Factors Influencing the Earnings Expectations among Macedonian Students: A Comparative Perspective with the EU Students

The aim of this paper is to assess the earnings expectations of Macedonian students and the main factors that shape their expectations. Previous research has shown that earnings expectation is a major determinant that influences a decision on schooling (Williams and Gordon, 1981; Betts, 1996; Wolter and Zbinden, 2001). Given that the main pathway to developing individual human capital is schooling, learning about factors that affect individual’s decision on whether to acquire more education can contribute towards better educational policy. We employ similar empirical approach as Brunello et al. (2001, 2004). We use available information to regress: i) expected future earnings right after university graduation and ii) expected future earnings 10 years after graduation, on a set of variables: characteristics of the individual, socio-economic background, field of study, year of study, academic performance, sources of information for future earnings, etc. Our findings show that expected earnings are significantly correlated with the education of the father, year of study, sources of information on earnings in the labor market, gender, ethnicity, having a regular job during studies, perceived employability, field of study, and the country of future employment. In other words, Macedonian students form their earnings expectations in a similar vein as their European counterparts

The Ninth Dimension of National Culture: Unpacking Cross-Cultural Communication Styles

This article aims to study the communication styles among different national cultures, that is, we examine the relationship between national culture, based on Hofstede model, and communication styles. In order to investigate the role of national culture, it is fundamental to first analyse the communication styles and then identify how these are related to each other. With a purpose to identify differences (or similarities) in communication styles across selected countries, a factor analysis was conducted, combined with an ANOVA test. Based on a sample from 10 different cultures: Germany, Sweden, Japan, China, Russia, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Serbia and North Macedonia, and using communication assessment instrument as well as the data on Hofstede’s six dimensions of national culture model, the findings show that different national cultures practise different communication styles. When Professional-Casual communication style is concerned, Germany is the most professional, while Japan is the most casual; that is, the least professional of all, while the analysis of the Cold-Warm communication styles leads us to the fact that Sweden is the coldest, and the US is the warmest country. The study’s significance is hopefully fundamental since it proposes an additional dimension, which is as frequent among cultures as it is rooted deeply in each culture. In this way, the article recommends that the countries ought to both comprehend their national culture and utilise it as a “tool” for understanding other cultures as well

The Ninth Dimension of National Culture: Unpacking Cross-Cultural Communication Styles

This article aims to study the communication styles among different national cultures, that is, we examine the relationship between national culture, based on Hofstede model, and communication styles. In order to investigate the role of national culture, it is fundamental to first analyse the communication styles and then identify how these are related to each other. With a purpose to identify differences (or similarities) in communication styles across selected countries, a factor analysis was conducted, combined with an ANOVA test. Based on a sample from 10 different cultures: Germany, Sweden, Japan, China, Russia, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Serbia and North Macedonia, and using communication assessment instrument as well as the data on Hofstede’s six dimensions of national culture model, the findings show that different national cultures practise different communication styles. When Professional-Casual communication style is concerned, Germany is the most professional, while Japan is the most casual; that is, the least professional of all, while the analysis of the Cold-Warm communication styles leads us to the fact that Sweden is the coldest, and the US is the warmest country. The study’s significance is hopefully fundamental since it proposes an additional dimension, which is as frequent among cultures as it is rooted deeply in each culture. In this way, the article recommends that the countries ought to both comprehend their national culture and utilise it as a “tool” for understanding other cultures as well

Economic growth agenda: The effects of full utilisation of capital budgets among statistical planning regions in North Macedonia

North Macedonia can improve its economic growth by addressing the infrastructure gap by at least full capital budget utilisation. The outturn/execution of capital budget expenditures is low and in relative terms decreasing. The planned public finances for regional balanced development are also low and non-compliant with the legally set levels. A test of several hypothetical scenarios of full capital budget utilisation it is expected to positively contribute to the economic growth immediately and in the period to follow. Even if total debt increases in nominal terms, in relative terms the debt-to-GDP on a longer-run reduces through generating additional economic output

The Influence of Access to Technology on Inclusive Growth through Poverty Reduction

In line with recent growth strategies as well as the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, countries are faced with achieving sustainable and inclusive growth. While inclusive growth is imposed as important task for countries to accomplish, its conceptualization is rather puzzling and demands more attention. There is no consensus on the concept of inclusiveness and its major determinants let alone on how to operationalise it. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is twofold. The first part is dedicated to provide deep insight of the concept and point the main characteristics of an inclusive growth wave. This part provides discussion of the literature on inclusive growth together with analysis of the different approaches used in the different definitions of the concept. It finishes with an overview on the empirical attempts to measuring inclusive growth. The second part investigates the influence of technology, represented in form of economic infrastructure, on inclusive growth through the process of poverty reduction. This part of the thesis analyses the influence of access to technology on inclusive growth, where the poverty reduction is the variable in focus. Regression analysis based on a cross-country data set including more then 100 developing countries indicates that technology access help to reduce poverty. The results show that economic infrastructure have negative correlation with poverty, although the explanatory variables are not robust to changes in poverty measures and changes in specifications