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

COMPAS - Copenhagen Model for Passenger Activity Scheduling

The focus of the paper resides in a description of the proposed structure for a travel demand model for Copenhagen (section 3). The model is named COMPAS, which is an acronym for Copenhagen Model for Passenger Activity Scheduling. COMPAS belongs to the family of activity based demand models that are theoretically superior to the conventional trip based demand models. These two groups of models are compared in a separate section of the article (section 2)

Spatial Data Harmonisation in Regional Context in Accordance with INSPIRE Implementing Rules

Spatial data seamless exchange and interoperable usage has become a necessity in efficient data management and competitive positioning in the European Union. Conceptual and technical framework for the spatial data and services interoperability is specified within the EU INSPIRE Directive. The Directive provides flexible and modular structure, giving the opportunity for customisation of the data specifications and usage. From the data publisher level to the European spatial data infrastructure, this opened the question of disharmony of the spatial data structure and sharing. Arisen challenges in data harmonisation process are thus subject of interest for different formalisation approaches. This study approaches the spatial data harmonisation process focusing on the area of Western Balkans, the region of Europe with countries that have similar interest for implementation of the INSPIRE Directive. With the main aim to propose the improvement to regional data harmonisation process, the study is focused on geology as the spatial theme. The study (1) analyses the INSPIRE data harmonisation process, (2) assesses critical factors of the process in the region and (3) tests the implementation of the INSPIRE data model harmonised in accordance with user needs. Results of the analysis present the structure and formalisation concepts of the INSPIRE data model, its extensibility, means for securing interoperability and standardised approach in defining data model elements. Critical factors of the harmonisation process are assessed through semi-structured questionnaire answered by competent representatives of the Western Balkans countries. The results show that, on a regional level, spatial data managers have made progress towards compliance and are familiar with the Directive. However, they lack a coordinated approach and implementation guidance. Aside from the low capacities, due to the current state of the data structures, harmonisation is a highly complex process and a goal that is difficult to reach. The outcomes of the INSPIRE defined harmonisation process and user needs are implemented on a practical example, a INSPIRE Theme Geology dataset from a Western Balkans region stakeholder. The user needs and data model structure characteristics of the regional geology dataset were integrated in the formal description of the source and transformed to target INSPIRE data model. The concept required structuring the source model to meet both INSPIRE and local requirements. The study general aim was reached by implementing the INSPIRE data harmonisation with fulfilling the main objectives – creating market-oriented, interoperable and accessible dataset, meeting national legal requirements towards the geological data management and increasing efficiency of data usage. Further application of the developed approach is seen as the implementation methodology for other INSPIRE themes and other geographical regions.Spatial data seamless usage and exchange has become a necessity in management of natural resources, environmental risk assessment, infrastructural planning and various other industrial domains. Framework for spatial data seamless usage is specified within the EU INSPIRE Directive on the continent-wide level. The Directive enables customisation of the data specifications and usage. However, high-level specification raised the issue of disharmony of the spatial data structure and sharing on regional level. Challenges in data harmonisation process therefore became subject of interest for different research approaches. This study approaches the spatial data harmonisation process focusing on the area of Western Balkans, the region of Europe with countries that have similar interest for implementation of the INSPIRE Directive. With the main aim to propose the improvement to regional data harmonisation process, the study is focused on geology as the spatial theme. The study assesses the regional needs and, in that light, develops the example of geological spatial data harmonisation. The needs and the critical factors of the harmonisation process are assessed through a questionnaire answered by competent representatives of the Western Balkans countries. It was found that spatial data managers in the region have made progress towards compliance and are familiar with the Directive. However, they lack a coordinated approach and implementation guidance. Moreover, the current state of the datasets structure makes harmonisation a complex process and a goal that is difficult to reach. Geology dataset from a Western Balkans region stakeholder was used as a practical example for testing the harmonisation process in accordance with user needs and INSPIRE requirements. The result was harmonised INSPIRE conformant spatial dataset, with validated seamless sharing and usage possibilities of the spatial dataset on both local and EU-wide level. The study showed the possibility of applying the INSPIRE data harmonisation, with fulfilling the main objectives of (1) creating market-oriented, interoperable and accessible dataset, (2) meeting national legal requirements towards the geological data management and (3) increasing efficiency of data usage. Further application of the presented approach is seen as the implementation methodology for other spatial themes and different geographical regions

