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This paper analyses the existing educational and occupational structures of several EU member countries and their alignment with the needs of the labour market. Such a situation may indicate a structural mismatch in labour market in which the mismatch between the skills taught in schools and universities and the skills needed in the workplace appears. To evaluate this mismatch, the paper investigates the matching needs of employers and unemployed job seekers by disaggregating the registered employment office data by education and occupation groups in selected EU countries separately. More educated workers, as well as workers in more complex and better-paid occupations, might fare better when it comes to the aggregate labour market trends. For example, economic downturns and increases in unemployment might be felt more heavily by workers with lower education and those who work in professions requiring fewer skills. In this paper, we analyse the data for a selected group of countries (Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Slovenia, and Spain) from 2010 till 2022, using the Beveridge curves and estimate the labour market tightness and matching efficiency for different education and occupation groups. Our results show that differences in education levels and occupation result in relatively small deviations from aggregate trends in the labour market. Aggregate labour market trends therefore strongly impact all groups in the labour market, whether the market is segmented by education levels or by occupation. In other words, both the improvements in the labour market conditions and the worsening of labour market conditions have similar effects across different labour market segments.

Pandemija COVID-19 uzrokovana je širenjem SARS-Cov- 2 virusom uslijed kojeg je proglašenjem općeg zatvaranja i karantene u ožujku 2020. godine iz temelja promijenjen život svih nas. Mjere zatvaranja poslovanja i ostale epidemiološke mjere vezane za zaštitu zdravlja utjecale su na usporavanje ekonomske aktivnosti, a time su imale i značajne negativne posljedice na tržište rada. Usporedna analiza podataka stanja zaposlenosti prema različitim socio-demografskim skupinama zaposlenika i skupina zanimanja te sektorima, pokazala je različiti utjecaj na zaposlenost. Kako bi se ukupni negativni trendovi sveli na najmanju moguću mjeru, vlade zemalja članica EU, pa tako i Hrvatske donijele su različite pakete mjera kako bi očuvale radna mjesta i pomogle gospodarskim subjektima najviše pogođenim pandemijom. Navedene mjere imale su povoljan učinak na tržište rada te je već od svibnja 2020. godine došlo do usporavanja rasta stope nezaposlenosti, a u Hrvatskoj je navedenom posebno pogodovala i turistička sezona. U radu se ukazuje na važnu činjenicu kako je primjena mjera za očuvanje radnih mjesta značajno iskrivila stvarne potrebe za radnom snagom. Rezultati ovog istraživanja daju naslutiti kako najnoviji trendovi na tržištu rada povezani s pandemijom COVID-19 ukazuju da za razumijevanje stvarnih problema koji su nastali na tržištu rada nije dovoljno promatrati samo stopu nezaposlenosti ili zaposlenosti. Stoga se ističe važnost problematike nezadovoljene potražnje za radom odnosno neiskorištene dostupne resurse radne snage na tržištu rada. U situacijama kriza i nižeg ekonomskog rasta, upravo raste taj udio „potencijalne dodatne radne snage“. Kombinacija stalno prisutne pandemije i izmjene različitih epidemioloških mjera, slabih izgleda za posao i obiteljskih obaveza kod kuće, natjerala je mnoge ljude da odluče ne tražiti posao tijekom pandemijske krize te se povlače u neaktivnost. Analiza pokazuje da je još u drugom kvartalu 2021. godine u EU nezadovoljena potražnja za radom činila 14, 5% „proširene radne snage“, pri čemu je taj udio veći za 4, 3% boda u korist žena, a posebno ranjivim skupinama pokazali su se mladi te osobe sa nižim razinama obrazovanja. Time se potvrđuje kako je tijekom pandemije COVID-19 došlo do porasta udjela „potencijalne dodatne radne snage“.

