Suchergebnisse

The aim of the paper is to analyse how investing in young people affects the overall national competitiveness. According to the Global Competitiveness Report the top 15 countries hold the same position during couple years while some developing countries are changing ranks from the year to the year. There is no doubt that the financial crisis has the biggest impact on the macroeconomics factors and competitiveness in the most of countries. In past 6 years, some EU Member Countries are facing with the series challenges of the percentage of decline of the GDP, unemployment rate, world trade etc. The paper pays special attention to the labour market and higher education. The focus is on scores for the top 15 competitive countries and Balkan countries from the Global Competitiveness Report, which was presented at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. In order to be competitive scores of national competitiveness it's useful and the main of interest for policy makers and politicians who wants to improve the position of the country on the world level.

The choice to be an entrepreneur or employee is relatively new phenomena for the former socialist and communist countries that went through the process of transitions, mass privatization and restructuring. The first perquisite that enabled this choice were structural changes and reform measures. On the other hand, privatization, restructuring or shutting down the enterprises with socially owned capital left number of people jobless. This created a space for the development of entrepreneurial sector, where former employees could create job for themselves, but also could employ other people and create new jobs. During the period of transition new segment, of small and medium private enterprises and entrepreneurs, that emerged was supposed to be one of the main drivers for economic growth and development in Serbia. Unfortunately, policy makers missed an opportunity to create a sustainable and favourable business environment that would stimulate and foster entrepreneurial spirit in transitional years. Stable macroeconomic environment is essential perquisite for favourable business environment, boosting entrepreneurial spirit and developing the SMEs segment. Unfortunately, the business environment in Serbia is not favourable and is characterized by high unemployment, high level and constant growth of external and public debt, low level of investment and slow level of recovery from the economic crisis. On the other hand starting a business has a lot of obstacle. Bureaucracy is complicated, no enough sources of finance are available for startups and existing companies and also there are a lot of fiscal and para-fiscal burdens. The labour market in Serbia is underdeveloped with low labour mobility, devastated transition downturn in conditions of political instability, wars and economic sanctions. Since the beginning of the transition, the employment rate is falling, but on the other hand the number of people employed in the public sector is rising (with the exception of the last year and the program of downsizing in public sector). This led to the paradox that the average wages in the private sector are lower than in the public administration, while terms and conditions are harder. Having this in mind, a trend of aspiration towards employment in public sector is identified in Serbia. Job is relatively easier than in the private sector, wages and conditions are better. However, it is necessary to mention that the last downsizing in public sector brought uncertainty in this segment also. The most optimistic estimates are that during 2015 and 2016 the number of employees will be reduced by 20 percent in the public sector. Having in mind all this it is not surprising that the option of being an entrepreneur gains importance.

The aim of the paper is to show the position of female leaders in business and political spheres in Serbia and surrounding countries. Women fought for their equality in society in the early 21st century, but not so successfully in some countries of Eastern Europe. The Parliaments of several EU member states have almost equal number of men and women (Finland, Sweden, Iceland), while Bosnia and Herzegovina has about 17% of female MPs. This problem is present not just in the political but also in the business sphere. The paper specifies the reasons such as traditional attitude and mentality of the Balkan people as well as the lack of trust that women can coordinate a group of people and act as leaders in society. The literature review shows that other authors explain it by inadequate implementation of the Strategy on Gender Equality and Government's inability to solve the problem.

The paper presents analysis of the achieved development level of the housing market in Serbia. Various factors that have shaped demand and supply are systematized and their impact over the last decade was analysed and monitored. As important ones demographic, macroeconomic and financial factors are singled out and a special importance is given to the analysis of specific historical and socio-political circumstances that have influenced the development of the housing market during the period of analysis.

European monetary integration or the Eurozone is the greatest achievement in the history of European integration. There were many crises in the EU, certain problems and disagreements in the Eurozone, internal troubles caused by a lack of respect for rules, but the true sustainability test came with the global credit crunch. The EU's first response to the crisis was mostly on a national level was not coordinated at union scale and it came quite late. A series of rescue operations started with Greece and continued with Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and most recently with Cyprus. European Monetary Union terms were defined as political compromise, where economic theory that could provide long-term sustainability was neglected. This crisis also showed that Eurozone has turned into two-tier community with the core (first division) and the fringe countries (second division). The Eurozone is considered to be a greatest achievement, but also it turned out to be the weakest link and the biggest threat and danger to the European Union.

The aim of this paper is to study municipal green bonds as fixed-income instruments used for environmentally friendly projects. This research was motivated by the absence of an effective global CO2 pricing scheme, making green bonds one of the most important instruments to tackle climate change. After an overview of the U.S. municipal green bond market, yields of municipal green bonds vs. ordinary municipal bonds were analysed. S&P U.S. Municipal Green Bond Index and S&P U.S. Municipal Bond Index were used in the study. The methodological framework includes a review of relevant literature, descriptive statistics with correlation analysis and hypotheses testing. As initially expected, significant positive correlation between green bond and ordinary bond yields was found, where green municipal bonds generate slightly lower yields than otherwise similar ordinary bonds. The existence of a statistically significant yield discount, i.e., a green premium, has not been confirmed.

Given the importance of digital financial services on financial inclusion, the authors examined the socio-demographic characteristics of users of digital financial services in the Republic of Serbia. The authors hypothesized that age, education, employment, and income are key socio-demographic characteristics that have influenced digital financial services. The Global Findex database of the World Bank was used to analyze the socio-demographic characteristics of digital financial service users in the Republic of Serbia, with a sample of 1000 inhabitants older than 15 years. To test differences between the analyzed characteristics, a t-test was applied using SPSSv25. The results show a difference among most of the analyzed characteristics. Socio-demographic characteristics, apart from gender and income, are statistically significant. The results show a statistically significant difference in the age of users of digital financial services and non-users of digital financial services. Also, users of digital financial services are highly educated and more often employed. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the average user of digital financial services is younger, more educated, more often employed and uses various banking services, such as credit and debit cards, savings and borrowing more often than non-users of these services.