The determinants of Germany’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI)

The aim of this study is to investigate the determinants of Germany's OFDI in the last 21 years on the set of top ten Germany’s OFDI destination (United States of America, United Kingdom, China, France, Poland, Mexico, India, Turkey, Spain and Russia (Russian Federation)) by using panel data analysis. The research revealed that Germany’s OFDI are driven by market seeking motives (FDI vertical), and also highlighting the importance of the stable political environment, attractive tax environment, more trade openness, and stable macroeconomic environment of the top ten Germany’s partners for attractiveness of the Germany’s OFDI. It indicates that openness of an economy is statistically significant in attracting FDI

Potential avenues of linking the energy efficiency and the sustainable economic development in the Balkan region

The energy efficiency represents a global and multi-faceted issue. It is especially important in the former socialist countries belonging to the Balkan’s region being geographically located in the Southeastern Europe (SE). The research problem addressed in this paper focuses on the unexplored potential links between the energy efficiency and the economic development. Energy efficiency is deemed to be highly job intensive phenomenon. It delivers multiple long-range benefits by the means of increasing competitiveness, energy affordability, and decreasing energy bills. Furthermore, it seeks to tackle the important issues of reduced reliance on energy importing, reduction in harmful greenhouse gas emissions and freeing up of funds to be critically invested in other economic areas. Energy efficiency, efficient and effective policies have been found to be directly linked to job creation and deliverance of the economic stimulus. These types of jobs are related to the activities with the paramount aim in reduction of the energy consumption. Investments in energy efficiency in the buildings and construction sector have been found to have brought about the greatest macroeconomic impact. This impact is due to the increasing need for the construction of new buildings and renovation of existing ones, in addition to its considerable potential in activation of the above listed industries’ value chains. The introduction of energy management system (EMS) being exemplified through the set of processes which utilize data to maintain and enhance energy efficiency and operational efficiency could be one of the important avenues to pursue. On the other hand, the EMS reduces the energy intensity and detrimental environmental polluting impact

A Test of the validity of Crowding-out (or- in) hypothesis: A new examination of link between public borrowing and private investment in Emerging Europe

This study seeks to test the existence of the crowding-out (or- in) hypothesis in a sample of 17 Emerging Europe countries divided in two panels. The study employs a panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model based on three estimators, Mean Group Estimator (MG), Pooled Mean Group (PMG) and Dynamic Fixed Effect (DFE), in order to evaluate the of stability of short run and long run coefficients using consistently compiled public borrowing and private investment data between 2000 and 2019. The empirical findings of the paper generally confirm the existence of a crowding out effect in both long run and short run in European post-transition countries, and in the long run for European transition countries. More specifically, elasticity of private investment with respect to public debt is greater in the European transition countries than in the European post-transition countries. However, the findings on the crowding out (in) effect of government spending and economic growth on private investment are mixed and conflicting in both the long run and the short run. Accordingly, the study recommends that selected countries should reassess their austerity agendas employed for lowering debt levels, and follow new strategies for managing public debt burden

What does the European Union’s (EU’s) New Approach bring to Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H)?

Bosnia and Herzegovina has been lacking the collective political power to address the reforms that were necessary for progress towards EU over the years. The B&H politicians could not agree upon any effective coordination mechanism on EU issues. The lack of coordination mechanism has negatively affected the country’s interaction with the EU. Beside the coordination mechanism the other political issues could not be resolved. The EU Commission intensively facilitated resolution of the Sejdić-Finci ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that B&H has to implement, but without any success. The political actors have also been unable to agree upon countrywide strategy required for Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, in sectors, such as: agriculture, energy, transport and environment. These negative developments led to a substantial reduction of funding in these areas. Political disagreements have caused economic stagnation on moving towards European standards. In February 2014, widespread, citizen-led protests have occurred. These protests have underlined the fragility of the socio-economic situation. The EU Commission has launched a New Approach for B&H towards EU aiming to shift the focus towards economic reforms and issues of direct concern to citizens. This included development of a ‘Compact for Growth and Jobs’. The Compact is supposed to be the yardstick for the necessary economic reforms. In this paper we will explain the importance of the New Approach for B&H, as well as what ‘Compact for Growth and Job’ brings to B&H