Southeast European Countries Research Articles

Ethnic differences in smoking behaviour: The situation of Roma in Eastern Europe

Aim: To investigate ethnic differences in smoking between Roma and non-Roma and their determinants, including how discrimination faced by Roma may influence smoking decisions. Methods: We analysed data from the Roma Regional Survey 2011 implemented in twelve countries of Central and South-East Europe with random samples of approximately 750 households in Roma settlements and 350 households in nearby non-Roma communities in each country. The overall sample comprises 11,373 individuals (8,234 Roma) with a proportion of women of 57% and an average age of 36 years. Statistical methods include marginal effects from Probit and zero-truncated negative binomial estimates to explain cigarette consumption. Results: We found that Roma have a higher probability of smoking and are heavier smokers compared to otherwise comparable non-Roma. These differences in smoking behaviour cannot purely be explained by the lower socio-economic situation of Roma since the ethnic gap remains substantial once individual characteristics are controlled for. The probability of smoking is positively correlated with the degree of ethnic discrimination experienced by Roma, especially when it is related to private or public health services. Conclusions: By providing evidence on smoking behaviour between Roma and non-Roma in a large number of countries, our findings support the need to understand smoking behaviour of Roma from a comparative perspective, and may ultimately contribute to more effective anti-smoking messages for Roma. However, if the health disadvantage faced by Roma is to be addressed adequately, this group must be involved more effectively in the policy and public health process.

Insights on Metrosexuality and Consumption for Marketers in South-East Europe

This article explores the emergence of metrosexuals among millennial men in five South-East Europe (SEE) countries and their subculture of consumption. It qualitatively studies their beliefs about masculinity and metrosexuality, and it identifies their purchasing behaviours’ of grooming products online and offline by employing digital extended self-theory to provide strategic guidance for marketers and new insights for academics. This qualitative study includes ten semi-structured in-depth interviews and one hundred qualitative open-ended questionnaires. Additionally, it employs netnography to analyze the subculture of consumption of male metrosexuality in two representative blogs. The findings reveal that SEE millennial men embrace a dual identity, a traditional masculine identity, which co-exists with their metrosexuality, creating an emotional conflict as they differ along an accepted to extreme continuum. Metrosexual men are heavy users of personal grooming products favouring online purchasing (1) due to the frequent lack of retail availability in SEE countries and (2) their sense of embarrassment––the underlying emotional conflict. This study directly challenges the existing academic literature, which supports the dominance of traditional masculine identity among developing countries. For both marketers and academics, it presents a different market reality. Metrosexual males show a distinctly different self-identity online from offline. Social media provides them with a safe space, which is often subject to public embarrassment in offline settings. These findings have note-worthy implications for marketing practitioners including communication messaging, social media strategy, brand identity and presence, and product development. They provide insights for both practitioners and academics regarding the subculture of consumption of metrosexuals in the historically macho male-dominated SEE regions.

Do Wages Reflect Growth Productivity – Comparing the European East and West?

ABSTRACT The research determines the gap (Great Decoupling) between labour productivity and workers’ compensation in the two blocks of EU countries (Western versus Eastern). The division of countries into two groups provides a basis further to determine whether the previous socio-economic and political evolutionary development of these countries blocks still has a significant impact on the functional distribution of national income, on the extent to which labour productivity growth is transmitted to workers. The results are heterogeneous. In the sample of highly developed Western EU countries where higher levels of labour productivity, as well as high levels of technological development, lead to an increase in labour productivity to be followed by a lower increase in workers’ compensation. On the sample of Eastern EU countries, results indicate different relationships and the strength of causality between productivity and labour compensation. Central-East EU countries had a more positive relationship between real workers’ compensation and labour productivity, compared to the Southeast Europe (Balkan) countries where an increase in workers’ compensation causes a reduction in labour productivity. The results also offer a solid basis for understanding wage/income/productivity relationships d for creating policies for a more efficient distribution of national income.