The COVID-19 pandemic as accurately a historical and unique event causing a paradigm shift in ways how we live but also how business function. In addition to the health system, the education system was the first “under treat” since the beginning of the pandemic. Universities were forced to completely switch to remote teaching that was later characterized as “emergency remote teaching”. Parallel to this, governments imposed severe measures of distancing among everyone, including both students and staff. This has brought numerous changes to students’ lives. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the social and emotional life of university students in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Croatia. For this purpose, the article uses data available from a comprehensive Global Student Survey “Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Life of Higher Education Students” which was carried out among 30 000 higher education students coming from 129 countries during the period May – June 2020 via the open-source web. The Survey was conducted through two waves however since data on BiH is available only from the first wave, the paper employs the dataset from the first one. Thus, BiH’s sample includes 409 responses while Croatian sample includes 673 responses. Gender and field of study effect is significant in few segments i.e., female students tend to be more worried about certain issues. Students of natural and technical sciences tend to feel significantly more hopeful and ashamed compared to their colleagues who were studying arts and social sciences. This paper also provides recommendations for education authorities and other relevant stakeholders for improving student’s engagement and their mental health and well-being.

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has unfortunately af- fected and is still affecting all aspects of our society, and so the education system is not an exception. Global lockdowns caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 starting from March 2020 have stopped the traditional in-class teaching at all education levels across the globe. The pandemic started as a health crisis and soon became a global socio- economic crisis which has accelerated the process of digitalization. We have witnessed different tools and methods of instruction being used in the education system at all levels. However, one main concern remains, and that is the inequality in access to technology across countries and the serious threat of widening the gap. Thus, the main intention of this paper is to assess the digitaliza- tion level of higher education institutions in Croatia and Bosnia and Her- zegovina (BiH) in the international context. The results presented in this article are derived from the comprehensive Global Student Survey “Im- pacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Life of Higher Education Students” which was carried out among 30 000 higher education students coming from 129 countries during the period May – June 2020 via open- source web. The sample for Croatia includes 673 responses, while in case of BiH, it includes 409 responses. The paper will employ relevant statistical tools for multiple group comparison in the empirical analysis. The results of the research show that functioning of e-learning methods in two countries dif- fer and also indicate that not all teachers at all universities were equally prepared for all challenges of virtual teaching. The paper also provides recommendations for policy makers for the continuation of higher education digitalization with the main goal of improving the knowledge and skills of students in both countries.

Purpose: Administrative barriers to employment pose a problem in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) which have an essential role in the European economy, compared to large ones. The existing rigidity and inflexibility of the labor market have further slowed down their position in creating new jobs. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to evaluate the current state of administrative barriers to employment for SMEs in Croatia and Slovenia. Design/methodology/approach: Applying descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) on a survey data for 699 Croatian and 747 Slovenian SMEs. Findings: The empirical results on a sample of about 700 SMEs for both countries expose some differences between them. In respect of administrative barriers to employment for SMEs, the most noticeable problem in Croatia is associated to frequent changes in the regulation, while in Slovenia the most highlighted problem is associated to additional time and unnecessary number of documents. Moreover, the empirical results reveal significant differences concerning the perception of the extent of administrative barriers to employment between different groups of SMEs, whereby not all of the characteristics have the same implications on this perception. Practical Implications: The overall findings are important especially for economic policy makers, who need to consider the specific characteristics and needs of SMEs when preparing legislation. Originality/Value: The combination of primary research and comparative perspective represents the main originality and value of the paper.

The main aim of the paper is to provide some new insights of the implications of the COVID- 19 pandemic on digital transformation in higher education by comparing Croatian and Slovenian experiences. Empirical data are derived from the comprehensive global student survey “Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on life of higher education students”, which was carried out online from 5 May 2020 to 15 June 2020 among more than 30, 000 higher education students coming from all around the world. The final sample for Croatia covers 673, while for Slovenia of 1, 043 survey responses. The empirical analysis is facilitated with established statistical techniques for multiple group comparison. The results show that both Croatian and Slovenian students exhibited higher satisfaction in different aspects of academic work and life. However, Slovenian students were more satisfied with the organization of online lectures, responses and support of teaching and support staff, had better access to infrastructure for studying at home and were more confident in using online teaching platforms, while Croatian students found it easier to adapt to the new teaching and learning experience. Policymakers and higher education institutions around the world may benefit from these findings while formulating policy recommendations and strategies to support students during this and any future pandemics.

This article gives some insights into the implications of the coronavirus pandemic on new trends of digitalisation in the higher education system. The results presented in this paper are a part of the comprehensive global student survey “Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on life of higher education students”, which provides systematic meaningful insights into students’ satisfaction and perception of different aspects of their life during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The survey was launched via opensource web toll on 5 May 2020 and remained opened until 15 June 2020 and has altogether included 30, 877 students coming from 129 countries and 6 continents. The results presented here will be concentrated on the coronavirus pandemic implications on the digitalisation of the higher education system, more precisely, on the way it has affected the life and work of Croatian higher education students in the international context.

