Regional Labour Market Differences in Serbia: Assessment and Policy Recommendations

Creating effective employment policy to combat rising unemployment and widening regional labour market differences is a major task facing Serbian economic policy makers. In this paper we argue that the best results would be achieved if a differentiated approach to regional labour markets is adopted, resulting in regionally specific employment policies. Our paper presents an original methodology which uses relevant statistical data from various sources (altogether 21 indicators) in order to create compound indices which serve as means of a comprehensive regional labour market classification. The main composite indices contain indicators standardised and grouped so that they reveal multifaceted features of the regions. The first classification distinguishes between indicators depicting regional economic situation and development prospects, and the second between those of general economic conditions, labour market situation and restructuring dynamics. Finally, we suggest a simple two-dimensional taxonomy of regions with regard to their labour market situation and prospects. While regions with positive composite indices of both situation and prospects in general do not require additional intervention, regions in other three quadrants are recommended specific policy mix of employment policy measures and active labour market programmes tailored according to their characteristics revealed by the analysis.Unemployment; Employment Policy; Regional Development; Transition; Assessment Methodology

Poverty Analysis Within a General Equilibrium Framework

The main objective of this paper is to show how Social Accounting Matrices (SAM) and Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Models can be used to highlight and address issues related to income distribution and poverty. The paper is divided into two major parts. Part 1 presents the concept of the SAM as a comprehensive, consistent and disaggregated data system and shows how the SAM methodology can be used to analyze issues related to income distribution and, in a much more limited way, poverty. Part 2 is devoted to the presentation of a CGE model calibrated on an archetype African SAM (same as above). One innovation in the specification of the present CGE is that it goes part way in endogenizing the poverty line and the resulting poverty incidence among the different socioeconomic household groups and representing income distribution with a flexible Beta distribution function and using the F-G-T additively decomposable class of poverty measures. The model is used to simulate the impact of two exogenous shocks (a fall in the price of the export crop and an import tariff reform) specifically on poverty.Poverty, Computable General Equilibrium Model, Input Output Models

Breakthroughs in Shared Measurement and Social Impact

A surprising new breakthrough is emerging in the social sector: A handful of innovative organizations have developed web-based systems for reporting the performance, measuring the outcomes, and coordinating the efforts of hundreds or even thousands of social enterprises within a field. These nascent efforts carry implications well beyond performance measurement, foreshadowing the possibility of profound changes in the vision and effectiveness of the entire nonprofit sector. This paper, based on six months of interviews and research by FSG Social Impact Advisors, examines twenty efforts to develop shared approaches to performance, outcome, or impact measurement across multiple organizations. The accompanying appendices include a short description of each system and four more in-depth case studies

Gainsharing and Mutual Monitoring: A Combined Agency-Procedural Justice Interpretation

This study examines the behavioral consequences of gainsharing using a combined theoretical framework that includes elements of agency and procedural justice theory. The hypothesis tested is that gainsharing as a collective form of incentive alignment results in increased mutual monitoring among agents (employees) when the plan is perceived to be procedurally fair. The hypothesis was supported in two separate firms using a quasi-experimental field study. The implications of the study for future extensions of agency theory to examine intraorganizational phenomena are discussed

LESSONS IN EVALUATING COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGNS

Builds on the findings of the first and second papers. It examines specifically how campaigns with different purposes (individual behavior change and policy change) have been evaluated, and how evaluators have tackled some of the associated evaluation challenges that the first three papers raised as important to address. It features fi ve brief case studies in which the main unit of analysis is not the campaign, but the campaign's evaluation. The case studies provide a brief snapshot of the real experiences of campaign evaluations. The paper also features cross-case lessons that highlight important findings and themes

Barriers to industrial energy efficiency: a literature review

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