Despite the growing recognition that unregistered employment remains a common problem both in South-East Europe and well beyond, there has been little evidence available on its prevalence and distribution. This paper begins to fill that gap by reporting a 2017 large scale national representative survey of 8,533 households in Kosovo. This reveals that 34.6% of all employees are engaged in unregistered employment (i.e., they have no employment contract). A Probit regression analysis reveals significant associations between unregistered employment and individual-, household, employer and job-related characteristics, with unregistered employment significantly more prevalent among men, younger people, single, widowed or divorced, those with fewer years in education, living in rural areas and in larger households, working in construction and services, part-time employees, with shorter employment duration, lower wages, and those in elementary occupations and craft and related trades. The wider theoretical and policy implications are then discussed.
Following competing theories, the paper brings the determinants of the Serbian and Romanian current account dynamics with policy implications. The research sample consists of quarterly time series data over the period 2004q1–2017q2 and 2007q1-2017q4 for the Serbian and the Romanian case, respectively. Based on the state space model with time-varying parameters (TVP) approach, accurate and more robust estimates of responses to changes in the domestic demand real effective exchange rate and money supply were obtained. Consistently with theoretical foundations, the research findings suggest the country- specific policy mix for each country that might be effective to resolve the issue of the current account deficit.
The present study examines the relationship between HR roles and HR role stressors in determining the effectiveness of HRM. A massive primary survey was conducted in which 153 line managers of Malaysia’s manufacturing companies participated, the data were analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM) using Smart PLS. The significant findings of the study reveals that top management support provided insights to the conditions needed to avoid perception of HR role stressors on line managers. Results also revealed that there is a mediation effect of HR overload by line managers, however, no mediation effect has influenced on HR ambiguity. Top management support has moderated the relationship of HR roles on HR role ambiguity.
The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of perceived value dimensions (i.e., economic value, hedonic value, symbolic value, and social value) on behavioral intent to engage in collaborative consumption from the perspective of Generation Y. Furthermore, this research aims to investigate the mediating effect of young consumers’ attitude toward collaborative consumption on the relationship between perceived value dimensions and behavioral intent to engage in collaborative consumption. Research findings suggest that specific dimensions of perceived value (economic, hedonic, symbolic, and social) have differing direct effects on young consumers’ behavioral intention to engage in collaborative consumption services. Regarding the mediating role of consumers’ attitude toward collaborative consumption, it was found that the mediating effect takes place only in the symbolic value-behavioral response link. Given the paucity of research focusing specifically on collaborative consumption from the perspective of Generation Y, this study provides new and useful insights for researchers and managers.
Keywords: Sharing economy, Collaborative consumption (CC), Perceived value, Generation Y (Millennials)
JEL Classification: M00
This paper evaluates the effects on participants of public employment programmes (PEPs), as a component of Active Labour Market Policies on Employment (ALMP) in Kosovo. The study focuses on individual employment likelihood where micro data are used to measure the outcomes from registration at Employment Offices. This empirical analysis confirms the positive role of active labour market policies in Kosovo. Assessments show that groups targeted by employment offices have increased the probability of being employed by persons belonging to these groups. Empirical results may suggest that it would be appropriate that the activity of the Employment Offices and in general active policies grow their influence, which seem to be in the right direction. However they would need to meet a larger number of individuals who could benefit from their increased employability and activity in the labour market. Moreover, it is recommended that the active policies are associated with other complementary policies in designing an economic environment that provides incentives for the job creation.
This study examines the relationship of the bank credits between, either performance and growth of manufacturing sub-sectors. It is using monthly time series data of Turkey from 2010/01 to 2017/09. The study adopted the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound co-integration test approach together with TodaYomamato causality test and was employed to seven manufacturing sub-sectors. Industrial production index was used for different approach as a dependent variable. Indications of the study support the theory that bank credits are more effective than loan rates on industrial production of sub-sectors. Moreover, the increase in bank credit leads the rise of industrial production in all the sub-sectors, except Machinery. According to the Toda Yomamato causality test results, there are different degrees of causalities in means of importance of the bank loans for industrial production. On the other hand, in all sub-sectors except machinery and chemical sub-sectors, causality relations were observed at different grades beginning from loan interest rates to industrial production. As a result, this study concludes with the evidence of supply leading hypothesis via financial sector leads and causes the economic growth.
Efficiency measurement of economic phenomena is of great importance to economists. Known terms and concepts from microeconomic theory and data envelopment analysis regarding efficiency have been developed and adapted to cater different questions and areas of economics. This paper focuses on applications in the area of finance, more specifically, portfolio optimization and Markowitz model. The paper has two goals. First is to give a concise overview of the theoretical and empirical research regarding Luenberger shortage (distance) function in portfolio optimization. The second goal is to empirically evaluate efficiency of a portfolio on the Sarajevo Stock Exchange (SSE). The contribution of the paper is the first comprehensive evaluation of sources of inefficiencies of a portfolio which is not positioned on the efficient frontier on the SSE, as well as Balkan region. The results of the analysis show that efficiency can be obtained with rebalancing the initial portfolio with the inclusion of transaction costs as well.
Economic changes and a booming tourism industry in Iceland have triggered a rise in temporary workforce, where employees are brought to Iceland from Eastern Europe and other less economically developed countries. Major societal and economic shifts are evidenced by a doubled number of temporary staffing agencies and a ten-fold increase in foreign temporary agency workers. However, limited research exists regarding the phenomenon. Furthermore, the expectations of temporary work force in Iceland have not been researched. The study employed field survey methods to investigate pre-arrival expectations and post-arrival experiences of temporary agency workers regarding temporary agencies and Icelandic society. The findings indicate that the employees had relatively high expectations towards the temporary staffing agency and Icelandic society before arriving in Iceland. However, the findings also indicated unmet expectations in these respects. The study provides empirical data that serves as catalyst for both expectation management and better integration of foreign temporary workforce.