Ardiana Gashi - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Ardiana Gashi

Psychological Thought

Gender-based violence against women is still one of the most worrying facts in Kosovo. This paper... more Gender-based violence against women is still one of the most worrying facts in Kosovo. This paper examines determinants of women’s tolerant attitudes toward gender-based violence against women in Kosovo. An empirical assessment of determinants of tolerance towards domestic violence was conducted by utilizing data from the Kosovo Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) carried out in 2019–2020. The survey was carried out with 5,124 households, drawn from a sample representative of the whole population of Kosovo. The national representative sampling by the MICS survey allows for generalized findings. Economic conditions, lower education level, residence, marital status, and marrying age are important predictors of a higher rate of women’s tolerant attitudes toward gender-based violence among women in Kosovo. The study’s important findings open new pathways for multi-level design studies including more variables such as social support, family finances management, gender roles in paren...

South East European Journal of Economics and Business

Institutional theory has explained informal employment to result from formal institutional failin... more Institutional theory has explained informal employment to result from formal institutional failings. The aim of this paper is to identify the formal institutional failings associated with informal employment so that action can be taken by governments. Using the Tobit model for econometric analysis and reporting conditional and unconditional marginal effects of the 2021 Balkans Business Barometer survey conducted in six Western Balkan economies (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia), the contribution of this paper is to reveal that the perceived incidence and share of informal employment is significantly associated with businesses perceiving governance, public integrity and corruption as very negative or negative, the perception that the government does not consider business concerns and business dissatisfaction with public services. However, the perceived incidence and share of informal employment is not significantly associated with the vi...

This diagnostic report evaluates the extent, nature and drivers of undeclared work in Kosovo* fol... more This diagnostic report evaluates the extent, nature and drivers of undeclared work in Kosovo* followed by recommendations regarding how this sphere can be tackled.

International Journal of Development Issues, Apr 7, 2022

Purpose This paper aims to investigate whether the conventional approach to estimating the privat... more Purpose This paper aims to investigate whether the conventional approach to estimating the private and social rates of return to education generates reliable findings when used in economies with chronically depressed labour markets. Design/methodology/approach Conventional techniques (the Mincer earnings function and the discounting method) are used to provide initial estimates of the private and social returns to education in Kosovo. However, this study argues that in countries with chronically depressed labour markets, such as in Kosovo, the conventional approach is likely to significantly underestimate the private and social returns from achieving a higher level of educational attainment. This study extends the estimation approach to take into account the greater probability of more highly educated Kosovars being: employed, employed in the formal and public sectors and having longer job tenure. Findings The extended approach to estimating rates of return to schooling generates higher private and social rates of return to education than the conventional approach. Moreover, in contrast to the findings of the conventional approach, the revised approach suggests that private and social rates of return are highest from completion of upper secondary and tertiary education. Research limitations/implications The results indicate that if governments in economies with chronically depressed labour markets decide upon their educational priorities based on unadjusted rates of return, then resources may be misallocated. Originality/value The analysis presented in this paper suggests that conventional approaches to estimating private and social rates of return to education are not suitable for use in economies with chronically depressed labour markets. In addition, the paper provides the first comprehensive analysis of the rates of return to education in Kosovo. These results are used to provide a critique of the Kosovo Government’s recent educational priorities.

Journal of Economic Studies, 2021

PurposeDespite a widespread assertion that wages are lower in the informal than formal economy, t... more PurposeDespite a widespread assertion that wages are lower in the informal than formal economy, there have been few empirical evaluations of whether this is the case and even fewer studies of the gender variations in wage rates in the formal and informal economies. Consequently, whether there are wage benefits to formal employment for men and women is unknown. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the wage differential between formal and informal employment for men and women.Design/methodology/approachTo evaluate the wage differential between the formal and informal economy for men and women, data are reported from a 2017 survey involving 8,533 household interviews conducted in Kosovo.FindingsUsing decomposition analysis and after controlling for other determinants of wage differentials, the finding is that the net hourly earnings of men in formal employment are 26% higher than men in informal employment and 14% higher for women in formal employment compared with women in informal em...

