competitiveness and human development than highly heterogeneous societies within the region. In other words, countries with lower fractionalization index (such as Kosovo and Serbia) do not show a significantly higher performance than countries with higher fractionalization index (such as Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina). To sum up, the influence of regional geographic distance seems to be much more significant compared to cultural diversity because the economic capacity and performance of WB countries are found to be positive but still modest. The Western Balkan countries are having a considerable mixture of ethnicities, languages and religions. These varieties can push this group of countries to have a consensus among them in the economic aspects or to increase the gap among each other.

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Development economics is a field of study, trying to explore the reason of economic success and failures of different countries or regions in the world. It deals with important issues and gaps of 21st Century, such as poverty, inequality, education, health, demographic changes, migration, trade and globalization. Moreover, the basic issues of development economics have been in focus since 1776 within the famous book of Adam Smith "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations". Development economics, it can be argued, has to be concerned not only with protecting its "own" territory, but also with keeping alive the foundational motivation of the subject of economics in general. All the above-mentioned aspects on development economics are the main motivation of this paper. Furthermore, this study tries to analyze, synthesize and recapitulate the integration of teaching and learning in graduate studies. It is the case of an actual course, termed "Development and Growth", offered in the economics department of the Master of Science program. The study will cover two main analyses: the first analysis, dealing with the specifics of course organization and management and the second one, exploring the students' projects and their integration with the course.

Theoretical studies strongly support the positive effects of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the host country through technology transfer, human capital formation, etc. This study aims to examine the real effects of FDI in the economic growth of Albania, since FDI was one of the first pillars of the economy that the government gave priority to after 1990. This relationship was investigated by using the Co-Integration approach for the quarterly data from 1991 to 2012. The time series data are taken from the Bank of Albania. As expected, the empirical findings of this study reveal the existence of a long run relationship of GDP growth and FDI to GDP ratio. Being strongly correlated to each other, FDI to GDP ratio shows its significant contribution to Albanian economic growth. ; Analizy teoretyczne postulują pozytywny wpływ bezpośrednich inwestycji zagranicznych (BIZ) na Produkt Krajowy Brutto (PKB) kraju przyjmującego poprzez transfer technologii, rozwój kapitału ludzkiego, itd. Niniejsze opracowanie bada rzeczywiste efekty BIZ na wzrost gospodarczy w Albanii, gdzie BIZ stanowiły jeden z priorytetów i fundamentów polityki gospodarczej po 1990 r. Wykorzystano podejście kointegracyjne do przeanalizowania danych kwartalnych z lat 1991–2012. Dane pochodzą z Banku Albanii. Wykazano istotny związek długookresowy między dynamiką PKB i wskaźnikiem BIZ do PKB. Udowodniono, że przyrost BIZ w stosunku do PKB znacząco stymuluje wzrost gospodarczy w Albanii.

Intro -- Introduction (Klajdi Kaziu) -- Why the Balkans: Theoretical Perspectives (Sara Kelmendi & -- Reina Zenelaj Shehi) -- The Politics of Ethnic Identity in the Balkans (1): Case of Bosnia (Halisa Duka & -- Dajana Rroshi) -- The Politics of Ethnic Identity in the Balkans (II): Case of Kosovo (Eljod Hoxha) -- Comparing Kosovo with Bosnia Herzegovina: A History of Wars (Sara Malosmani) -- Ethnic Nationalism and Party Politics (Ajsela Toci, Shpat Blakcori & -- Dea Elmasllari) -- Successful Name Dispute Resolution Between Macedonia- Greece 1991-2018 (Dea Bashkurti) -- Institutional Adjustments (Livia Hodo) -- Financial Framework (Resilda Kalia) -- Education and Well Being in the Western Balkans: EU Integration Perspective (Lorela Kokalari & -- Eglantina Hysa) -- The Importance of Peace Education in Western Balkans (Albana Cekrezi & -- Hysni Skura) -- Concluding Perspective: EU Enlargement Perspective and Current Challenges of Western Balkans (Elena Pici & -- Jona Hoxhaj).

