Analysis of fatal injuries in Serbian underground coal mines – 50 years review

Abstract

The study presented here analyzes mining accidents and fatal injuries in Serbian underground coal mines over a period of 50?years, in order to assess the effectiveness of legislation changes in the overall safety of work environment. Two distinct periods, prior to 2000 and after 2000 were compared. The data from the period after 2000 were further analyzed to provide better understanding of the results. In order to assess the overall state of safety in Serbian mines, the data on fatal injuries were also compared to the international data. It was found that the legislative changes are more easily accepted by the common workers than by the mine management. Consequently, the key recommendation for the safety of coal mine companies in Serbia is the investment in the new technology. Additionally, mine management should be in the focus of the mining inspection with a stronger penal policy regarding mine safety neglect.     

When do neoliberal economic reforms cause democratic decline? Evidence from the post-communist Southeast Europe

Do neoliberal reforms (notably, austerity policy) facilitate democratic decline and the gradual deconstruction of democratic institutions? I examine the democratic development of the Western Balkan countries since 2008 by focusing on the two most recent cases of democratic rollback in Macedonia and Serbia. Neoliberal reforms may create a preference to shut down democratic institutions, because such reforms are socially costly and politically risky. However, democratic backsliding is not possible without opportunity. I illustrate this with reference to the examples of Hungary and Croatia. Croatia implemented some neoliberal policies after 2015, but did not see a drop in its democracy score. By contrast, Hungary moved towards centrally planned capitalism, nationalisation and state interventionism (all opposed to the neoliberal concept of reform), and yet saw a significant democratic decline after 2010. The opportunity to dismantle democratic institutions was a consequence of an electoral gap (a difference in vote share between former and new incumbents), which enabled the rise of authoritarian leaders in Macedonia, Hungary and Serbia.     

The long-run effect of economic disasters

This article investigates the long-run consequences of economic disasters. The results suggest the negative long-run effect of economic disasters on output growth and the limited empirical importance of the investment channel.     

Public debts,deficits and interest rates in CEECs: are there spatial spillovers?

In this paper we extend the literature on the relationship between public debts, deficits and government bond yields in the following directions: we examine a set of 11 Central and Eastern European countries during the period 2006–2015; we apply a novel econometric technique that allows for spatial effects; and we test forward-looking instead of current values of explanatory variables thus addressing endogeneity problem. We find that there is overall a highly significant positive effect of both public debt and deficit on long-term interest rates. This effect is found to be larger in CEECs than in developed countries. Moreover, deficits are found to exert a large and significant indirect effect, and these spillovers amount to more than 50% of the overall effect.     

The performance effect of network and managerial capabilities of entrepreneurial firms

Building on the organizational capabilities view, this study explores the impact of network and managerial capabilities on the performance of entrepreneurial firms in the architecture and real estate sector. We apply an extended organizational capabilities model by integrating Porter’s value chain model and Grant’s hierarchy of organizational capabilities. Starting from differences in entrepreneurial orientation between architecture and real estate development firms, we argue that under higher environmental uncertainty, network capabilities are more important for the performance of architecture firms whereas managerial capabilities are more important for the performance of real estate development firms. Employing data from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, the research results support the hypotheses. This study integrates Porter’s value chain concept and the organizational capabilities model and delivers a contribution to the organizational capability theory. In addition, it contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by showing that network capabilities are more important for creating competitive advantage in entrepreneurial firms than in other firms.     

On the monetary nature of the interest rate in a Keynes–Schumpeter perspective

Abstract

Keynes, in the General Theory, explains the monetary nature of the interest rate by means of the liquidity preference theory. The objective of this article is twofold. The first objective is to point out the limits of the liquidity preference theory. The fundamental limitation of this theory is that it does not allow to realize the intent declared by Keynes in 1933 to elaborate a monetary theory of production The second objective is to present a more solid theory of the monetary nature of the interest rate. It will be shown that an essential element of this explanation is Schumpeter’s analysis of the role of bank money in a capitalist economy. In fact, this analysis represents a fundamental tool to explain the characteristics that, according to Keynes, distinguish a monetary economy from a real-exchange economy     

Partial equilibria with convex capital requirements: existence,uniqueness and stability

We consider several risk-averse financial agents who negotiate the price of a bundle of contingent claims in an incomplete semimartingale model of a financial market. Assuming that the agents’ risk preferences are modeled by convex capital requirements, we define and analyze their demand functions and propose a notion of a partial equilibrium price. In addition to sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness, we also show that the equilibrium prices are stable with respect to misspecifications of agents’ risk preferences.     

Improving the financial sustainability of nonprofit organizations through tourism-related activities

One of the greatest problems facing nonprofit organizations (NPOs) is the lack of funding, which directly jeopardises their work. NPOs working in tourist destinations have the opportunity of satisfying this need through tourism, by linking the objectives of their own activities to the objectives of tourist destinations. This article aims to establish whether NPOs working in tourism have capitalised on tourism as a means for increasing their own income. In other words, do NPOs that more frequently conduct tourism-related activities have a higher level of financial sustainability, reflected in a higher share of income from self-funding activities than from donations and grants? To this end, primary research was conducted using a questionnaire on a sample of 205 NPOs whose activities impact tourism and which operate in one of the four most developed tourist destinations in Croatia with regard to tourist traffic in the past 10 years (Poreč, Rovinj, Dubrovnik and Medulin). Research results indicate that an increase in the frequency of conducting activities directly impacting tourism is paralleled by an increase in the share of income generated by active self-funding (income from selling products and providing services) and other types of self-funding (income from memberships fees and assets), with a decrease in the share of income from donations and grants. This study contributes to the existing knowledge by connecting NPOs with the tourism system and by identifying and defining opportunities for NPO self-funding through tourism as a means of improving NPO financial sustainability.     

Identifying and ranking novel indicators of MSMEs innovation potential

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to present the research on the identification and ranking of innovation potential indicators of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The main innovation management challenge is to recognise and measure factors that enable innovations. In that sense, the key 6 criteria and 41 indicators that describe innovation potential of MSMEs have been identified, based on expert judgment and the selected literature review in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship. Next, the rank of every indicator based on an expert’s assessment was determined by using Fuzzy AHP approach. A case study was conducted for Serbian MSMEs. The holistic approach, applied in this research for the identification of the innovation potential criteria and indicators, represents novelty and contribution to the literature. The presented procedure of the innovation potential indicators selection and ranking could be used as a bench-marking tool, to help managers to improve innovation capacity of the company.