Conclusions: achieving sustainable growth through outward looking policies and regional integration

One of the key lessons of the chapters included in this book is that the key to reducing the high levels of public and private debt that have built up in Western Balkan economies in recent years is to promote export-led economic growth. The recently announced plan for a regional economic area (MAP) aims to liberalise regional trade in services, backed up by increased mobility of professional workers, greater digitalisation of the economies, and improved attractiveness of the region for foreign direct investment. Yet liberalisation may be ineffective if not also backed up by an improved capacity to supply both goods and services. This in turn requires completion of the privatisation processes and enhanced digitalisation of the region. In implementing such a policy, the state has an important role of play in providing appropriate conditions for attracting foreign investment and linking the region into global value chains. A focus on export-led growth should not ignore the deep social divisions within the Western Balkan region. Increased supply capacities require the engagement of all sections of society, drawing people from disadvantaged groups into the labour force to take full advantage of the opportunities for growth afforded by trade liberalisation. Deep reforms to education systems, not least to systems of higher education, will be needed to ensure that the skills of the labour force are adequate to meet future growth in the demand for labour and to support the use of emerging technologies

Serotonin transporter 5HTTLPR polymorphism and affective disorders: no evidence of association in a large European multicenter study.

The available data from preclinical and pharmacological studies on the role of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) support the hypothesis that a dysfunction in brain serotonergic system activity contributes to the vulnerability to affective disorders (AD). 5-HTT is the major site of serotonin reuptake into the presynaptic neuron, and it has been shown that the polymorphic repeat polymorphism in the 5-HTT promotor region (5-HTTLPR) may affect gene-transcription activity. 5-HTT maps to chromosome 17 at position 17q11.17-q12, and the 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms have been extensively investigated in AD with conflicting results. The present study tested the genetic contribution of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism in a large European multicenter case-control sample, including 539 unipolar (UPAD), 572 bipolar patients (BPAD), and 821 controls (C). Our European collaboration has led to efforts to optimize a methodology that attenuates some of the major limitations of the case-control association approach. No association was found with primary psychiatric diagnosis (UPAD and BPAD) and with phenotypic traits (family history of AD, suicidal attempt, and presence of psychotic features). Our negative findings are not attributable to the lack of statistical power, and may contribute to clarify the role of 5-HTTLPR polymorphism in AD.Comparative StudyJournal ArticleMulticenter StudyResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe