Suchergebnisse

Abstract
The important role of the banking sector in the economic development of the country imposes the need for continuous measurement and monitoring of bank efficiency. Besides, identifying industry-specific and macroeconomic factors that affect the achieved efficiency is an important task in order to detect potential disruptions, as well as to provide adequate guidelines to improve the efficiency. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to quantify the achieved efficiency and uncover its determinants. The study is conducted in two stages. In the first stage, using the DEA method, the efficiency of banks for the period from 2005 to 2022 will be assessed, while in the second stage, the factors of efficiency will be determined by applying Tobit regression. The results indicate that when it comes to industry-specific factors, greater market concentration unfavourably affects the efficiency of banks. Regarding the macroeconomic factors, the growth of gross domestic product, inflation rate and global financial crisis have a significant influence on the achieved level of bank efficiency in the Republic of Serbia. In addition to expanding the existing knowledge on quantification of efficiency and defining the determinants of efficiency on the example of banks in the Republic of Serbia, the results in this paper also hold relevance to policymakers and practitioners.

Dynamics in global processes have led to a number of political, economic and cultural changes that have resulted in the emergence of global cities. In the hierarchy of global cities, those who successfully use the limited available resources and offer an adaptable and flexible living environment, represent the most competitive global cities. Nonetheless, accelerated globalization has conditioned direct competition of global cities for different resources, and one of the most desirable being highly-skilled, talented and creative residents. In such conditions, city leaders face the need to understand the concept and factors of urban magnetism. The analysis of the determinants of urban magnetism can facilitate the formulation of concrete actions aimed at increasing the attractiveness of the city, which ultimately leads to the preservation of long-term socio-economic development of cities. Although financial wellbeing and incentives were considered to be a key factor of urban magnetism, contemporary research approaches have emphasized other factors that may influence urban attractiveness. Starting from that point of view, this paper aims to identify the main urban functions that influence the cities' size with an analysis focusing on global cities worldwide. The panel regression analysis is applied to the sample of 39 global cities over the period from 2013 until 2019 and the data on urban functions are obtained from the Global Power City Index (GPCI). The results indicate that the size of the global cities population is positively affected by urban functions related to the cultural interaction and accessibility, while research and development function influences negatively on the size of the urban population. Results of the paper led to the conclusion that contemporary urban management strategies need to be defined and implemented aimed at improving the urban magnetism beyond economic performance of the city, focusing on sustainability and urban quality of life.

Abstract
Measurement and evaluation of the bank's operations efficiency requires analytical techniques that provide data beyond those available from the standard analysis of financial statements. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a mathematical programming technique that offers valuable insights in finding inefficient banks taking into account the scope of the services and resources used to provide these banking services. The results of the DEA analysis can provide significant information to the bank's management that can supplement the information obtained using traditional techniques for assessing efficiency. The assessment of banks' efficiency in the Republic of Serbia is of particular importance due to intense competition and implemented banking reforms. Therefore, in this paper DEA analysis will be applied for the examination and assessment of the efficiency of the operations of Serbian banks during the period 2014-2016. The analysis will show which of the banks operates efficiently, where the efficiency of the banks is not at a satisfactory level, as well as the potential reasons for inefficiency.