This article debates the pros and cons of technological change and its influence on the new employment circumstances by analysing different outcomes. Change in technology has brought higher educational demands for workers, leading to a lack of highly skilled workers and an extra supply of relatively unskilled workers, thus creating structural mismatches. Digital technology and automation create temporary displacement and structural unemployment, but also lead to the creation of new, high productivity jobs. Different international studies conducted by reputable world institutions (McKinsey, WB, OECD, etc.) have given rather different approximations of the potential impact of new technologies on occupations and employment. Due to uneven technological progress around the world, but also within countries, “job polarization” appears. As a consequence, the share of employment in high-skilled, high-paying occupations (managers, professionals and technicians) and low-skilled, low-paying occupations (elementary, service, and sales workers) is growing on the one hand. On the other, the share of employment in middle- skilled, middle-paying occupations (clerks, plant and machine operators) is being squeezed. The research analysis in selected OECD countries and EU-28 shows that as a result of this “job polarization”, the demand for highly educated workers is increasing and unemployment has mostly hit people with primary and lower secondary education and less. After the crisis in 2008–2009, most countries were not able to return the productivity growth rates to pre- financial crisis levels. Technological progress has significantly influenced technology intensity of knowledge-intensive, high-tech sectors, but decrease employment growth in low- tech manufacturing sectors. Changes in employment shares of different occupation groups in the EU-28 and USA indicate current “job polarization”, with a considerable increase in the share of high-paid professionals, but also low-paid service and sales workers in overall employment. Medium- paid occupations, such as clerical support workers or craft and related trades workers and machine operators suffered the largest losses in terms of employment share. It can be concluded that “job polarization” has accelerated since the crisis of 2008–09. As a result, the biggest threat from the digital revolution is not technological unemployment, but widening income inequality. The final outcome is difficult to estimate, though besides certain destructive effects, new technologies and the digital revolution will create other completely new jobs and support additional jobs, primarily in services sectors that are less easy to automate. Therefore, the policy implication to minimize the potential negative effects of technological change and “technological unemployment” should include timely and appropriate forms of government engagement.

Temporary employees represent a significant portion of the EU-28 labour force with a share of 14.3% in the total number of employees in 2017. Temporary employment typically has a negative connotation due to job insecurity and lower pay of temporary employees compared to permanent employees. Certain groups of workers, less educated and young employees for example, are much more likely to be temporary employed. Some other groups like women exhibit higher temporary employment rates compared to men, though these differences are minor and decreasing. This paper focuses on describing and analysing key trends related to temporary employment in the EU-28 countries within the 2002-2017 period. After identifying groups of employees most affected by temporary employment, it aims to provide explanations and reasons behind differences in temporary employment rates amongst different demographic groups.

In 21st century youth generations are facing increasing challenges which came with a new age of automation and artificial intelligence. The growth of so called “non-standard forms of employment” in EU-28 decreased labor market rigidities but in the same time increased the duality of labor market. The analysis show that youth unemployment in some countries is even four times higher than aggregate one and younger generations are mainly having unsecure, temporary contracts, remaining in precarious employment for a long time. The lowest unemployment rates have young people with tertiary level of education and those who get work experience during their education.

