Đorđe Kotarac1 and Zoran Popović2
Theoretical and empirical findings confirm the thesis that the accumulation of physical capital partly explains the movement of countries’ economic growth rates. Researchers in the field of development economics, as well as creators of economic policies, are shifting their focus from physical (PC) to human capital (HC) as a determinant of countries’ economic development. The subject matter of this paper is the analysis of the impact of HC on achieving higher per capita income growth rates. According to the “Lisbon Strategy” and the “Europe 2020 Strategy”, HC is placed on a pedestal of importance, all with the aim of making the EU-27 the most competitive market in the world. The empirical part was conducted using a panel regression model. The research results indicate a significant impact of HC on the per capita income of the CEE-10 countries. This research study contributes by reducing a gap in the scientific literature by examining the impact of HC on the per capita income of the European countries. The concluding implications point to the importance of HC development as an effective instrument for ensuring countries’ greater economic growth.
The Eastern Bloc had been dissolved by the end of the Cold War period, and the New World Order was established. The rapid liberalization process accelerated transition to the free market economy. In this transition period, however, numerous political tensions occurring between some countries also transformed into conflicts and wars. Therefore, countries allocate their scarce resources to their national security rather than their development objectives, simultaneously gradually increasing their defense expenditures. Accordingly, the present study aims to examine the existence of the dynamic relationship between defense burden and unemployment for the selected nine post-Soviet countries that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By incorporating the annual data set of the nine post-Soviet countries over the period between 1996 and 2021, the results revealed that defense burden had no influence on unemployment in the short run, but did have a positive effect in the long run.
Tijana Tubić Ćurčić and Nenad Stanišić
The subject matter of this paper is the analysis of the influence of international migrations on income convergence in European transition countries in the period 2000-2020. Convergence can be defined as the process of catching up richer countries by poorer ones, consequentially leading to the reduction of disparities in income per capita among countries. Theoretically, human migrations are a mechanism of the adjustment of the regional imbalance that contributes to the strengthening of convergence. The regression panel model was used in the research. The research results have shown that, if observed at the level of the entire sample of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Western Balkan countries (CEE-11+WB), there is a positive and statistically significant influence of emigration on income convergence. Also, there is a positive influence of emigration on the income convergence per capita of the CEE-11 countries towards the average income of the developed countries of the EU-15. On the other hand, observed only at the level of the Western Balkan countries, there is no statistically significant influence of emigration on income convergence. The contribution of the research study reflects in filling the gap that exists in the literature on this field, since there is no large number of papers that have examined the influence of migrations on income convergence in the CEE-11 countries, as well as the Western Balkan countries.
Cheng-Wen Lee1 and Andrian Dolfriandra Huruta2,3
In this paper, the effects of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and exports on economic growth in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus Three countries are explored. The panel data of a total of 13 countries pertaining to the period from 2008 to 2018 were analyzed. Based on the result of the Lagrange Multiplier (LM) test, the data fit to the random effect model. In a similar fashion, the Wald test suggests that there is no endogeneity problem in the given model. Furthermore, the results of the Hausman and Chow test also indicate that the random effect model is the most effective model to describe the effects of FDIs and exports on economic growth. The results prove that FDIs positively impact economic growth. In addition, exports also have a positive and meaningful effect on economic growth. Overall, the paper empirically confirms FDI-led growth and export-led growth. To conclude, the findings indicate the fact that FDIs and exports are crucial for boosting the economic growth of the ASEAN+3 countries. The ASEAN+3 region remains quite an attractive destination for international companies around the world when FDIs and trade are concerned.