Economic Effects Reforms of the Legal System in the Transitional Countries of Southeast Europe

Economic Effects Reforms of the Legal System in the Transitional Countries of Southeast Europe

Drivers for the Internationalization of Nascent Entrepreneurs and New Business Owners in Southeast European Countries

This article investigates drivers for the internationalization of nascent entrepreneurs and new business owners during the age of the digital transformation of Southeast European countries (SEE). Empirical research conducted on a sample of 4,066 international entrepreneurs in seven SEE countries has provided empirical evidence of the impact that individual characteristics, innovation, technology, motivation, perception of national culture, and business environment factors have on early internationalization. Empirical research has been conducted on data derived from The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and The World Bank. The empirical research methodology included a presentation of statistical research using Principal Components Analysis and the Ordinary Logistics Regression method. Results have shown that innovation, new technology, opportunity, and motivation are important drivers for the early internationalization of entrepreneurs in the SEE region. Early-stage entrepreneurs, who use new technology and prefer radical innovations, are more oriented towards foreign markets and customers. Increase-wealth opportunity motivated early-stage entrepreneurs to internationalize more frequently than necessity entrepreneurs, or early-stage entrepreneurs, driven by the motive of independence. Additionally, there is a significant influence from external factors such as GDP per capita, openness, financial development, unemployment, corruption, government effectiveness, rule of law, regulatory quality, political stability, the voice of accountability, economic stability, and institutional factors on the early internationalization of entrepreneurs in the SEE region.

Političko okruženje kao faktor privlačenja stranih investicija u Srbiju

The purpose of the paper is to research the influence of political environment factors on the inflow of foreign investments in Serbia. Keeping in mind that many countries in Southeast Europe find themselves in a situation where foreign investments are a necessity and a need for whole economic development, this research focused on Serbia owing to its results in foreign investment attraction during a transition period. Primary data collected using a survey technique on 88 foreign companies that invested in Serbia from 2001 to 2019 were analysed using a quantitative methodology (ANOVA and t-test). The results indicate that the stability of the government and the rule of law are the most important conditions for foreign investors in Serbia. This research's originality is reflected in the primary data and research results obtained.

Novi mediji - virtuelno u realnom svetu obrazovanja

The program of the teaching area of fine arts and culture, through which knowledge about visual arts in formal general education is acquired in the countries of Southeast Europe, is randomly positioned in the topics of traditional heritage, taught in an established way and placed in the environment of art history, at the transition of modern and postmodern and practical art work. Artistic tendencies realized in new media are difficult to introduce into the teaching process, because the interpretations are still in the discourse of fine arts and culture. In order to understand and follow contemporary visual practice, it is necessary to establish new paradigms in teaching about art, which requires redesigning and modernisation of the programs and the educational sector. The presentation of new media artistic practices and the use of digital technologies in teaching, as well as an interactive teaching approach where the screen image encourages the student to actively participate in the research process, are part of the novelties that are pointed out in this article, which should modernize and improve the teaching of art.

Energy Community in the Concept of Achieving Geo-economic and Energy Security of the Countries of the Western Balkans

Energy security is essential to the overall stability of any country and economic development. The Energy Community means a strategic project of cooperation between the European Union and the countries of Southeast Europe, and at the same time the Western Balkans, in the field of energy, promoted at the beginning of this century. It defines the components of a process aimed at stability in the supply and functioning of the energy market. The Energy Union is a compatible plan with the European Commission in providing optimal conditions for its members. The paper also discusses the implications of these concepts on the geo-economic position and perspectives of the Western Balkan countries.

Šta pokreće promene realnog efektivnog deviznog kursa zemalja jugoistočne Evrope? Pristup dekompozicije

The real effective exchange rate (REER) is an important indicator for researchers and policymakers that contains valuable information about a country's competitiveness and economic performance. Despite the numerous literature that deals with the analysis of exchange rates, there are very few analyzes of the main drivers of REER changes, especially when it comes to transition economies. To fill this gap, we analyze the shifting patterns observed in the REER movement in the countries of Southeast Europe (SEE). By using a new approach in the literature that enables the decomposition of REER changes, we aim to explore the underlying driving forces behind REER changes, which is particularly significant in the light of current global instability. The results show large variations across eight countries from the SEE region and through time since the beginning of the 21st century. The entire observed period can be generally characterized as a period of real appreciation of the currencies of most of the analyzed countries, which indicates the deterioration of their international competitiveness in the period from January 2001 to December 2020. Analysis of the drivers of the REER changes, using two approaches, showed that short-run REER changes are dominated by the nominal effective exchange rate (NEER) changes, in most of the analyzed countries. Although the contribution of price changes (domestic and foreign) is lower than the contribution of the NEER changes, it cannot be concluded that the inflation differential contributes little, and by no means negligible, to the REER changes. This result indicates the necessary caution of the SEE countries in the context of current price instabilities.