Emigration from Kosovo into western European countries has been a large-scale phenomenon in recen... more Emigration from Kosovo into western European countries has been a large-scale phenomenon in recent years. The money sent back to Kosovo by migrants working abroad is currently an important element of the country’s economy, but a recent study has found that the return of migrants to Kosovo could prove even more beneficial. Ardiana Gashi and Nick Adnett suggest that government policies should encourage the retention of strong ties between the migrants and Kosovo, allow for the speedy accreditation of qualifications obtained abroad, and facilitate the flow of migrants’ savings into the Kosovan economy.

South East European Journal of Economics and Business, 2020

A recent survey found that the unadjusted average hourly net wage rate of female employees in Kos... more A recent survey found that the unadjusted average hourly net wage rate of female employees in Kosovo exceeded that of male employees. This reverse gender wage gap makes Kosovo a curiosity, though results from other countries suggest that there is an inverse relationship between the size of the gender pay gap in a country and its female labour force participation rate. In the analysis below we estimate earning functions for female and male employees in Kosovo. Using decomposition analyses we then examine the size of the explained and unexplained gender wage gaps. A novel feature of the investigation is that we incorporate into the analysis gender differences in the allocation of time. We find that the superior productivity-related characteristics of female employees in Kosovo hides the magnitude of the difficulties they still face in the labour market. Hence, we conclude that once we focus on workers with similar observed productivity-related characteristics, women in Kosovo are paid...

Croatian Economic Survey

Return migration represents a potentially important contributor to economic development for count... more Return migration represents a potentially important contributor to economic development for countries that are large exporters of labor. This paper provides an analysis of the determinants of return migration to Kosovo, a country with an especially high level of recent emigration. The findings of this investigation suggest that there is a non-linear relationship between the age of the migrant and their probability of returning. In addition, the more educated migrants and those that have acquired additional education whilst abroad are more likely to return, whereas recent migrants, those that possess permanent resident status and have their family abroad are less likely to return. As expected, the stronger the family ties of a migrant with their home country, the more likely they are to return. Finally, migrants that are expected to invest in businesses in Kosovo are more inclined to return. Together these findings suggest that return migration may be

There is a wide range of theoretical and empirical analyses suggesting that technological change ... more There is a wide range of theoretical and empirical analyses suggesting that technological change has increased the demand for skills. Since training is a mechanism to upgrade workers’ skills, it would be expected that technical progress strengthens the importance of training on account of the requirement for skills to complement new technology. However, the relationship between technical progress and firms’ (employer-funded) continuous training has been little investigated. In our research we address the theoretical gap by building upon existing models from the skillbiased technological change and training literatures. This theoretical platform supports a maintained hypothesis of a positive relationship between training and technological change, which we investigate empirically for Germany using data from the IAB establishment panel. Our empirical findings indicate that in Germany a greater share of workers undergo further/continuing training in establishments subject to technologic...

The last few decades have witnessed major changes in production technologies, which together with... more The last few decades have witnessed major changes in production technologies, which together with the availability of a highly skilled workforce, are considered as among the key factors determining competitiveness in the global economy. Since training is a mechanism to upgrade workers’ skills, it would be expected that technical progress strengthens the importance of training. This book theoretically and empirically examines the link between technological change and employer-provided training. For the UK data are extracted from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey and for Germany data from the IAB establishment panel. Empirical findings indicate that in the UK technology changes positively impact upon the length of training provided by workplaces, while in Germany a greater share of workers undergo further training in establishments subject to technological change. An important issue raised in this book, is the possibility of endogeneity/simultaneity between training and techno...

Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship

The conventional depiction of the prevalence, character and motives of informal sector entreprene... more The conventional depiction of the prevalence, character and motives of informal sector entrepreneurs, here termed the ‘marginalization thesis,’ has been that informal entrepreneurs are a small, insignificant minority of all entrepreneurs, are more likely than formal entrepreneurs to belong to marginalized groups and are more likely to be necessity-driven entrepreneurs. To evaluate critically this marginalization thesis, evidence is here reported from a 2017 survey of entrepreneurs in Kosovo. This reveals that 42.5 percent of entrepreneurs are informal entrepreneurs, that only some characteristics of marginalized populations are more prominent among informal than formal entrepreneurs (e.g., low educational level, deprived households) but others are not significantly associated (e.g., gender, age, ethnicity), and that although informal entrepreneurs are more likely than formal entrepreneurs to be necessity-driven, only fourteen percent of informal entrepreneurs are purely necessity-dr...