Application of Models based on Stated and Revealed Preference Data for Forecasting Danish International Freight Transport

Under the umbrella of TRANSFORSK '95 projects, TetraPlan AS has developed a mode choice model for Danish international freight transport. The objective of the model is to forecast the future demands for rail and sea transports relative to lorry transport, when supply variables change. To achieve the above goal a number of ideas are built in the model structure. These ideas are listed below:* To combine data in the model structure not only different in their nature, i.e., revealed and/vs. stated preference data, but also data collected in a number of independent domestic freight projects,* To include as many variables in the model structure, which can be found in the revealed preference data, and measure their importance in the fore-casts relative to transport costs and transport time, and* To find a method of how variables found only in the stated preference data can be used for the forecasting purposes

Values of travel time in the AKTA project

AKTA (http://www.akta-kbh.dk) is a research study under the EU-project PROGRESS (www.progress-project.org), which is part of the EU’s 5th framework programme named ‘The Growth Programme on Sustainable Mobility and Intermodality’. The programme supports several studies related to road pricing and similar subjects in traffic planning. PROGRESS includes eight European cities that research in different types of tolls. These cities are Bristol and Edinburgh (UK), Genoa and Rom (Italy), Helsinki (Finland), Trondheim (Norway), Gothenburg (Sweden) and Copenhagen. AKTA’s deadline is in autumn 2003, after a 31⁄2 year long project period. The budget in the study is about DKK 13.5 million. More about the project itself can be found in Nielsen & Herslund, 2002 and Nielsen & Jovicic, 2003. The aim of the paper is to present the obtained values of travel time (VOT) in the AKTA SP project. Basis for the VOT is Stated Preference (SP) data, which has been collected specifically for the purposes of the project. Three main effects are described in the paper: methodological effect; respondents’ perception of VOT based on presented travel costs versus travel distances in the SP experiments, theoretical effect; differences in the obtained VOT based on ordinary MNL models and Error Component (EC) models, and income effect; differences in the obtained VOT with and without the income effect. Section two describes AKTA’s SP survey. The following section depicts some important theoretical aspects of the VOT in logit models. Section four is the main part of the paper where the modelling work is presented. Concluding discussion and remarks are given in the last section

Evaluation of Some Important Quality Parameters in Long-distance Goods Transport: - results from a stated preference analysis

Luft- og støjforureningen og antallet af trafikulykker vil stige dramatisk i de kommende år som følge af flere og flere lastbiler på Europas veje. I følge officielle prognoser forventes det, at i år 2010 vil ca. 85% af den samlede godstransport inden for EU´s 15 medlemslande blive transporteret med lastbil mod ca. 50% i 1970 og ca. 70% i 1992.For at få vendt eller i det mindste bremset denne udvikling er det nødvendigt med en større viden om og forståelse af hvilke transportkvaliteter, de mere miljøvenlige transportformer som bane og søtransport, skal tilbyde for at kunne konkurrere med lastbilen. Transportkvalitetens betydning skal ses både fra transportkøbernes og transportudbydernes side.I studiet interviewes 140 transportkøbere og transportudbydere fordelt over hele landet. Det pc-baserede interviewskema inderholder to typer af spørgsmål: Rangordning og værdisætning af 8 på forhånd definerede kvalitetsparametre med udgangspunkt firmaets nuværende transportpolitik, og Hypotetiske spørgsmål (Stated Preference spil), hvor transportkvaliteterne grupperes med henblik på at definere forskellige transportalternativer. Det observeres, hvorledes respondenternes valg af alternativer skifter, når transportvilkårerne(kvaliteterne) ændres. I dette notat beskrives den anvendte metode og de foreløbige resultater af analyserne

Analyses of the competitiveness of Novi Sad as a regional congress destination

On the congress tourism market, especially in Europe where are held the largest number of congress, is extremely high competition between countries for the host role of the large international meetings that bring not only economic prosperity to the country, but can contribute to its destination image. Apart from the traditional congress destinations, many new congress destinations have been appeared on the European tourism market. The convention market worldwide, and especially in Europe with its wide range of traditional and new Meetings and MICE infrastructure, is extremely competitive. Identifying existing competitors as well as potential ones, is an integral part of successful management of tourism (congress) destination. The aim of the study is to analyse the competitive position of Novi Sad as a congress destination by comparison with the major competitors in the region