Suchergebnisse

Structural changes are crucial for sustainable industrial development. The aim of the paper is to point out that structural changes in the Serbian manufacturing industry should be accompanied by growth in production specialization and the share of high technology products in order to increase competitiveness. For the analysis of structural changes, a comparative method is used, to analyze production specialization, industrial sector specialization index, and for the analysis of competitiveness, the revealed comparative advantage index. The manufacturing industry is the most important sector of the Serbian economy, and, despite growth, specialization in this field is not high, which affects the lack of comparative advantages and uncompetitiveness of this sector on the EU market. The paper can be of assistance to industrial policy makers, in order to determine the best path to sustainable industrial development, using the benefits of production specialization.

This paper analyses agriculture and the food industry as dominant sectors of the Serbian agro industrial complex. The goal of the research is to stress the significance of the agro industry for economic development and the directions of its future development, as well as the significance of the agricultural and industrial policy for its development. For the purpose of a hypothesis the testing indicators of development, structural changes and work productivity will be analyzed. A correlation analysis is used to determine the character of dependence and the impact of the agriculture and food industry on key indicators of economic growth. The comparative method is used for a comparative analysis of the structural changes of Serbian agriculture as well as for some of the new EU member states. Research results show that new EU member states adapt the structure of their agriculture more efficiently to the new demands of development, resulting in the agro industry creating a greater added value which influences overall economic development. The great potential of the Serbian agro industrial complex could be a very good foundation for efficient agro industrial growth and an increase of competiveness on EU and Russia markets, as well as on numerous markets of other world countries, having in mind that overall demands for ecologically healthy food will grow rapidly in the following period.

Research in this paper is oriented towards structural changes at the division level of the manufacturing industry. The goal of the research is to point at the significance of the efficient structural reforms of Serbia's manufacturing industry, more precisely to point at the size, intensity, speed and directions of the changes made in its structure. In the paper, the basic indicators of structural changes are used, namely the trend of the share of employment and the value added. The size of the changes is analyzed by the standard deviation and the dispersion of growth rates, whereas the intensity of changes is analyzed by the elasticity of the divisions' growth rates. A correlation analysis is used to determine the directions and nature of the connectedness of structural changes between divisions, whereas the direction of changes is shown by the Spearman rank correlation coefficient of their growth rates. The Structural Change Indicator is used for researching the pace and patterns of structural changes. At the division level, by applying the comparison method, differences in the directions, speed and patterns of the structural changes of the Serbian manufacturing industry are analyzed against the new EU member states for which there are comparative data (Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia). The research results indicate that growth rates were higher in those divisions in which reforms were more comprehensive, faster, more intensive and efficiently fully implemented.

Composite indices have recently become a very popular measure for tracking the progress of national economies. One of them is Legatum Prosperity Index (LPI), a relatively new and comprehensive indicator, which describes in a unique way the level and the dynamics of prosperity in the countries across the world. In this paper, prosperity of European Union and Western Balkan states during the last ten years was analyzed and its drivers investigated, using data for LPI. Also, analysis was performed of the relationships of LPI with GDP per capita and Human Development Index, as well as of the deviation of LPI level from the one that could be expected based on GDP per capita level for each observed country. In addition, the paper examines convergence/divergence between developing European countries and old EU members according to the level of LPI and the key dimensions and components of this indicator. Results indicate that new member states have the most room for improvement in the Institutional dimension, or more precisely in the Personal Freedom component, whereas Western Balkan countries could speed up their prosperity by investing more into Environment, as well as into Education, Health, and Personal Freedom.