FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN TIMES OF ECONOMIC CRISIS: EVIDENCE FROM SOUTHEAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Countries of Southeast Europe are at different levels of economic growth and accession to the European Union. Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia are already valid members of the EU. While Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have the status of the candidates for membership, Bosnia and Herzegovina still waits for the status of candidate for the accession to the EU. The common thing for all the referred countries is that they are far away from other members of the EU regarding their economic development. Therefore, foreign direct investments appear to be an important factor of speeding up the economic growth of these countries. Linear correlation between the foreign direct investments and the indicators of economic growth in the countries of the Southeast Europe is analyzed in the paper. The period before the economic crises and the period after the beginning of the economic crisis are analyzed separately, in order to observe the linear correlation between FDI and economic growth. The following variables are taken as indicators of the economic growth: GDP per capita, export, import and rate of unemployment. The results of the research speak in favor of the existence of a statistically significant correlation between FDI and other macroeconomic indicators in the period before the economic crisis in the majority of the analyzed countries. After the beginning of the economic crisis, the linear correlation has been extremely weak. Effects of the crisis very strongly influenced the economies of the observed countries

A comparative analysis of development in Southeast European countries

There are different kinds of indicators which measure levels of development. The use of varying methods could alter the ranking of a particular country. In this paper, Southeast European countries are ranked according to the World Bank, the UNDP and the I-distance method. The aim of the paper is to provide a comparison between the ranking results obtained with those methods for the period 2007–2012. The principal objective of the study is the ranking of SEE countries using the I-distance technique – a multivariate statistical method for ranking entities – and to discover whether this method gives a better ranking of countries than income per capita and the HDI. To answer this question, similar variables of economic development are used within the research methods. Due to the observed period, some government finance variables are also included. Despite certain limitations, such as lack of data for SEE countries, the results show that the ranks of countries are highly similar regardless of the method used. Nevertheless, there are some differences in the countries’ rankings in some years: there are small differences from year to year both in terms of HDI and GNI per capita. However, the I-distance method shows greater differences between countries. First published online 26 January 2017

The Role of Foreign Direct Investment, Energy and Pollution in Obtaining Sustainable Economic Development

Developing countries have encountered the issues of economic development and reducing pollution that need to be resolved to achieve sustainable development. However, this topic has not been widely explored. Since obtaining sustainable economic development is a priority, the nexus between foreign direct investment (FDI), trade openness (TO), final energy consumption (FEC), capital (K), income, and pollution (carbon emission) has been investigated in this paper. The research questions deal with the existence of the long-run, short-run and causality relationship between the selected variables. The paper aims to investigate these relations in Serbia during 1995-2018 by applying the autoregressive distributed lag model as the most commonly used and suitable co-integration model. The results present that FDI and TO will increase gross domestic product (GDP), while pollution will decrease it in the long-run. The existence of a short-run causality from FDI and TO to GDP is confirmed. The Granger causality test reveals that FDI has a unidirectional relationship to GDP, carbon emission, TO, and FEC. Furthermore, GDP, carbon emission and FEC have a unidirectional relation to TO. These results indicate that policies should combine FDI promotion and TO, with supervision of FDI effects on carbon emission to obtain sustainable economic development

Digitalizacija i održivo poslovanje u zemljama JIE

U radu se razmatra značaj digitalizacije i održivog poslovanja za povećanje konkurentosti preduzeća. Ova dva faktora predstavljaju novu paradigmu poslovanja od koje sve više preduzeća ima brojne koristi. U zemljama Jugoistočne Evrope, preduzeća inteziviraju upotrebu novih tehnologija. Ovo se posebno može uočiti u učešću preduzeća koje vrše prodaju putem e-trgovine i koja zapošljavaju IKT stručnjake. Ovaj trend nije prisutan u svim posmatranim zemljama. Srbija i Hrvatska ostvaruju veoma dobre rezultate po pitanju ostvarene prodaje putem interneta i učešća IKT stručnjaka u preduzećima, dok Severna Makedonija i Bugarska zaostaju. Za posmatrane zemlje izuzetno je važno da povećaju učešće vrednosti prodaje putem e-trgovine u ukupnom prometu. Slovenija i Hrvatska ostvaruju odlične rezultate po pitanju učešća preduzeća koja primenjuju nove tehnologije i to bolje od prosečnih vrednosti za EU kao celinu. Ključne reči: Digitalizacija, održivo poslovanje, konkurentnost, Jugoistočna Evropa