Education policy that would fully enable the fullfilment of social and economic functions of education needs to be coordinated and aligned with the economic policies where the final goal is increasing the country's competitiveness on the regional and global market. Role and importance of such education policy in specific framework such as transition process has to be approached strategically. Discussion of the position of education in transition process raises questions such as: curriculum reform, coordination of education and labor market policies due to the changed environment which mostly includes and refers to the role of market forces (supply and demand) for certain knowledge and skills, financing education sector and others. Besides the new and important role of market forces, appearance of private ownership is an important characteristic of the transition process. This form of ownership is also visible in the education sector. However, it is not only due to the transition process and market oriented reforms, but there is also a global trend of decentralization, weakening the role of the state, liberalization, privatization, expansion of regional and global integrations and other global trends. The main research question focuses on the assessing weather the private education expansion has positively impacted Economic freedom in the transition countries of the Central and East Europe (CEE). These countries, are now what it is according to Birzea (2008) a „New transition“ that is more economic, social and educational and less political. This „New Transition“ of CEE countries is also in the accordance with the Lisbon Agenda and other EU goals concerning education and training (such as those set in the Education and Training 2020 – ET2020). Thus, this paper sheds some light on the relationship between Economic freedom and private primary and secondary education in the CEE region during the period 1999 - 2015, which also includes the transition period of the countries from this region. This paper continues the current scientific discussion regarding the effect of Economic freedom on Private share in education by continuing the discussion started by DeAngelis and Shakeel (2017). However, this paper goes one step further and estimates the effect of decomposed Economic Freedom Indices (Fraser Institute and the Heritage Foundation) on selected variables in CEE countries. Results of estimation also provide very limited statistical evidence to support the hypothesis that private education promotes Economic freedom in selected countries as it was expected regarding the current debate started by DeAngelis and Shakeel (2017). This paper shows that only certain dimension of the Heritage Foundation Index have an effect on private share in primary and secondary education. Five existing dimension of second (Fraser Institute) Index do not show any statistically significant effect on Private share. Recommendations to policy makers based on the results of this analysis are formed in the direction of necessary and continuous expansion of the access to education including both private primary and secondary education. However, this also requires well planned governmental quality assurance framework and financial support that is coordinated with other policies and overall country's development strategy. Measurements such as those of Economic freedom should take into account more aims and implementations of regulations. Finally, the concept of Economic freedom needs a coherent theoretical framework and more effort needs to be put by key promoters and players in the Economic freedom debate (international organizations) towards achieving this goal. This would create a framework to resolve measurement issues in order to create tool(s) that would measure „true“ Economic freedom. Using data from the World Bank, the Fraser Institute and the Heritage Foundation this paper explores the scope to which private education promotes levels of economic freedom in CEE countries during 1999 - 2015. Using country and time fixed-effects regression it has been found that only certain dimensions of the Heritage Foundation Index promote the Private share in total primary and secondary school enrolment. Five dimensions of the Fraser Institute Index do not have a significant effect on the Private share.

Starenje stanovništva na području EU-a dugoročno sve više utječe na smanjivanje radnog kontigenta te je, radi osiguravanja održivosti mirovinskih i zdravstvenih sustava, ključno povećanje stope zaposlenosti starijih osoba. U radu se analizira radni status osoba starijih od 55 godina te se posebno analizira skupina umirovljenika i njihovo poznavanje kompjuterskih vještina i uključenost u dodatne oblike cjeloživotnog obrazovanja. Umirovljenici s višom razinom obrazovanja skloniji su raditi te je stopa zaposlenosti za umirovljenike s višom razinom obrazovanja dvostruko veća od prosječne ukupne stope za tu skupinu. Rezultati istraživanja na temelju SHARE baze pokazuju kako je u dobnoj skupini 55-59 najviše umirovljenih muškaraca u Austriji (11, 6%), Luksemburgu (9, 5%) i Hrvatskoj (9%), a prosječno je veći udio umirovljenih muškaraca koji rade. U Hrvatskoj najveći udio umirovljenika koji obavljaju neki plaćeni posao čine muškarci niže obrazovne razine (čak 57, 3%), dok je među umirovljenicama najveći udio onih koje obavljaju neki plaćeni posao s visokom razinom obrazovanja (40, 9%). U odabranoj skupini zemalja čak preko polovica žena (51, 0%) nikada se nije služila računalom, za razliku od četvrtine muškaraca (40, 5%), što ih zasigurno sputava prilikom njihove daljnje aktivacije na tržištu rada. Iznenađuje podatak koji ukazuje kako se čak 72, 2% žena niže razine ISCED klasifikacije nikada nije služilo računalom, ali je stoga prosječno gotovo 50% umirovljenih žena više od muškaraca uključeno u neki od oblika obrazovnog tečaja ili treninga.