Croatian Economic Survey

This paper adds to the limited research conducted on labor markets with low female labor force pa... more This paper adds to the limited research conducted on labor markets with low female labor force participation, providing the first multivariate analysis for Kosovo. The determinants of female labor force participation (FLFP) in Kosovo are investigated utilizing an eclectic model, comprising of individual, household, and socioeconomic determinants, to analyze data from the Kosovo Labor Force Survey. Both supply and demand factors contribute to the explanation of the low FLFP in Kosovo. The results confirm that: age, marital status, education, labor market demand and the composition of the household are significant determinants of FLFP. These findings indicate the importance of taking a

South East European Journal of Economics and Business

Despite the growing recognition that unregistered employment remains a common problem both in Sou... more Despite the growing recognition that unregistered employment remains a common problem both in South-East Europe and well beyond, there has been little evidence available on its prevalence and distribution. This paper contributes to filling the gap, by utilising data from a 2017 large scale national representative survey of 8,533 households in Kosovo. This reveals that 34.6% of all employees are engaged in unregistered employment (i.e., they have no employment contract). A Probit regression analysis reveals significant associations between unregistered employment and individual, household, employer and job-related characteristics. Unregistered employment is significantly more prevalent among men, younger people, single, widowed or divorced, those with fewer years in education, living in rural areas and in larger households. It is also significantly more prevalent among those working in construction and services, part-time employees, with shorter employment durations, lower wages, and...

European Journal of Education, 2016

This study addresses the link between technological change and employer-provided training in the ... more This study addresses the link between technological change and employer-provided training in the Western Balkans. It is hypothesised that firms subject to technological change have an increased demand for skills and one mechanism to accommodate this demand is by providing additional training for their workforce. To test this proposition data are extracted from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development-World

Eastern European Economics, 2012

International Journal of Manpower, 2010

There is a wide range of theoretical and empirical analyses suggesting that technological change ... more There is a wide range of theoretical and empirical analyses suggesting that technological change has increased the demand for skills. Since training is a mechanism to upgrade workers' skills, it would be expected that technical progress strengthens the importance of training on account of the requirement for skills to complement new technology. However, the relationship between technical progress and firms' (employer-funded) continuous training has been little investigated. In our research we address the theoretical gap by building upon existing models from the skillbiased technological change and training literatures. This theoretical platform supports a maintained hypothesis of a positive relationship between training and technological change, which we investigate empirically for Germany using data from the IAB establishment panel. Our empirical findings indicate that in Germany a greater share of workers undergo further/continuing training in establishments subject to technological change. An important issue we raise in our empirical analysis is the possibility of endogeneity/simultaneity between training and technological change.

Psychological Thought

Gender-based violence against women is still one of the most worrying facts in Kosovo. This paper... more Gender-based violence against women is still one of the most worrying facts in Kosovo. This paper examines determinants of women’s tolerant attitudes toward gender-based violence against women in Kosovo. An empirical assessment of determinants of tolerance towards domestic violence was conducted by utilizing data from the Kosovo Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) carried out in 2019–2020. The survey was carried out with 5,124 households, drawn from a sample representative of the whole population of Kosovo. The national representative sampling by the MICS survey allows for generalized findings. Economic conditions, lower education level, residence, marital status, and marrying age are important predictors of a higher rate of women’s tolerant attitudes toward gender-based violence among women in Kosovo. The study’s important findings open new pathways for multi-level design studies including more variables such as social support, family finances management, gender roles in paren...

South East European Journal of Economics and Business

Institutional theory has explained informal employment to result from formal institutional failin... more Institutional theory has explained informal employment to result from formal institutional failings. The aim of this paper is to identify the formal institutional failings associated with informal employment so that action can be taken by governments. Using the Tobit model for econometric analysis and reporting conditional and unconditional marginal effects of the 2021 Balkans Business Barometer survey conducted in six Western Balkan economies (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia), the contribution of this paper is to reveal that the perceived incidence and share of informal employment is significantly associated with businesses perceiving governance, public integrity and corruption as very negative or negative, the perception that the government does not consider business concerns and business dissatisfaction with public services. However, the perceived incidence and share of informal employment is not significantly associated with the vi...

