Volume 15 Number 2, May – August 2013

Acknowledgements to the reviewers of the manuscripts submitted to the Editorial Board of the Journal in 2012

Volume 15 Number 2, May – August 2013

MONEY, BANKING, AND FINANCIAL MARKETS

Dragan Stojković

Volume 15 Number 2, May – August 2013

COLLECTIVE RISK MODEL IN NON-LIFE INSURANCE

Zlata Đurić

The operation of business insurance companies, based on assuming risks of different profiles, is accompanied by fluctuations in the business environment. The complexity of predicting a financial effect for claims in non-life insurance lies in the structure of insurers’ liabilities, whose amount cannot be determined at the time of payment of the premium. By analyzing the key insurance processes, risk theory focuses on modeling claims as the financial consequences of unforeseen events. In addition, it provides the answer as to how much of a premium to charge in order to avoid bankruptcy, which makes it a complex and topical research area. The paper presents the main results of the collective risk model for the key business processes of nonlife insurance companies: the claim number process and the claim amount process. In risk theory, these are treated as stochastic processes, which offers a wide range of possibilities for the modeling and simulation of specific business problems.

Volume 15 Number 2, May – August 2013

THE KEY THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE STATE FAILURES IN THE CONTEMPORARY ECONOMY

Dragan Petrović

The subject of this paper is to analyze the evolution of approaches to the problem of the “state failure”. This phenomenon arose from the concept of “market failures”, which in economic theory can be seen in the context of searching for new strategies of the political and economic mechanisms of resource allocation. In this regard, special attention will be focused on the identification of the components of the institutional impact on the efficiency of economic processes, which first involves a general review of the role of the state in the economy. A multidisciplinary approach to the study of such a complex issue requires, among other things, that all information problems in the analysis of the economic functions of the public sector be taken into consideration, that the possibilities of financing public policy measures be appreciated, that the role and influence of the political process and the rent-oriented behavior of public officials be adequately evaluated, and ultimately that an attempt to identify the negative external effects caused by the absence, but also by the presence, of the state coordination in the economy be made.

Volumen 15 Sveska 2, Maj – Avgust 2013.

ACCOUNTING IMPLICATIONS OF FOREIGN CURRENCY TRANSACTIONS TRANSLATION AND HEDGING

Jasmina Bogićević

Due to the internationalization of business and frequent fluctuations in exchange rates, information about the impact of changes in exchange rates on individual companies’ and multinational groups’ financial position and profitability has become increasingly important. Data on the translation effects of both foreign currency transactions and foreign subsidiaries’ financial statements, a company’s exposure to different types of foreign exchange risks and taken currency hedging measures enable many users of accounting contents to obtain a better picture of an entity’s financial position and its profitability. The key issues relate to the choice of the exchange rate to be used in accounting data translation and the financial reporting presentation of translation effects. While the effects of the foreign subsidiaries’ financial statements translation can be shown in the balance sheet and the income statement, the effects of foreign currency transactions translation are incorporated in the income statement. This paper discusses the accounting aspects of the foreign currency transactions translation, an enterprise’s transactional exposure to a currency risk, and the use of financial derivative instruments to hedge against foreign exchange risk.

Volume 15 Number 2, May – August 2013

HUMAN RESOURCES OF INFORMAL ECONOMY IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

Vera Gligorijević, Petar Vasić

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion about the impact human resources have on the process of economic development, especially the importance that the educational structure and individual business skills have in the informal economy modernization process and its integrations towards a formal economy. The educational structure of the employed in the informal sector was defined by classifying the workforce according to their education levels, and their individual business skills were determined by analyzing the techniques individuals used in the process of improving competitiveness. The analysis was based on the results of a survey research of the structural characteristics and spatial distribution of the informal economy in the Republic of Serbia conducted on a sample of 310 home-based businesses in 2011. The results have shown that the informally employed are as competitive as the formally employed, the educational structure of the informally employed depends on the type of community and the distance from the center; individual business skills depend on the gender structure of the business owner, apart from the type of community and its distance from the center (metropolitan areas).

Volume 15 Number 2, May – August 2013

DETERMINANTS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN CLUSTERS OF ENTERPRISES

Zora Arsovski

The implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in enterprises organized as part of a cluster has its own specifications according to the level and type of relations between enterprises in the cluster. The purpose of this paper is to define determinants for the quality of the ICT implementation in clusters, the research goal being to define and validate the quality models of the implementation of ICT in clusters. Based on the theoretical research of clusters, the quality model for the ICT implementation has been developed and tested to the influences of the determinants of the implementation of ICT, which refer to the level of investments in ICT, quality management, the quality of processes and the level of the implementation of the ICT strategy at the level of the quality of the ICT implementation, with the confirmation of the significance of the stated hypothesis. The results of the research indicate the fact that the level of the quality of the ICT implementation could be predicted with a high accuracy, as well as the influence of the performances of enterprises and the cluster as a whole.

Volume 15 Number 2, May – August 2013

Editorial 2013 (2)

Slavica P. Petrović

The Volume 15, Number 2 of the Economic Horizons scientific journal contains three original scientific and two review papers, one book review, and Acknowledgements to the reviewers of the manuscripts submitted to the Editorial Board of the Journal in 2012.