Hrvatska se već godinama suočava s visokom nezaposlenošću mladih (oko 43 % u 2015.) te sve većim udjelom obeshrabrenih. Nezaposlenost mladih u EU, a posebno u Hrvatskoj zabrinjava jer je gotovo trostruko veća od ukupne stope nezaposlenosti te daleko viša od prosjeka EU gdje iznosi oko 20 %. U radu se analizira neaktivnost mladih putem tzv. NEET skupine, čiji udio je alarmantan u Bugarskoj, Cipru, Grčkoj, Hrvatskoj i Španjolskoj. Većina mladih osoba nema ni niži srednjoškolski stupanj obrazovanja te rano napušta sustav obrazovanja i treninga. Prelazak iz sustava obrazovanja na tržište rada nije jednostavan, a prosječno prijelazno razdoblje do prvog značajnog posla na području EU traje oko 6, 5 mjeseci. S obzirom na istovremeno sudjelovanje mladih u procesu obrazovanja i na tržištu rada razlikuje se pet grupa zemalja. Neusklađenost tržišta rada i obrazovnog sustava posebno je izražena u Hrvatskoj, a sve više zabrinjava porast nezaposlenih mladih osoba s najvišim stupnjem obrazovanja.

The regulation relating to development of small and business environment affect different economic categories at the macro and micro level. This paper concentrates on impact of employment protection legislation (EPL), especially hiring and firing rules on fostering small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Namely, overregulation of the labor market can discourage job creation and mobility of workers. Rigorous labor regulation is also connected with labor market segmentation and in such way reduces employment of vulnerable groups. Many aspects of labor regulations are considered problematic and time-consuming. By using, World Bank Doing Business measures of labor market regulations (hiring, working hours, redundancy rules and cost) our research will examine the relationship between labor market regulation and economic outcomes. In order to assess the current state of labor regulations of SMEs to remove administrative obstacles in Croatia we provided online survey in more than 700 SMSs. The SMEs were asked to project which administrative burdens represents the biggest administrative obstacle for their business. Our results of administrative barriers for SMEs in the field of labor market regulation, clearly indicate that size, age, sector and region have an impact on respondent’s perceptions. They show that medium-sized and young enterprises, enterprises from secondary sector and from Adriatic Croatia experience the highest extent of the administrative barriers in the field of labor market regulation.

The starting point of the paper is that highly educated women suffer less inequality in the workplace. To test it, both secondary and primary researches were conducted. Secondary data refer to field of education, participation in knowledge-intensive activities, hierarchical status, and pay gap of highly educated women compared to men in selected European countries, while primary data reveal perceptions of highly educated women on women’s contextual career factors and personal critical incidents experiences concerning equality. The primary research was conducted on a sample of 675 highly educated women in Croatia. Results are tested for statistical differences according to respondents’ demographics and compared with highly educated men’s perceptions (n = 177). Secondary data reveal that gender segregation is less present among highly educated women. In general, primary data imply that highly educated women do not perceive contextual factors to negatively influence their careers, even though they had some negative gender-related experiences. Paper concludes with equality initiatives recommendations based on research results, and interviews conducted with HRM and general directors from MNCs with best equality practices.