This diagnostic report evaluates the extent, nature and drivers of undeclared work in Kosovo* fol... more This diagnostic report evaluates the extent, nature and drivers of undeclared work in Kosovo* followed by recommendations regarding how this sphere can be tackled.

International Journal of Development Issues, Apr 7, 2022

Purpose This paper aims to investigate whether the conventional approach to estimating the privat... more Purpose This paper aims to investigate whether the conventional approach to estimating the private and social rates of return to education generates reliable findings when used in economies with chronically depressed labour markets. Design/methodology/approach Conventional techniques (the Mincer earnings function and the discounting method) are used to provide initial estimates of the private and social returns to education in Kosovo. However, this study argues that in countries with chronically depressed labour markets, such as in Kosovo, the conventional approach is likely to significantly underestimate the private and social returns from achieving a higher level of educational attainment. This study extends the estimation approach to take into account the greater probability of more highly educated Kosovars being: employed, employed in the formal and public sectors and having longer job tenure. Findings The extended approach to estimating rates of return to schooling generates higher private and social rates of return to education than the conventional approach. Moreover, in contrast to the findings of the conventional approach, the revised approach suggests that private and social rates of return are highest from completion of upper secondary and tertiary education. Research limitations/implications The results indicate that if governments in economies with chronically depressed labour markets decide upon their educational priorities based on unadjusted rates of return, then resources may be misallocated. Originality/value The analysis presented in this paper suggests that conventional approaches to estimating private and social rates of return to education are not suitable for use in economies with chronically depressed labour markets. In addition, the paper provides the first comprehensive analysis of the rates of return to education in Kosovo. These results are used to provide a critique of the Kosovo Government’s recent educational priorities.

Journal of Economic Studies, 2021

PurposeDespite a widespread assertion that wages are lower in the informal than formal economy, t... more PurposeDespite a widespread assertion that wages are lower in the informal than formal economy, there have been few empirical evaluations of whether this is the case and even fewer studies of the gender variations in wage rates in the formal and informal economies. Consequently, whether there are wage benefits to formal employment for men and women is unknown. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the wage differential between formal and informal employment for men and women.Design/methodology/approachTo evaluate the wage differential between the formal and informal economy for men and women, data are reported from a 2017 survey involving 8,533 household interviews conducted in Kosovo.FindingsUsing decomposition analysis and after controlling for other determinants of wage differentials, the finding is that the net hourly earnings of men in formal employment are 26% higher than men in informal employment and 14% higher for women in formal employment compared with women in informal em...

Emigration from Kosovo into western European countries has been a large-scale phenomenon in recen... more Emigration from Kosovo into western European countries has been a large-scale phenomenon in recent years. The money sent back to Kosovo by migrants working abroad is currently an important element of the country’s economy, but a recent study has found that the return of migrants to Kosovo could prove even more beneficial. Ardiana Gashi and Nick Adnett suggest that government policies should encourage the retention of strong ties between the migrants and Kosovo, allow for the speedy accreditation of qualifications obtained abroad, and facilitate the flow of migrants’ savings into the Kosovan economy.

South East European Journal of Economics and Business, 2020

A recent survey found that the unadjusted average hourly net wage rate of female employees in Kos... more A recent survey found that the unadjusted average hourly net wage rate of female employees in Kosovo exceeded that of male employees. This reverse gender wage gap makes Kosovo a curiosity, though results from other countries suggest that there is an inverse relationship between the size of the gender pay gap in a country and its female labour force participation rate. In the analysis below we estimate earning functions for female and male employees in Kosovo. Using decomposition analyses we then examine the size of the explained and unexplained gender wage gaps. A novel feature of the investigation is that we incorporate into the analysis gender differences in the allocation of time. We find that the superior productivity-related characteristics of female employees in Kosovo hides the magnitude of the difficulties they still face in the labour market. Hence, we conclude that once we focus on workers with similar observed productivity-related characteristics, women in Kosovo are paid...