Efekti investiranja u poljoprivredu zemalja Centralnoistočne i Jugoistočne Evrope sa posebnim akcentom na Republiku Srbiju

The paper considers the role of investments in agriculture at the macro level, observing 13 countries over ten years. The countries included in the research are the Central-Eastern and South-East European countries. The importance of investments in agriculture is seen through their direct impact on the increase in production in agriculture, i.e., through the increase in gross added value in agriculture. The primary objective of this research is to determine, using the SPSS program, which independent variables affect the gross added value in agriculture. In other words, it aims to select variables for developing and evaluating the model that will show a significant relationship with the gross added value in agriculture. Due to the nature of the research subject, the dependency technique was applied in the paper, specifically, multiple regression analysis, which determined the correlation level of the selected variables with the increase in agricultural production. As for the qualitative methods, the statistical method was used to collect, process and present the results, while the comparative method was used to compare the collected data and draw certain conclusions. The research results indicate that investments play a significant role in achieving gross added value in agriculture, which means that investments largely determine economic growth in the agricultural sector. By applying the appropriate model, it was also determined to what extent variations in gross value added in agriculture can be explained by variations in total agricultural investments. By developing the obtained model, it was concluded that, in addition to other included variables, investments have the most significant impact on the gross added value in agriculture. More specifically, the most important investments are the ones that directly affect agriculture and investments in research and development.

The issue of Depopulation in selected Southeast European countries through an analytical prism of the human safety concept

The issue of Depopulation in selected Southeast European countries through an analytical prism of the human safety concept

Xenakis and Romanian Music: An Unspoken Relation

Xenakis’ music can be related to an ancient cultural background composed of Thracian, Byzantine and oriental elements, shared by Greece, Romania and other South-East European countries. A central element of this background is mythical thinking as defined by Mircea Eliade: a forma mentis involving a particular relation to the sacred, the coexistence of the archaic and the modern, and the attachment to archetypes. Mythical thinking accounts for the affinities existing between Xenakis and Romanian composers like Niculescu, Olahand Rădulescu, which concern specific aspects such as heterophony, modalism and spectralism. However, Xenakis’ Romanian roots are unassumed and unspoken as they belong to the unconscious and the repressed. They nevertheless occasionally emerge precisely as manifestations of a return of the repressed.

Building National Open Science Cloud Initiatives (NOSCIs) in Southeast Europe: Supporting Research and Scholarly Communication

The Horizon 2020 project National Initiatives for Open Science in Europe—NI4OS Europe supports the development of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) by integrating 15 countries in Southeast Europe into the governance structure of this new pan-European research environment. Through a qualitative secondary analysis of the data collected during the project, the paper focuses on the main instrument developed by the project with the aim of enabling the integration of the partner countries in the EOSC—a network of national Open Science Cloud Initiatives (NOSCIs)—and explains how the concept of NOSCI and a wide range of related activities, tools, services, and resources foster research and open scholarly communication. The paper has three main sections: the first identifies challenges to scholarly communication in Southeast Europe, the second describes the methodology used to deal with these challenges revolving around the concept of NOSCI, whereas the third presents a set of indicators to track the change generated by project actions and discusses the impact of this methodology and project outputs in the area of scholarly communication.

Public procurement integrity and governance in the energy sector in Southeast Europe

Public procurement processes are prone to some form of corruptive activities. The most common form of irregularity recorded in Southeast Europe (SEE) countries is preferential treatment of companies due to political connections of their owners. For instance, in Croatia, around half of the total contract value is won by bidders which are not private entities, but companies partially or fully owned by the state, which makes it typical breeding ground for certain abuses. For this reason, transparent governance of state-owned enterprises is extremely important, especially of those in the energy sector, as they are faced with numerous challenges, particularly with regard to governance deficits in public procurement. Resolving these challenges would contribute to a better socio-political environment which would prevent irresponsible financial management of state-owned enterprises and the implementation of inefficient or damaging investment decisions.

Impact of Company-Specific Determinants on Corporate Cash Holdings: Evidence From South-East European Countries

This paper investigates the impact of intercompany determinants on corporate cash holdings in South East Europe. We researched a large sample of companies listed on the stock exchanges. We found that SEE companies’ cash holdings on average is 6.94% of the total assets, which is lower than in developed countries. Intercompany determinants have a significant impact on the company’s cash holdings. Our results suggest that cash holdings are positively affected by the size of the firms, cash flow, cash flow uncertainty, debt maturity, and growth opportunities. Cash holdings are negatively affected by the net working capital, financial leverage, and capital expenditures. SEE companies operate in underdeveloped financial markets with limited access to finances, and their cash holding decisions are mostly determined by the transaction motive. Our findings indicate that companies in SEE do not pursue a cash optimization policy. They largely follow the pecking order pattern and the cash holding of the firm is mostly determined by means of the relationship between the capital investments and internally generated funds.