The research concentrates on the role of tourism in generating female employment and on impact of gender discrimination in tourism sector. Unfortunately, in many countries there are still some barriers to the inclusion of women at all hierarchical levels of tourism labor market. Research analysis focuses on EU countries where tourism is a main employer of women. The analysis shows that women represent over third persons employed in the non-financial business economy and almost two thirds in core tourism activities. Women's gross hourly earnings in accommodation and food services were below those of men in the European Union and only countries who recorded increase of gender pay gap from the beginning of crisis are Bulgaria and Croatia. Women in tourism industry are still overrepresented in lower status jobs with fewer opportunities for career progression and are often treated unequally., {"references":["UNWTO, Global Report on Women in Tourism 2010. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the United Nations Entitty for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Madrid, Spain: UNWTO, 2011.","H. Kattara, \"Career Challenges for Female Managers in Egyptian Hotels\", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 17 (2/3), pp. 238–251, 2005.","I. Livanos, Ç. Yalkin and I. Nuňez, \"Gender employment discrimination: Greece and the United Kingdom\", International Journal of Manpower. Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30, no. 8, pp. 815-834, Sept. 2009.","L. Parrett, Women in Tourism Employment – A Guided Tour of the Greenwich Experience, Research Report: London Thames Gateway Forum, 2004.","A. Obadić, I. and Marić, \"The Significance of Tourism as an Employment Generator of Female Labour Force\", Economic Thought and Practice, vol. XVIII, pp. 93-114, no. 1, 2009.","C. Costa, I. Carvalho, S. Caçador, Z. Breda, Future Higher Education in Tourism Studies and the Labor Markets: Gender Perspectives on Expectations and Experiences. In D. Prebežac, C. Schott, P.J. Sheldon (Eds.), The Tourism Education Futures Initiative, p. 193-213, Routledge, New York, USA, 2014.","Eurostat, \"Employment in tourism\", The statistical office of the European Union, No. 221/2015 - 14 December 2015. Available: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/7106506/4-14122015-BP-EN.pdf/b9b32dc9-bde4-43b0-9661-2919d6fb362c","Eurostat, \"Tourism industries – employment\", Statistics Explained, The statistical office of the European Union, November 2015. Available: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Tourism_industries_-_employment","European Parliament, \"Tourism and the European Union – Recent trends and policy developments\", EPRS – European Parliamentary Research Service, PE 568.343, Sep. 2015.\n[10]\tUNWTO, Measuring Employment in the Tourism Industries – Guide with Best Practices, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and International Labour Organization (ILO). Madrid, Spain: UNWTO, 2014.\n[11]\tT. Baum, C. Cheung, Women in Tourism & Hospitality: Unlocking the Potential in the Talent Pool, White Paper, Hospitality Industry, March 2015.\n[12]\tT. Baum, International Perspectives on Women and Work in Hotels, Catering and Tourism, GENDER Working Paper 1/2013, Bureau for Gender Equality and Sectoral Activities Department, International Labour Office, Geneva, Switzerland, 2013.\n[13]\tA. Obadić, and I. Marić, \"The Significance of Tourism as an Employment Generator of Female Labour Force\", Economic Thought and Practice, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 1330-1039, University of Dubrovnik, 2009.\n[14]\tL.D. Santos and J. Varejão, \"Employment, Pay and Discrimination in the Tourism Industry\", FEP Working Papers, no. 205, Feb. 2006.\n[15]\tEurostat, \"Gender pay gap statistics\", Statistics Explained, The statistical office of the European Union, Feb., 2015.\n[16]\tF. Muñoz-Bullón, \"The gap between male and female pay in the Spanish tourism industry\", Working Paper 08-57, Business Economic Series 13, Nov. 2008.\n[17]\tC. Thrane, \"Earnings differentiation in the tourism industry: Gender, human capital and socio-demographic effects\", Tourism Management, Vol. 29, pp. 514-524, 2008.\n[18]\tJ.A. Campos-Soria, B. Ortega-Aguaza and M. R. Ropero-García, \"Gender segregation and wage difference in the hospitality industry\", Tourism Economics, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 847-866, 2009.\n[19]\tH. Tucekr, \"Undoing Shame: Tourism and Women's Work in Turkey\", Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, Vol. 5, pp. 87-105, No. 2, 2007."]}

The paper explores the influence of public administration regulations and government efficiency, in shaping entrepreneurship environment in European Member States. Statistical analysis concentrates on performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) considering the fact that smaller firm face a disproportionally higher regulatory burden than larger firms. The results show that SMEs registered a drop in value added and employment during the financial crisis, but improved their performance in 2014. Those SMEs which have fully recovered in all three core indicators (number of enterprises, employment and value added) from the beginning of financial crisis in 2008, have also reduced public administration burden and regulations for SMEs and significantly improved government effectiveness.

The paper analysis the impact of tourism industry on GDP, employment and capital investments in selected Mediterranean tourism countries (Croatia, Greece, Italy and Spain). The analysis highlights the importance of tourism strength in generating employment It synthesizes data on tourism employment and employment according to educational level and sex. The results show that the quality of human capital is increasing but in the same time indicating gender discrimination in tourism labour market. Finally the paper indicate strong contribution of tourism sector in GDP and total employment in selected countries indicating strong problem of seasonality, especially in Croatia.

