The South East European Journal of Economics and Business

LABOUR MARKET TIGHTNESS AND MATCHING EFFICIENCY IN DIFFERENT LABOUR MARKET SEGMENTS – DO DIFFERENCES IN EDUCATION MATTER?

Alka Obadić, Viktor Viljevac — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 12:58:29 +0000

This paper analyses the existing educational structures of selected EU member countries and their alignment with the labour market (LM) needs. This study aims to identify potential structural mismatches between the skills taught in schools and universities and the skills and knowledge required in the workplace. To evaluate this educational mismatch, the paper explores the matching needs of employers and unemployed job seekers by using disaggregated national employment office data. The paper examines the selected group of EU countries (AT, HR, EE, SI, ES) from 2010 to 2022, using the Beveridge curves and estimating LM tightness and matching efficiency for different education groups. The results show that differences in education levels result in relatively small deviations from aggregate trends in the LM. Aggregate LM trends strongly impact all education groups in the labour market.

DOMESTIC COMPETITION, TRADE OPENNESS AND ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE: CANONICAL CORRELATION ANALYSIS

Milan Kostić, Jelena Živković — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 12:58:53 +0000

The paper analyses canonical correlations between domestic competition, trade openness and entrepreneurial culture. The research covered 141 countries ranked by World Competitiveness Index in 2019. Canonical correlation analysis is applied to find relationship between two canonical variables. The first canonical variable includes sub-indexes from Domestic competition and Trade openness pillars. The second variable contains sub-indexes from Entrepreneurial culture pillar. The results of the analysis showed there is a strong, positive, statistically significant canonical correlation between these canonical variables with a Pearson coefficient of 0.86. The linear regression analysis is also applied. The regression analysis shows that the variable Distortive effects of taxes and subsidies on competition is the most important for all dependent variables. The extent of market dominance, Competition in services and Border clearance efficiency are important, but not as much as taxes and subsidies. It confirms that regulation of domestic competition and trade openness are supreme for entrepreneurial culture.

LEADERSHIP PROFILE OF CROATIAN PROJECT MANAGERS - INVESTIGATING THE EFFECTS OF STRESS AND FOLLOWERS’ EXPERTISE IN ACHIEVING PROJECT SUCCESS

Ivan Matić — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 21:39:11 +0000

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of stress in demonstrating adequate project leadership and ultimately achieving project success, while also respecting followers’ expertise as the most important context factor. During 2021, the empirical research was conducted on 71 project managers in the Republic of Croatia. Results obtained via SPSS Statistics 23.0 and PROCESS macro v4.0 for SPSS indicate that demonstrated project leadership and followers’ expertise positively affect the project’s success. According to the results, stress, due to its inverted U-shaped nature of effect, does not affect project success, whereas it has a negative moderation effect on demonstrated project leadership by reducing its positive effects on project success. In addition to these results, this paper offers other interesting insights into the relationships between demonstrated project leadership, project manager’s stress, and project success, further filling the identified gap in research. A relatively small sample of project managers and its cross-sectional nature stand out as the main limitations of the empirical research presented in the paper.

THE EFFECTS OF MACROECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT ON INCOME INEQUALITY: EVIDENCE FROM THE WESTERN BALKANS

Jurdal Čakal-Velagić, Sabina Silajdžić — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 13:12:09 +0000

Using data from 1996 to 2019 covering five Western Balkan countries and applying the linear panel data estimation method, this paper examines the effect of macroeconomic indicators and financial market development on income inequality. Regression results with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors demonstrate that income per capita increases income disparities. Theoretically, there are grounds for both a positive and negative relationship between economic growth and income inequality. In addition, contrary to prevailing literature, our analysis finds no significant impact of financial market development on income inequality, while the rule of law is found to have no effect on income inequalities in these countries. We depart from previous literature by bringing new evidence on the relationship between income inequality and economic growth in the specific context of Western Balkan countries. We study this relationship in an integrated framework and rely on a larger time span, both of which are seemingly important for comprehending the income inequality-economic growth nexus. Certainly, the obtained results bear important policy implications as discussed in this paper.