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The aim of the paper is to analyse costs and benefits of the investments in improving energy efficiency of the public sector. We analyse feasibility and environmental impacts of the investments in public lighting and solar electricity production in the case of the city of Rijeka in order to see the economic and environmental acceptability of these investments. The paper also includes the wider methodological framework by explaining different approaches in the measurement of the energy efficiency. The changes in energy efficiency and energy intensity in Croatia during the 1995-2008 period are discussed and connected with the structural changes in Croatian economy during the transition process.

The aim of the paper is to introduce characteristics and problems of mobility of workers and students within the EU and to explore the attitudes of young people in Croatia on the readiness of their mobility. The research was conducted on a sample of a student population and the methodology of descriptive statistics, contingency tables, χ2 and the Single Factor Analysis of Variance – ANOVA table were used. The results showed insufficient knowledge and relatively little interest in participating in international student exchange programs. The results also pointed out the problems of students' mobility. A systematic and proactive approach by all responsible stakeholders is therefore necessary to raise students’ awareness and the awareness of other target groups and to point out the advantages and opportunities that mobility brings.

There have been numerous discussions on economic convergence between regions during the last decades, especially because the development gap between different areas has been widening. Although different measures of the national and regional economic policies highlight the importance of the catching-up process, the results are sometimes quite different. This paper aims to study the level of regional convergence through analyzing chosen socio-economic variables in the Republic of Croatia. It is hard to conduct more complex analysis because of the lack of data but it was possible to analyze Gamma-convergence and (in some examples) Beta-convergence of GDP per capita, labor productivity and administrative unemployment rate which are the most used variables in the growth theory literature. Other socioeconomic variables of Croatia counties are described in descriptive part of the research analysis. Trends among regions are assessed throughout clusters of regions: all regions, developed regions and developing regions. A regional convergence conceptual framework includes 21 Croatian counties in a given time period, depending on data availability. The tendency toward convergence and/or divergence is analyzed in the context of public policy efficiency, which is the main purpose of the research. According to the results the authors give the public policy recommendations which can be used in the decision making process regarding the regional development disparities' mitigations.