In the last 15 years, impressive developments have take place in the labour market both in the EU and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The shrinking of the labour force and declining rates of participation are common both to the old and new EU Member States, due to the sharp decline in labour demand and to specific demographic trends. Although situations vary in each CEE transition economy, there are some common characteristics. The remarkable fall in GDP at the beginning of the transition period, caused by privatization and restructuring, was accompanied by a sudden decline in employment. After an analysis of labour market developments and trends in the old and new EU Member States, this paper concentrates on the development of employment policies. The aim of new dynamic and innovative employment policies is rapid job-creation and solving the unemployment problem in flexible and challenging economic and labour market conditions. As the effects of institutions and policies on labour market performance are country- and time-specific in CEE countries and Western Europe, a comparative cross-country analysis is presented. Dealing with dynamic employment policies in EU Member States, some positive examples are examined as the lessons and policy recommendations for future development in CEE countries. The conclusion of analysis is that only an integrated policy approach can solve the problem of structural unemployment caused by a mismatch between labour supply and demand.

U ovom radu istražuje se činjenica da pojedine institucije tržišta rada značajno utječu na kretanje sindikalnog članstva posljednjih godina. Na temelju analiziranih podataka zaključuje se da je u većini zemalja sindikalna gustoća opada sa strogošću zakonske zaštite zaposlenja. Uvođenje liberalnijeg sustava naknada za nezaposlene kao i njihova duljeg vremenskog trajanja smanjuje poticaje za pridruživanje sindikatima, što se događa i u slučaju proširenja ishoda kolektivnih sporazuma. Na taj način može se zaključiti kako su sindikati i odgovarajuće institucije tržišta rada (kao što je stroga zakonska zaštita zaposlenja, indeksacija plaća i zakonska minimalna plaća) supstituti, na način da stroga pravila i regulacija istiskuje sindikate. Centralizirano pregovaranje pozitivno utječe na sindikalnu gustoću, kao i snažnija porezna presija. U konačnici pokazuje se kako veća disperzija plaća povećava sindikalizaciju među nisko kvalificiranim, a smanjuje među visoko kvalificiranim zaposlenicima.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the competitiveness of the European Union (EU) NUTS 2 regions by estimating the regional competitiveness function based on labour (productivity) as the determinant of regional competitiveness. The dynamic panel data analysis is applied in accordance with the explained theoretical framework on defining and measuring regional competitiveness. The results of the study have shown that employment and labour productivity have significant, positive and the highest impact on regional competitiveness, human capital has significant and positive influence while real unit labour costs have significant and negative influence on regional competitiveness of the observed regions in the EU. Human capital is not a significant determinant if the modelling is applied only on convergence regions and regions of the new member countries while unit labour costs are not a significant determinant in the sample of the new member countries of the EU. The results imply that competitiveness is not homogeneous between the regions of the EU and can have implications for regional policy makers, regarding utilisation of examined determinants. The importance of less developed regions should not be disregarded in competitiveness analysis especially if we take into account that this may result in a re-allocation of resources from the less developed to (“better places”) the more developed regions which will contribute to widening inequalities and possibly lower the competitiveness of less developed areas or even problems in more developed regions regarding its capacity and problems of congestion. This has confirmed the need to analyse competitiveness on regional level and that it is necessary to observe regional specificities in future creation of competitiveness measures.

Clusters present a geographical nearby group of interconnected companies and associated institutions in a particular region that stimulates the creation of the innovations and new knowledge. The research stress main importance of cluster conception and their benefits what is very important for countries characterized by large regional disparities like Croatia. Although some institutions know why clusters are important, there is still no adequate co-operation, coordination and no synergy between actors, nor mutual trust between them in Croatia. This paper provides a review of cluster mapping process initiated by the Croatian Government and EU. The main outcome of the review was the recommendation that three “priority” agglomerations are considered for developing into regional or sub-regional clusters in Croatia - manufacture of furniture and wood processing sector, manufacture of parts and accessories for motor vehicles together with associated general engineering sector and manufacture of food.

Our results across all models indicate a statistically significant non-linear impact of public debt ratios on the annual GDP per capita growth rate for ‘old’ member states/developed and ‘new’ member states/emerging countries included in our sample. The calculated debt-to-GDP turning point, where the positive effect of accumulated public debt inverts into a negative effect, is roughly between 80% and 90% for the “old” member states (between 90% and 94% for developed countries). For the “new” member states the debt-to-GDP turning is lower, namely between 53% and 54% (for emerging countries between 44% and 45%). Therefore, we can confirm both our hypothesis that the threshold value for ‘new’ member states/emerging countries is lower than for the ‘old’ member states/developed countries in our sampleSignificant increase in private debt during the period between 2003–2007, especially pronounced in PIIGS countries and “new” member states. In contrast, during the same period public debt shrank in most EU countries due to a positive growth performance. In the period 2007-2012 on average the biggest accumulation of debt occurred in the public sector due to debt migration and deleveraging in the private sector. We may conclude that private sector indebtedness played a more pronounced role on economic growth in ‘new’ member states, whereas the accumulation of public debt has a stronger effect on the subsequent growth performance during the crisis.