Achieving Sustainable Development and Knowledge-Based Economy in Serbia

Sustainable development and knowledge-based economy are the two concepts that are being conducted by the majority of countries in the world, including the EU member countries and the EU candidates. The aim of this paper is to analyse the progress in achieving sustainable development and knowledge-based economy in Serbia, a EU candidate country. A comparative analysis of conducting sustainable development and knowledge- based economy has been performed between Serbia and the EU(28). The focus is on economic aspects of these two concepts. The results differ. The goals that were initially set for achieving sustainable development and knowledge-based economy were either not reached or were hindered due to the global economic crisis and redirected towards solving more urgent economic issues. This is particularly noticeable in Serbia, which is carrying out economic reforms in order to achieve economic progress and meet the requirements for getting access to the EU

A Review of Economic and Environment Indicators and Energy Efficiency: Evidence from the EU and Serbia

Energy is a globally important factor of production - the growth of population and income increase energy consumption, so there is an urge to decrease it. However, there are different ways to reduce energy consumption, and one of them is energy efficiency. The aim of the paper is to give a theoretical review of energy efficiency and its benefits. The purpose of the paper is the analysis of economic and environmental indicators and energy efficiency in EU27 (after 2020) and Serbia. The trends of energy efficiency, GDP per capita and GHG emission are shown for the observed countries. The European and Serbian policies and targets for energy efficiency are presented and also the level these countries have reached the set targets. In order to see the relationship between energy efficiency, GDP per capita and GHG emission, the correlation among all variables is applied. The results show that energy efficiency is higher in EU27 than in Serbia. Even though Serbia had energy efficiency increase during the observed period (1995-2018), it lags behind the EU27. However, there is a positive correlation between energy efficiency and GDP and GHG emission in both EU27 and Serbia

Economic Activities Structure and Development: Evidence From Serbia

Differences in the level of economic achievement in different countries are determined by the availability of resources and economic policies. Economic development could be influenced by the structure of economic activities. The paper brings the analysis of Serbian economic activities structure and its influence on the level of development during the period 2008-2011. The optimization model has been used to show economic activities to be invested in in order to achieve development. The results show that the most important economic activities in enhancing development are information and communication; finance and insurance; water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities

The Impact of FDI on the Economic Growth of Serbia

This paper analyzes the impact of foreign direct investment on the economic growth of the Republic of Serbia. The aim is to analyze the effects of the economic crisis on foreign direct investment impact on the economic performance of the Serbian economy. This paper analyzes the period of 2000 - 2014, using the Inward FDI Performance Index and Pearson’s coefficient of simple linear correlation. The period before the economic crises (2000-2007) and the period after the beginning of the economic crisis (2008-2014) are analyzed separately, in order to observe the linear correlation between FDI and economic growth. The results of the research speak in favor of the existence of a strong and statistically significant correlation between FDI and observed macroeconomic indicators in the period of 2000-2007. The second sub-period was characterized by an absence correlation between FDI inflows and all the observed macroeconomic indicators. The results for the period of 2008-2014 can be explained by the effects of the global crisis on the Serbian economy and the deterioration of all macroeconomic indicators in the given period. Effects of the crisis on the Serbian economy were very strong

The effects of economic activities diversification on development: The perspective of Serbia

Each economy specializes in certain economic activities depending on the development level and availability of resources. During their development, countries undergo sectoral transformation. In order to achieve a higher level of economic development, it is necessary for a country to diversify its economic activities and determine which economic activities should be invested in. The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of economic structure and diversification activities on the development of Serbia for the period 2007-2012. Optimization model has been used to present diversification of activities. Furthermore, the efficiency frontier is used to show returns, risks and correlation among activities. The results show that the economic activities - Mining and quarrying, Public administration and defence, Compulsory social security, Other service activities, Financial and insurance activities, Arts, entertainment and recreation should be drivers of economic growth, because they provide a balance between growth and security regarding GVA in economic activities

Consumer ethnocentrism in transitional economies: Evidence from Serbia

This paper explores consumer ethnocentrism of young people among student population in the Republic of Serbia. The aim of the research is to examine whether there has been a growth in the level of consumer ethnocentrism among young people in Serbia given the increasingly adverse demographic and economic situation as well exceptional political turbulences in the country. The research was conducted by surveying students at the University of Belgrade by applying the CETSCALE and factor analysis techniques. The obtained values of the CETSCALE indicate that consumer ethnocentrism is within the limits of moderate, but it shows a slight increasing trend compared to the previous research. Three sets of factors are recognized: ethical ethnocentrism, economic patriotism and radical consumer ethnocentrism. The factors indicate that different intertwined motives influence young people's choice to buy local products. Preferences of young Serbian towards buying local products are the result of socio-economic environment, as well as a current political climate in Serbia