Foreign Direct Investments – the Standard of Fair and Equitable Treatment of Investments on the Example of a Case of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)

Foreign direct investments (FDI) have a tendency of growth, which will, in accordance with projections, be continued in the future. The increasing number of FDI triggers an increase in the number of cases related to them. After defining the term of international capital movements and its manifestations in the first part of the paper, in its second part the authors give an overview of foreign direct investment, both globally and in the region. The third part deals with the investment disputes before the arbitration court, while in the fourth section, a case of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) is presented. As the case of violation of the principle of fair and equitable treatment of investments is in the main focus of this paper, it is the subject of а deeper analysis. In this paper, the authors use methodology which is characteristic for social sciences: descriptive and historical method, comparative analysis and case study

Credit Rating As a Factor of Stability in the Global Capital Market

Credit rating has an outstanding importance on the capital market. Opinions and assessments of rating agencies help us to improve growth, stability and efficiency of international and domestic markets, which now include over 80 trillion dollars of rated bonds and other securities with the fixed income. The contribution of the credit agencies to the market stability and efficiency is reflected in their ability to provide accurate, clear and reliable assessments of the solvency of participants on the financial markets. An adequate and proper risk assessment of securities contributes to stability. In order to achieve a given goal and to satisfy its purpose, the assessments should be based on a fundamental understanding of the key components of the credit risk. Also, in order to ensure a reliable framework for making investment decisions, the rating agencies are obliged to offer and to provide a wide range of securities, which are based on a global comparability of rating symbols and on the support given by the credit rating assignment committee and by the other relevant decision making bodies. Markets for structured products could not have developed without the quality assurance provided by CRAs. When analyzing a securitization program CRAs examine legal and structural protections provided to investors. Since the globalization is an inevitable phenomenon in today’s world the importance of the credit rating becomes more noticeable. On the other hand, the rating agencies have an obligation to reanalyze their decision making models in order to contribute to the reliability of the evaluation

Sovereign debt in European countries - "PIIGS" crisis

The late 2000s recession leaves many countries in EU with high budget deficits, as well as public and external debts. In this paper we analyze countries in eurozone which recently attracted a lot of concerns due to the problems with debt and increasing sovereign risk, popularly abbreviated as "PIIGS" (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain), and fear from the further deepening of sovereign debt crisis which can considerably damage European Monetary Union. Sovereign debt crisis especially hard affected Greek economy, which is currently in the deep economic and political crises, and bailout mechanism is still hot debate among eurozone mechanism. At our opinion, future of the eurozone is not at risk, but EU policy creators will face a lot of challenges to find a one-size-fits-all formula which enables further stability of EU economy

Preokret od kapitalizma ka socijalizmu i od socijalizma u kapitalizam

Period od šesdeset godina u kojem se ispoljavao naučnoistraživački rad istraživača u Institutu ekonomskih nauka obavljao se u dva međusobno različita društvena ambijenta. U ovom radu su u sasvim reduciranoj formi sublimirana ova dva perioda. Prvi deo rada se bavi teorijskim polazištima, ekonomskom politikom i praksom uspostavljanja društvenoekonomskog sistema socijalističkog samoupravljanja, zasnovanog na društvenoj svojini. Teorijsko utemeljenje prelaska iz kapitalizma u socijalizam se nalazilo u Marksovim ekonomskim, filozofskim, političkim i sociološkim pogledima na buduće društvo u kojem se radnička klasa oslobođa eksploatacije. Sistem socijalističkog samoupravljanja u prvim decenijama, sve do 1980. godine, ostvario je impresivne rezultate iskazane u stopama ekonomskog rasta i smanjivanju društvenih nejednakosti. Ekonoski rast i razvoj temeljio se na autonomnim izvorima akumulacije, inflatornom finansiranju i depresijaciji nacionalne valute. Uticaj stranog kapitala na razvoj nije bio dominantan. Ključni problem socijalističkog ekonomskog poretka nalazio se u ekonomskoj neefikasnosti samoupravnog preduzeća i sklonosti zaposlenih da favorizuju ličnu potrošnju u odnosu na akumulaciju i ulaganja u razvoj. Ekonomska kriza socijalističkog sistema se ispoljila osamdesetih godina prošlog veka. Samoupravni Jugoslovenski socijalizam nije našao odgovore na izazove krize i urušio se devedesetih godina prošlog veka zajedno sa čitavim sistemom Istočnoevropskih centralno - planskih ekonomija. Povratak u kapitalizam i tržišnu privredu bio je teorijski i empirijski izazov. Drugi deo ovog rada bavi se pitanjima “tranzicije” ili povratka u kapitalizam. U vezi sa tranzicijom iz socijalizma u kapitalizam na sceni su bile prisutne dve koncepcije: evolutivni prelaz i “šok terapija.” Skoro sve socijalističke zemlje, pa i Srbija je prihvatila model “šok terapije” zasnovan na potpunoj liberalizaciji, deregulaciji i privatizaciji. Prelaz iz socijalizma u kapitalizam nije doveo do snažnijeg ekonomskog rasta i razvoja. Očekivanja vezana za savršenost tržišne samoregulacije su razočaravajuća. Tranzicija iz socijalizma u kapitalizam je dovela do preraspodele društvenog bogatstva i dohodaka bez razvoja

Interplay Between Digital Technologies and Business Performance in Banking Industry: Global and Regional Perspectives

In order to remain competitive on both domestic and global market as well as to satisfy evolving consumers’ needs, modern banks must not ignore the potential of digital and smart technologies. Taking into consideration the importance of digitalization as a new standard in business practice, the aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of digitalization on the performance of banking sector globally and in SEE region. The main purpose of this paper is to test if the investments in information and communication technologies (ICT) contribute to the growth of profitability of banking sector as well as to the reduction of OPEX. In order to test the influence of investments in ICT on banking performance adequately, the static panel data models of fixed effects models were used. The results indicate that the influence of investments in ICT on OPEX defers on global and regional level. The results also indicate statistically significant positive relationship between investments in ICT and banks’ profitability in SEE region

Education in the beginning of the XXI century: Paper 1 - Some aspects of distance education in V4 countries and Serbia; Paper 2 - Distance learning as an option for small and medium-sized enterprises

Distance learning is not a new way of learning, but its methodology radically changed over last twenty years with the rapid development of personal computers and Internet as a global network. Almost every European country has some form of distance education, but there is a huge difference between western and eastern countries. Western countries have a long history of distance learning opposite to eastern countries which started to develop this form of learning after major changes in political views. This paper aims to present the constraints of this educational model and the current state of distance learning development in all V4 countries, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland and the Republic of Serbia. Distance learning is not a new concept of education, but despite a large number of benefits, the possibilities of this form of education are not sufficiently exploited. SME sector has increasing significance in modern economy and employees in this sector make up an increasing share of total employment in most countries. The main characteristic of distance learning suggests that this is a very convenient way for additional education of employees, but there are a number of barriers that cause low interest. Europe has done a lot to establish the quality standards of distance learning, particularly in higher education, with most important Bologna process. The aim of this paper is to point out some achievements in Europe in the field of distance learning for employees in small and medium-sized enterprises. Also, short research on this subject in the Republic of Serbia will be presented