The article explores various stakeholders’ perceptions on the future of trade unions in Croatia. Findings reveal that respondents (managers, HR experts, trade union officials, government representatives and employees) are not optimistic about the future of trade unions in Croatia, agreeing that they will face many obstacles in the near future, such as a lack of consensus between the five trade union federations, a lack of agreement among the unions within a federation, and further union disintegration. However, respondents believe that there are many strategies capable of revitalizing the union movement in Croatia, including networking, ‘organizing unionism’ and union modernization.

Finding the right balance between flexibility and security in working arrangements, is today one of the major employment policy priorities in majority of European countries. The paper analysis flexicurity concept which provides important answers to the question of how to meet modern labor market challenges and at the same time improves security. The model combines high mobility between jobs with a comprehensive social safety net for the unemployed and an active labor market policy. Over the past decade there is a clear tendency towards reducing the strictness of employment protection (EPL) - mostly focused on regulations governing individual and collective dismissals. Namely, the level of labor market flexibility is also reflected by the share of temporary and part-time employment in total employment. The most important thing in removing rigid labor market rules involves introducing flexicurity: moving from protecting jobs to protecting workers. Actual situation in EU labor market indicates on the existence of considerable differences in labor market flexibility and security across EU Member States. An adequate equilibrium between the need of protecting employees and efficiently allocating labor is a key priority for policy makers. Therefore, the focus in this research is on the following flexicurity variables: EPL index and unemployment benefits (UBs).

Tijekom druge polovine 20. stoljeća došlo je do porasta udjela trgovine na malo u članicama EU- a, ali veličina promjena značajno se razlikovala među pojedinim članicama. Rastući trend ukupne ekonomske aktivnosti, pa tako i trgovine na malo početkom 21. stoljeća, prekinut je pod utjecajem ekonomske krize krajem 2008. godine. Cilj ovoga rada je utvrditi osnovne značajke trgovine na malo u Republici Hrvatskoj u posljednjih dvadesetak godina, analizirati kretanje prometa u trgovini na malo u usporedbi s ostalim zemljama Europske unije, posebice tijekom posljednje ekonomske krize. U radu se testira hipoteza kako se brzina postkriznoga oporavka prometa u maloprodaji može objasniti razinom duga akumuliranoga u pretkriznome razdoblju. Rezultati analize upućuju na negativnu vezu između varijabli, odnosno kako su zemlje u kojima je razina akumuliranoga privatnog duga bila najniža u prosjeku zabilježile najbrži oporavak realnoga maloprodajnog prometa u postkriznome razdoblju, i obratno. Pronađena je slabija veza promatra li se promet prehrambenim proizvodima, što upućuje na zaključak kako njihova potrošnja nije bila financirana zaduživanjem te da oporavak ovoga sektora maloprodaje ne ovisi primarno o razini privatnoga duga. Analiza za sektor prometa neprehrambenim proizvodima ukazuje na visoku ovisnost ovoga oblika potrošnje o kreditnom zaduživanju kućanstava te da aktualna prekomjerna razina duga predstavlja jednu od glavnih zapreka za njen oporavak.

This paper investigates the main characteristics of regional clusters in EU27 and Croatia. The main research question is: what characterises regional clusters in EU27 and Croatia, and what are the main tendencies in cluster development? The research shows that clusters in EU27 and Croatia differ in many dimensions: the point they arise, the type of products and services they produce, their stage of development, and the business environment that surrounds them. The study concludes that in the agricultural products cluster the highest number of employees has the region of the Mediterranean Spain, and in the construction cluster, the IT cluster, the tourism and hospitality cluster and the transportation and logistics cluster has Italy. Majority of clusters in Croatia function in manufacturing and agriculture sector, have more than 500 employees (40% of all), mainly are financed by membership (68%), and produce for Croatian market (72%).