The purpose of this study is to identify the drivers of profitability for renewable energy companies in the European Union (EU) during the period of 2004–2018. Specifically, the study investigates the effect of firm-specific, country-specific, and macroeconomic factors on the profitability of the listed renewable energy companies that have their headquarters in the EU. The profitability is measured as return on assets (ROA) and Tobin's q. Factors that affect profitability are divided into three groups such as firm-specific, country-specific, and macroeconomic factors, and to provide consistent and unbiased results, distinct methods are used. The ordinary least square (OLS) and random effect Generalized Least Squares (GLS) model are employed first. Also, the two-step system generalized method of moments estimation is used to validate the hypotheses. The empirical findings show that firm-specific factors are more dominant in explaining profitability rather than macroeconomic factors. The dynamic models show that profit persists over the years. Also, it is revealed that firm size has a positive effect on profitability in all models. The hypothesis that firms' growth enhances profitability is evident in the short run, but in the long run, it is insignificant. The leverage has a positive effect on Tobin's q. In addition, the study finds that tradable green certificate schemes enhance long-term profitability (Tobin's q). The financial crises discourage the financial performance of renewable energy firms. The study has implications for managers and policymakers that should give importance to firm-specific factors and country-specific factors to promote the profitability of renewable energy companies in order to be sustainable by reducing energy import dependency and ensure energy for the future generation. Special attention should be given to support schemes toward renewable energy to be more effective and enhance firm profitability. The contribution of this paper is that it is the first study that examines the drivers ...

Women entrepreneurship is considered by many researchers as an imminent phenomenon of the 21st century, especially for developing countries. Due to its contribution to the economy and society, recent studies have focused on investigating its motivational factors, as well as achievements. Moreover, researchers have come up with different entrepreneurial perspectives in different societies and cultures and have called for further analysis. In this context, the main purpose of this research was to assess the driving factors, challenges, and perspectives of woman entrepreneurship in a post-communist country context. As part of the data collection process, a survey was conducted with 36 female entrepreneurs operating in the capital city of Albania, Tirana. The study results reveal that, even though there are no significant differences between the percentage of women who feel that they are being discriminated against and percentage of female entrepreneurs who perceive that their gender has positively affected the business growth, there is a positive significant difference regarding the percentages of women entrepreneurs who have been supported by their families and partners and those who have received heritage from their families. Special attention is addressed to the different factors that women experience in terms of entrepreneurial development. Another aim of this research is to provide different recommendations to be taken into consideration by the policymakers to improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Albania.

In the last decades, Albania has started the implementation of a new practice which is partnership with the private sector, named public–private partnership (PPP), due to the inabilities of the public sector to fulfill all its public needs. This represents a crucial ratio related to economic development and the struggle for a fair and transparent implementation process. Critical success factors (CSF) are the significant elements in the partnership which, if properly identified, provide success in implementation. For this reason, the purpose of this study is to highlight the factors which increase the chances of a successful implementation of PPPs in Albania and the items which contribute to each factor. The data used for the analysis were gained through 175 surveys conducted with people working in private and public institutions engaged in PPP. Of the main CSFs, the identification of the right project is ranked most critical to the success of PPP followed by financial capacity, trust, openness and fairness between parties, negotiation and defined revenue stream. The study findings further suggest that the accountability mechanism should be enforced in order for the public sector to act in accordance with the public interest. It is concluded that the findings of the study will guide the PPP stakeholders on the CSFs of PPPs in Albania.

This study aims to investigate some of the main macroeconomic determinants that have influenced the economic growth in 6 Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia). Data are taken for 18 years (2000-2017) from the World Bank database. Determinants included are inflation, foreign direct investment, interest rate, unemployment (percentage of the total labor force) and government spending (as a percentage of GDP). In the early 2000s, the region experienced rapid growth and faced many economic challenges but it still suffers from weak institutional reforms that prevent the region to reach high living standards of European countries. Because of previous studies by different authors, it is obvious that FDI is positively and significantly correlated with economic growth while in the other hand most of the studies found a negative but significant relationship between inflation, unemployment and government spending with GDP. As the results from VAR model indicate, macroeconomic determinants affects in different ways economic growth.