Volumen 67 (2021): Heft 2 (June 2021)

The trade-off between output and unemployment has become an essential part of modern macroeconomics and is known as Okun’s law. However, in transition and emerging markets economies’ context, the output-employment nexus has a much more important role as these countries strive to significantly improve the growth dynamics of both variables. This paper aims to analyze the particularities of this relationship in selected Central- and South-Eastern European transition (and former transition) countries to find out a discrepancy between the output and employment growth. Therefore, the employment elasticity coefficients are calculated. The estimated results suggest that, in the observed period, economic growth has not contributed to satisfactory employment growth, which is commonly referred to as a “jobless growth” hypothesis. Accordingly, this paper attempts to single out the main challenges of the output-employment growth misbalance in these countries and propose adequate policy measures that could reduce it. The industrial policy that differentiates from the “one-size-fits-all” paradigm is emphasized as the most important part of macroeconomic policy in transition economies to make their development more balanced. Additionally, short-run stabilization policy, especially the one focused on the labour market, has a significant role in these economies.

This paper tests the hypothesis on market efficiency for returns on the euro against fifteen currencies while assuming predictability of returns, dependent on the sign and magnitude of endogenous shocks. Considering the properties of exchange rate returns, the quantile autoregression approach was selected in empirical analysis. Based on the research data sample, consisting of daily exchange rates between January first, 1999, and April thirty, 2020, the paper suggests profitable trading strategies depending on a currency pair. In the case of six out of fifteen currency pairs, exchange rate returns were found non-predictable or almost non-predictable. In the case of nine considered currency pairs, there was a significant linkage between current and past exchange rate returns, found as dependent on the sign and magnitude of endogenous shocks in exchange rate returns. Finally, the paper considered possible factors of inefficiency and suggested further research of the topic.

This paper analyses correlations between several organizational characteristics and product/process innovations in enterprises in Serbia. We used the World Bank Enterprise Survey data on 339 small, medium, and large companies from various industries. Many of the factors analysed in this study are consistent with theoretical conclusions in the literature on this topic and relate to organizational maturity. Also, factors such as the size of the company and the industry to which it belongs were analysed. For correlations testing, the Chi-square correlation coefficient and the Cramer’s V test were used. The analysis revealed correlations between innovativeness and many organizational characteristics. However, in some cases, contrary to theoretical claims, correlations were not confirmed. We found that the introduction of new products and/or processes in the company is influenced by business strategy, production targets, number of performance indicators monitored, establishment of quality management system, formal training programs for company’s full-time employees, ease of achieving the company’s production targets, level of awareness of management and employees about the company’s production targets, spending on research and development activities within the company, and acquisition of external knowledge, way of promoting non-managers in a company, time frame of the company’s production targets, company’s size and main market.

This paper analyzes the importance of bimodal solutions in the rail-road transport of goods with an emphasis on the aspect of ecology within the geographical region of EU-28. Using the panel regression analysis in the period from 2010 to 2019, we are trying to confirm the dependence between the road and rail transport of goods by applying several freight units’ measures: the freight transport performance in tonne-kilometres, the freight transport performance in tonne-kilometres per thousand of USD, and the amount of goods transported in thousands of tonnes. The application of data to all selected freight units’ measures in the regression models confirms a relationship between road and rail transport. A direct relationship between these two modes of transport confirms the complementarity effect, which means that, in most cases, the goods transport solutions require the combination of road and rail mode, where the railway should be considered as the main transport/carrier, the road transport, however, should have the role of short pre-transport or post-transport. The ecological aspect of such bimodal solutions can also be emphasized since the railway transport is considered as an ecological mode.

The growing share of the retired population in Europe worsens the balance of the social costs as social consensus in most European countries rests on extensive social transfers for this population group. With its 25% share in GDP and 50% share in social transfers, the European (continental) model is indeed not sustainable when compared globally. The current prevailing model of “rejuvenation” of the labour market through immigration did not prove as a sustainable solution. The same is valid for the perspective of fast technological change. It is based on filling the labour market with low-paid jobs enabling host economies to leave aside the imperative permanent change in the labour market structure. This paper discusses the case of Slovenia and tries to search the reasons for the absence of elderly population in the labour market in this country. Based on the data comparison and disposable studies, authors try to identify the main issues when endeavouring to keep elderly population in the labour market.

This paper shows the importance of European Social Fund’s (ESF) countermeasures for reintegrating long-term unemployed persons aged 50+ in Austria since their number has increased in recent years. Four research questions are defined, which deal with the theoretical background, the ESF’s contribution, the possible causes of long-term unemployment, and their reflection in a country comparison figures. For the qualitative methodology, we conducted expert interviews and case study analysis. Concerning the quantitative method, we evaluated raw data from the AMS Public Employment Service, Austria, and Statistics, Austria. A correlation was established based on the content-related evaluation of the theoretical approaches, the expert analysis, and the presentation of statistics. It is necessary to identify the causes in time and take appropriate measures to prevent them from combating long-term unemployment among this target group.