Leaving out of necessity or out of ambition? The impact of socio-economic development on factors of youth emigration from countries of South Eastern Europe

Based on survey data from representative national samples of young people, we compared the impact of nine different factors of emigration desire among young people from 10 countries of Southeast Europe. The results show that (1) the impact of factors of necessity decreases with higher levels of Human Development Index (HDI), while factors of ambition tend to have stronger impact. We also found that across all 10 countries, (2) the experience of having been abroad is the strongest predictor of higher emigration desire, and that (3) the emigration desire of young people tends to decrease with higher levels of HDI.

Banking Sector Reforms and the Global Financial Crisis in Transition Economies: Evidence from Southeast Europe

In this paper we provide an overview of banking sector reforms in the transition economies of eight Southeast European (SEE) countries. We discuss certain macroeconomic and financial sector indicators of SEE countries leading up to the Global Financial Crisis and immediately after. We benchmark these indicators with Central Eastern European and EU 15 countries in order to identify financial development gaps and areas for improvement. This paper is intended to contribute to the discussion on the economic convergence of EU and new or potential EU member states and the degree to which reforms have contributed to a sound financial sector which will in turn fund a sustainable growth and ensure a successful EU integration.

PRIORITIZATION OF REGIONAL TRANSMISSION NETWORK PROJECTS TO SUSTAIN GENERATION AND MARKET DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH EAST EUROPE

The region of South East Europe (SEE) has been experiencing an ongoing process of changes in the energy sector in the areas of power generation, power transmission and power distribution. These changes are reflected in each country through reorganization of vertically integrated electric power utilities, followed by functional separation of transmission from generation and distribution. Changes in the energy sector have also affected the philosophy of generation and transmission planning since most of the SEE countries are transition countries. In order to establish and harmonize the common regional and the wider European electricity market, many study activities have been undertaken in the last few years. This paper deals with the interaction between the most important regional generation and transmission studies that were presented and discussed at different occasions at the regional level (Athens Fora, conferences, workshops, web sites etc.). The main aim of the studies was to assist the European Commission (EC), the World Bank (WB) and the donors in identifying the indicative priority list of investments in power generation and related electricity infrastructure from the regional perspective and in line with the objectives of SEE regional electricity market. The scope of work within this study was to analyze the transmission network for investigated scenarios and in accordance with the findings and conclusions from the updated GIS. The final result is supposed to be a list of new interconnection line priorities in the region necessary for new generation and future market sustainability.

Themes in Southeast European Banking: A Review of Literature

In this paper we review the literature around three main research questions: the impact of foreign bank entry on net interest margins, financial system stability and credit supply. We also motivate the focus on Southeast European (SEE) countries. SEE economies although under the umbrella of European transition economies exhibit different macroeconomic and financial sector features from these countries and as such could benefit from a more focused empirical investigation. This could tailor and improve the recommendations given to policymakers in these countries which will help promote financial and economic development. Other countries in the world that share similar macroeconomic and financial sector features could benefit from the results as well. In addition, it is argued that SEE countries offer a unique laboratory for the proposed research questions because of the dramatic increase of foreign bank presence in these countries and their low level of financial and economic development. Keywords: foreign bank entry, Southeast Europe, net interest margins, financial system stability, credit supply DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/14-18-07 Publication date: September 30 th 2022

Religiosity and Substance Use Among Youth in Southeast Europe: The Importance of God as the Strongest Protective Religious Dimension

Using a large sample of youth ( N = 10,398) from 10 countries of Southeast Europe, the present study analyzed the effects of different dimensions of religiosity on various types of substance use across three different religions. The results, based on risk ratios and binary logistic regression, indicated that belief in the importance of God is generally a much stronger protective factor against substance use than church attendance or personal prayer. At the level of the entire sample, risk ratios revealed that finding God to be highly important reduced the likelihood of using hard drugs by as much as 69% and the likelihood of using soft drugs by 74%. In the case of alcohol use, the effect was weaker and less robust. Overall, the results of this study results point to the high relative importance of belief in God as a factor strengthening an individual’s ability to refrain from substance use.