The obsolescence of export structure: an obstacle to economic growth

Although the decrease in foreign trade imbalance is almost the only positive macroeconomic shift in 2005, it seems that this problem is losing importance for no reason. Other burning economic problems (inflation, first of all) have pushed aside this problem that was a real burning issue. Of course that there has to be understanding for such treatment by the creators of economic policy considering the fact that the inflation in this year will surpass the originally planned inflation almost twofold, and that the International Monetary Fund is firm in insisting on additional rendering both fiscal and monetary policy more severe in order to restrain the growing price instability. Bearers of economic policy have already fulfilled a large part of the given requirements. Nevertheless, the foreign trade imbalance is still fairly high. This thesis is supported by the fact that Serbia is a country in transition with almost the lowest degree of import coverage by export. Despite the marked rise in goods export that has been realized in this part of the year, it is difficult to say which part of the growth has been caused by the privatization processes and restructuring, and which part accounts for a more realistic statistical expression that is a consequence of value added tax (VAT) endorsement. Also, there are certain vague issues concerning the import itself. The economists agree that VAT endorsement led to overflowing the import from 2005 to 2004 especially in the last quarter of 2004. Additionally, it seems that there is a wide consensus that VAT endorsement implied the decrease in the phenomenon which was supposed mostly by the creators of economic policy, to have played an important role, and it is about the "inflated" import invoices. Elimination or at least reduction in this phenomenon resulted in more realistic expression of goods import value. It is almost clear that a part of this year’s decrease in foreign trade imbalance has been due to temporary disorder caused by VAT endorsement. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the rest is due to the expansive increase in export which is the consequence of restructuring and privatization of domestic enterprises. In another words, if the mentioned tax form had not been endorsed, the foreign trade deficit would have been decreased, but with rather low intensity

Openness and growth: Empirical research on the case of Serbia

This paper shows the results of research related to the impact of Serbia openness to its economic growth in the period between January 2005 and December 2009. The subject of the research are two potential channels of indirect impact, as follows: (a) impact of the openness to economic growth through capital accumulation, and (b) impact of the openness to economic growth through total factor productivity growth. The results of this empirical research point out to positive effect of capital accumulation and total factor productivity growth to the economic growth. On the other hand, there is no reliable evidence about any impact of the Serbian economy openness to TFP growth and capital accumulation. Hence, bearing in mind the results obtained in this empirical research, we cannot make a satisfactorily reliable conclusion that openness affects economic growth of Serbia via the aforementioned channels

Good Governance and Institution Building as a Condition of EU Integration and Economic Growth

Institutions represent rules of behavior in a particular society, the limitations that a person has designed to shape interactions between people. Inclusive institutions promote the rule of law, maximize efficiency and social well-being and contribute to the achievement of higher rates of economic growth and represent key economic freedoms. Inclusive institutions provide security of private property, an impartial legal system and public services that provide equality in exchange and contracting, as well as citizens' participation in economic activities. Residents of countries with such type of institutions have access to political institutions, which gives them the opportunity to participate in the democratic process, to elect representatives of the authorities, change them, etc. Extractive institutions, as opposite to inclusive institutions, allow access to political power only to a privileged circle of people. The aim of this institutions is to subtract income and wealth from one social subgroup in favor of the other. The emergence, development and establishment of inclusive institutions is not a short process and it also implies the fulfillment of certain political prerequisites such as: the representation of parliamentary tradition and therefore political culture, compliance with laws and regulations, respecting private property rights, respecting state property rights, strong public opinion etc. Greater representation of inclusive institutions will certainly contribute to EU integration

STAVOVI PREDAVAČA PREMA UVOĐENJU AUTOMATSKOG SNIMANJA PREDAVANJA

Lecture captures or video recordings of lectures are becoming increasingly popular in higher education and can be expected to become a standard for majority of lectures in the future. However, there are still a number of obstacles mostly related to financial, human, and technical issues, that are influencing the pace of the adoption process and the quality of resulting lecture captures. This article describes an automated lecture capture pilot project implemented at the University of Zagreb in the academic year of 2015/2016. The Automated Lecture Capture and Publication System has been designed, implemented, tested and installed in one of the lecture halls. The implemented system requires absolutely no intervention from the lecturer to capture a lecture. As the result, more than 100 lectures, delivered by 11 lecturers in 13 courses have been captured. An on-line survey has been conducted among the lecturers at the end of the semester investigating their attitudes towards lecture captures, as well as their expectations, fears and experiences. The results of the survey can be used for designing and deploying similar systems in the future.Snimke predavanja postaju sve popularnije u visokoškolskom obrazovanju i očekuje se ​​da će postati standard za većinu predavanja u budućnosti. Međutim, još uvijek postoje brojne prepreke, uglavnom vezane uz financijske, ljudske i tehničke probleme, koje utječu na brzinu procesa usvajanja tehnologija za snimanje predavanja i kvalitetu dobivenih snimki. Ovaj članak opisuje pilot projekt vezan uz uvođenje automatskog snimanja predavanja na Sveučilištu u Zagrebu u akademskoj godini 2015./2016. Sustav za automatizirano snimanje i objavu predavanja je dizajniran, implementiran, testiran i konačno podešen za rad u jednoj od predavaonica. Ostvareni sustav ne zahtijeva apsolutno nikakvu intervenciju predavača kako bi predavanja bila snimljena. Kao rezultat uvođenja ovog sustava snimljeno je više od 100 predavanja u izvedbi 11 predavača na 13 kolegija. Među predavačima je na kraju semestra provedeno istraživanje vezano uz njihove stavove prema snimanju predavanja, njihova očekivanja, strahove i iskustva. Rezultati istraživanja mogu se koristiti kao smjernice za izradu i implementaciju sličnih sustava u budućnosti