The paper explores the mismatch between the skills and qualifications required by the labour market and those acquired through education and on-the-job learning. The skill mismatch in transition economies tends to be even more pronounced as the labour markets in these countries are characterized by structural unemployment, affecting both older workers with obsolete skills and the young ones. Employers face poor incentives for investing in workforce skill development, due to the inadequate investment climate and volatile business environment. Transition countries face increasing outward mobility of an educated workforce, loss of human capital, and shortage of workforce in the fields such as ICT, medicine, science and research. The research is based on empirical data generated in a survey on ICT and manufacturing enterprises in the City of Niš, Serbia. The research methodology combines workers' self-assessment method for the skill gap measurement and the competence approach combined with the statistical methods. The findings indicate the presence of a qualification mismatch, in the form of the over-qualification as a dominant irregularity in the analysed labour market. The results of the study are expected to contribute to creating a network of policy instrumentaria that tend to be effective on a sub-national level in addressing the mismatch. ; Ovaj rad istražuje neusklađenost između vještina i kvalifikacija koje zahtijeva tržište rada i onih koje se stječu obrazovanjem i učenjem na radnom mjestu. Neusklađenost vještina u tranzicijskim gospodarstvima ima tendenciju da bude još izraženija budući da tržišta rada u tim zemljama karakterizira strukturna nezaposlenost, koja istovremeno pogađa i starije radnike sa zastarjelim vještinama i mlade. Poslodavci se suočavaju s lošim poticajima za ulaganje u razvoj vještina radne snage zbog neodgovarajuće investicijske klime i nestabilnog poslovnog okruženja. Zemlje u tranziciji suočavaju se sa sve većom vanjskom mobilnošću obrazovane radne snage, gubitkom ljudskog kapitala i nedostatkom radne snage u područjima kao što su ICT, medicina, znanost i istraživanje. Istraživanje se temelji na empirijskim podacima prikupljenim u anketi o ICT-u i proizvodnim poduzećima u gradu Nišu u Srbiji. Metodologija istraživanja kombinira metodu samoprocjene radnika za mjerenje jaza u vještinama i pristup temeljen na kompetencijama u kombinaciji sa statističkim metodama. Nalazi ukazuju na prisutnost kvalifikacijske neusklađenosti, u vidu prekvalificiranosti za posao kao dominantne nepravilnosti na analiziranom tržištu rada. Očekuje se da će rezultati studije doprinijeti stvaranju mreže političkih instrumenata koji imaju tendenciju da budu učinkoviti na podnacionalnoj razini u rješavanju neusklađenosti.

Abstract
Economic growth and competitiveness are usually analysed at the level of the national economy in traditional economic research. The problem of competitiveness within this line of thought is mainly regarded from the perspective of determining the sources of sustainable growth, which makes the economy more competitive than others. Competitiveness, therefore, is a multidimensional concept, which includes a range of factors, such as institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, market, human capital and technological development. Also, the process of joining the European Union significantly stimulates the development of the exact categories that are relevant for acceleration of the economic development. The aim of the paper is to assess the competitiveness of the candidate or potential candidate countries for membership in the European Union, through a comparative analysis of their competitiveness vis-à-vis EU countries. The results indicate that the competitiveness of the EU 15 countries, measured by Global Competitiveness Index and GDP per capita, is statistically significantly higher than the competitiveness of EU country group enlarged in the period 2004-2013, also compared to EU candidate or potential candidate countries. However, when it comes to the pillar of competitiveness related to the macroeconomic environment, according to the latest Global Competitiveness Report (2017-2018), the scores of the EU countries associated with enlargements in the period 2004-2013 are statistically significantly better than the EU 15 countries.

Since economic theory identifies new enterprises as one of the basic drivers of economic growth, it brings to the forefront the need to understand the existing dynamics of entrepreneurship. Consequently, the identification of the basic entrepreneurship's determinants is a central issue from both a theoretical and a practical point of view in contemporary literature. A better understanding of the factors influencing the dynamics of entrepreneurship is a basic precondition for creating effective policies aimed at encouraging the creation of new companies, and consequently, the creation of new jobs. Therefore, this paper addresses several important issues. From the theoretical standpoint, the role of entrepreneurial determinants in creating a new business is examined. From a practical standpoint, the basic formal institutional factors influencing the birth rate of new companies are analyzed. The analysis was conducted on a sample of European Union countries for the period from 2010 to 2019 using data from the World Bank's Doing Business database, as well as data on business dynamics from the Eurostat database. A panel data regression analysis using the fixed-effects estimation procedure with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors was conducted, and the results indicate that the dynamics of new enterprises' foundation are negatively affected by the total tax burden, as well as the cost of property registration, while the amount of initial capital required to open a business has a positive impact. The results of the research can serve as a basis for fine-tuning policies that will facilitate and encourage the creation of new enterprises.