Nenad Janković
The concept of a twin deficit relates to a budget deficit and a current account deficit. In the literature, there is no unique answer to the question of what the causal relationship between these deficits is. In any case, the existence of these deficits indicates that the spending of a country is higher than its production and investments are greater than savings. The form of financing could be a potential problem, as well as the manner of the use of these funds. Crisis situations contribute to the increasing importance of the issue. In these situations, those countries where a budget deficit chronically appears and which do not have enough domestic savings to finance excessive government spending will be in a worse position. The Republic of Serbia (RS) belongs to the group of countries where a budget deficit is a chronic phenomenon financed by external sources; therefore, the paper will analyze the issue of a twin deficit.
Yuan Xiaoling and He Bin
Given the fact that the existing evaluation and analysis of urban efficiency are negligent of external negative effects on the environment in the medium and long term, this paper constructs an SBM – an undesirable model containing an undesirable output, measures the urban efficiency of 285 cities in China at or above the prefecture level during 2003-2012, decomposes it into urban pure technical efficiency and urban scale efficiency and makes a comparative analysis of them separately. The results show that, when the environmental factors are taken into account, the level of urban efficiency in China is low, but is a large room for it to improve. The impact of the decomposition of urban scale efficiency on urban efficiency is continuously enhancing. From a regional perspective, urban pure technical efficiency is the highest in the eastern region, only to be followed by the western region, whereas it is the lowest in the middle region. From the point of view of the scale, urban pure technical efficiency represents a „U-type” change and urban scale efficiency represents an „inverted U” change. Therefore, this paper suggests that in order to improve urban efficiency, we should adopt different urban development policies for cities located in different regions and on different scales.
Vlastimir Leković
The research, focusing on the specific key aspects of economic inequality as well as economic equality, by analyzing numerous theoretical, methodological and empirical views concerning the mentioned socioeconomic phenomena, aims to identify the following related and relevant aspects that affect the efficiency of the functioning of a modern economy: a) economic inequality that has a stimulating effect on the creative, productive and innovative use of all production factors positively affects the functioning of the economy and is socially justifiable; b) a high level of economic inequality, which shows a tendency to further increase, has a negative effect on the economic system indicators as well as the stability of the society and the political environment, therefore resulting in a weaker economic performance and a lower economic growth rate; c) economic equality (certainly not egalitarianism), by contributing to greater social and political stability, which in turn reflects positively on economic stability and efficiency, is the basis for a greater success of the modern economy and dynamic economic growth rates. The main result of this study is assessing the basic factors of high and rising economic inequality and its implications for the functioning of modern economies, and accordingly, pointing to the need to implement economic policies that would lower economic inequality and mitigate its adverse consequences for the economy and the society.
Slavica P. Petrovic
Issue 2 of Volume 17, Year 2015 of the Economic Horizons scientific journal contains three original scientific papers and two review papers, the preliminary communication, a book review and the acknowledgements to the reviewers of the manuscripts submitted to the Editorial Board of the Journal in 2014.
Gordana Radosavljević
Jovana Golo
Jatinder P. Singh and Prince Doliya
In this article, the hypotheses „whether the auditor’s functional domain, his approach, methodology and responsibilities are undergoing a metamorphosis with the adoption of Fair Value Accounting (hereinafter the „FVA”) and whether his/her role is moving away from the mechanized att ester of tangible evidence to the one exercising a substantively judgmental function in a holistic assessment of the values ascribed to be fair by the entity’s management” are tested. These hypotheses are tested on the basis of an analysis of the statutory provisions, the pronouncements of accounting and other regulatory bodies and accounting norms and theories. After sett ing forth the research objectives and the hypotheses, the necessity of the FVA is reviewed and the underlying philosophy is analyzed. Impediments in performing audits of fair-valuebased measurements are then identifi ed and the US auditing standards and their international counterparts are touched upon. Finally, some safeguards and precautions for the auditor in an audit of fair-value measurements are presented.
Miroslav Todorović, Đorđe Kaličanin and Aleksandra Nojković
A large number of acronyms which indicate diff erent performance metrics, such as EBIT (Earnings Before Interest And Taxes), EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, And Amortization), ROIC (Return On Invested Capital), NPV (Net Present Value), EVA (Economic Value Added), IRR (Internal Rate Of Return), ROE (Return On Equity), ROA (Return On Assets) etc. are in use nowadays. In practice, managers cannot and do not want to apply all of these metrics and managers’ choice does not necessarily rely on what theory emphasizes as their advantages and disadvantages. We surveyed 64 CFOs in order to explore the corporate practice in the Republic of Serbia. The DCF-based capital budgeting metrics are dominant compared to the traditional metrics, and the one that is used the most is the profi tability index, only to be followed by the IRR and the NPV. The Payback Period is yet frequently used. The earnings-based corporate performance metrics are still the most important. However, the presence of EVA and balanced scorecard is not negligible. Large companies use them signifi cantly more than small companies. The orientation towards EVA and balanced scorecard increases with the internationalization of a fi rm as well. Finally, companies using sophisticated capital budgeting metrics are prone to using sophisticated corporate performance metrics.
Fang Ying1 and Zhao Wen-ping2
In recent years, the worsening of the quality of the air has urged more people to att ach great importance to circular economy. Shaanxi, abundant in natural resources, maintained the GDP growth rate of 14.9% during the period of the twelfth fi ve-year plan. However, the fast economic growth under the extensive traditional economic growth mode renders Shaanxi inadequate in resources supply and noticeably worse in ecological environment issues. With the method of the IPAT equation, this paper quantitatively analyzes the developmental stage and the developmental level of the circular economy of Shaanxi to cover the shortage of the previous studies having only been focused on the policy study and the practice mode. The result shows that Shaanxi is in the intermediate stage of circular economy and the advanced stage has an apparent advantage over the intermediate one by comparing their energy consumption and solid pollutant discharge. The development experience of Shaanxi, a typical province of China, has guidance and reference signifi cance to China and other developing countries.
Vladimir Mićić
This paper examines industrialization and structural change induced thereof, which are the main drivers and bearers of economic development. The author observes that the industry of the Republic of Serbia is devastated due to sudden and premature tertiarization as well as inadequate reforms. The current structures of both the economy and the industry do not have a sufficient capacity to ensure sustainable economic development; hence, the aim of the research presented in this paper is to emphasize the importance of reindustrialization and the implementation of structural changes in the Republic of Serbia. The paper starts from the premise that industry is the main driver and the bearer of economic growth and development. Therefore, it is necessary for the Republic of Serbia to turn to reindustrialization and implement structural changes in this sector given the fact that the levels of the development and competitiveness of the industry are correlated to the intensity of industrialization. The research findings indicate that developed industrial countries are characterized by more effective structural changes and more propulsive production that creates higher value-added products. This reflects not only at the level of the industrial development but also at the level of the competitiveness, volume and quality of exports.