Exploring usage of summative peer assessments in engineering education

Summative peer assessment is an assessment method where the one's work is typically graded by several other anonymous peers using predefined criteria. The value of summative peer assessments in higher education stems from the fact that they can provide scalability in assessment for large enrollment classes for a variety of different assessment types. The main disadvantages of using summative peer assessments are questionable validity and reliability. In this paper, the first results of using summative peer assessments in a large enrollment professional skills course at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing are reported and discussed. The main research question of this work is how well, given specific conditions of the conducted summative peer assessments, do assignment credits assigned by peers correlate with assignment credits assigned by course lecturers. Data were obtained from four summative peer assessments through the course. A random sample of 50 submitted works per peer assessment was evaluated by course lecturers and corresponding assignment credits were compared to assignment credits awarded by students. Data analysis results suggest a moderate to high correlation between several measures of assignment credits awarded by peers and lecturers

Large canyons in Dinaric and Prokletije mountains region of Montenegro

Montenegro occupies relatively small, southeastern part of the Dinaric mountains. Geological composition, which is predominantly carbonate, enabled formation of a great number of deep canyons and gorges. Canyons of Montenegro were formed in several ways, during multiple phases. Regardless of polygenetic and polymorphic character of the canyons, they can be classified into three main groups. By incision of melt-water rivers of Pleistocene glaciers, deep and particularly narrow canyons of small width were formed. The rivers that presently flow through these canyons have a nival regime - during the summer, their discharge is minimal, or they completely dry out. Depths of these canyons are up to 500 m. Rivers that directly feed into the Adriatic sea are of torrential character. They have pluvial regime, and dry out during the summer. Their canyons are short, several hundreds of meters deep. Deepest and longest canyons have been formed by incision of rivers that have changed their regimes during a longer period of time. Melt-water of Pleistocene glaciers has incised the greatest parts of canyons at the beginning of Holocene. Presently, river courses have nival-pluvial regime. In this group, single-phase and multiple-phase canyons can be distinguished (alteration of erosional and accumulation processes). Depths of these canyons exceed 1000 m

Testing of Balassa-Samuelson model functionality: Empirical research in case of Serbia and European Monetary Union

This paper shows the results of empirical testing of Balassa-Samuelson model functionality in case of Serbia and European Monetary Union. The research for Serbia pertains to the period between 2004 and 2010, while in the case of EMU, due to unavailability of data about employment per sector, the period is somewhat shorter, covering 2005 to 2010. Applying both methods of cointegration analysis (Johansen and Engle-Granger's one), we have reached the results which show that internal transmission mechanism does not function in Serbia

Makroekonomske tendencije u 2014: U kom se smeru zaista krećemo

U ovom radu smo pokušali da skeniramo nekoliko najvažnijih segmenata makroekonomskog sistema nastojeći da rasvetlimo ono što je se tokom 2014. zaista dogodilo. Analiza koju smo sproveli nedvosmisleno pokazuje da će privreda Srbije u 2014. po treći put biti suočena sa recesijom od izbijanja prvog talasa krize. Na recesione tendencije uticala su dva krupna razloga: (a) razarajuće majske poplave sa značajnim efektom na poljoprivredu, rudarstvo i proizvodnju i distrubuciju električne energije i (b) krupni strukturni poremećaji i godinama nagomilavani ekonomski i društveni problemi. Prihodi opšte države za prvih devet meseci rastu brže od rashoda, dok deficit opšte države opada. Ipak, deficit se nagomilava krajem godine tako da procene govore da bi njegov rast u 2014. mogao da iznosi oko 0,7 pp BDP-a, odnosno oko 13% realno. Takođe, ukupna kreditna aktivnost je u padu, što svakako jeste veoma negativna karakteristika. Inflacija je deset meseci zaredom ispod donje granice dozvoljenog odstupanja od ciljane vrednosti ukazujući time na popriličnu neusklađenost monetarne politike sa potrebom za kontracikličnim delovanjem. Jedini pozitivan makroekonomski tok jeste pad nezaposlenosti i rast zaposlenosti koji se dominantno može pripisati povećanju broja neformalno zaposlenih. Budući da se Srbija nalazi u prilično dubokoj recesiji mišljenja smo da bi rezultate ARS u protekle dve godine trebalo ozbiljno preispitati. Tekući deficit je stabilizovan na nivou od oko 5,5% - 6% BDP-a, što je, imajući u vidu razočaravajući priliv kapitala, teško održivo na dugi rok. Mali i neretko negativan kapitalni priliv govori da bi kvartali okarakterisani padom deviznih rezervi i deprecijacijskim pritiscima mogli postati sve češći. Na osnovu ovakvih nalaza zaključujemo da su makroekonomska kretanja u 2014. negativna, tako da se ni u kom slučaju ne može reći da je ekonomska slika Srbije uznapredovala