Croatian Economic Survey

Return migration represents a potentially important contributor to economic development for count... more Return migration represents a potentially important contributor to economic development for countries that are large exporters of labor. This paper provides an analysis of the determinants of return migration to Kosovo, a country with an especially high level of recent emigration. The findings of this investigation suggest that there is a non-linear relationship between the age of the migrant and their probability of returning. In addition, the more educated migrants and those that have acquired additional education whilst abroad are more likely to return, whereas recent migrants, those that possess permanent resident status and have their family abroad are less likely to return. As expected, the stronger the family ties of a migrant with their home country, the more likely they are to return. Finally, migrants that are expected to invest in businesses in Kosovo are more inclined to return. Together these findings suggest that return migration may be

There is a wide range of theoretical and empirical analyses suggesting that technological change ... more There is a wide range of theoretical and empirical analyses suggesting that technological change has increased the demand for skills. Since training is a mechanism to upgrade workers’ skills, it would be expected that technical progress strengthens the importance of training on account of the requirement for skills to complement new technology. However, the relationship between technical progress and firms’ (employer-funded) continuous training has been little investigated. In our research we address the theoretical gap by building upon existing models from the skillbiased technological change and training literatures. This theoretical platform supports a maintained hypothesis of a positive relationship between training and technological change, which we investigate empirically for Germany using data from the IAB establishment panel. Our empirical findings indicate that in Germany a greater share of workers undergo further/continuing training in establishments subject to technologic...

The last few decades have witnessed major changes in production technologies, which together with... more The last few decades have witnessed major changes in production technologies, which together with the availability of a highly skilled workforce, are considered as among the key factors determining competitiveness in the global economy. Since training is a mechanism to upgrade workers’ skills, it would be expected that technical progress strengthens the importance of training. This book theoretically and empirically examines the link between technological change and employer-provided training. For the UK data are extracted from the Workplace Employment Relations Survey and for Germany data from the IAB establishment panel. Empirical findings indicate that in the UK technology changes positively impact upon the length of training provided by workplaces, while in Germany a greater share of workers undergo further training in establishments subject to technological change. An important issue raised in this book, is the possibility of endogeneity/simultaneity between training and techno...

Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship

The conventional depiction of the prevalence, character and motives of informal sector entreprene... more The conventional depiction of the prevalence, character and motives of informal sector entrepreneurs, here termed the ‘marginalization thesis,’ has been that informal entrepreneurs are a small, insignificant minority of all entrepreneurs, are more likely than formal entrepreneurs to belong to marginalized groups and are more likely to be necessity-driven entrepreneurs. To evaluate critically this marginalization thesis, evidence is here reported from a 2017 survey of entrepreneurs in Kosovo. This reveals that 42.5 percent of entrepreneurs are informal entrepreneurs, that only some characteristics of marginalized populations are more prominent among informal than formal entrepreneurs (e.g., low educational level, deprived households) but others are not significantly associated (e.g., gender, age, ethnicity), and that although informal entrepreneurs are more likely than formal entrepreneurs to be necessity-driven, only fourteen percent of informal entrepreneurs are purely necessity-dr...

Croatian Economic Survey

This paper adds to the limited research conducted on labor markets with low female labor force pa... more This paper adds to the limited research conducted on labor markets with low female labor force participation, providing the first multivariate analysis for Kosovo. The determinants of female labor force participation (FLFP) in Kosovo are investigated utilizing an eclectic model, comprising of individual, household, and socioeconomic determinants, to analyze data from the Kosovo Labor Force Survey. Both supply and demand factors contribute to the explanation of the low FLFP in Kosovo. The results confirm that: age, marital status, education, labor market demand and the composition of the household are significant determinants of FLFP. These findings indicate the importance of taking a

South East European Journal of Economics and Business

Despite the growing recognition that unregistered employment remains a common problem both in Sou... more Despite the growing recognition that unregistered employment remains a common problem both in South-East Europe and well beyond, there has been little evidence available on its prevalence and distribution. This paper contributes to filling the gap, by utilising data from a 2017 large scale national representative survey of 8,533 households in Kosovo. This reveals that 34.6% of all employees are engaged in unregistered employment (i.e., they have no employment contract). A Probit regression analysis reveals significant associations between unregistered employment and individual, household, employer and job-related characteristics. Unregistered employment is significantly more prevalent among men, younger people, single, widowed or divorced, those with fewer years in education, living in rural areas and in larger households. It is also significantly more prevalent among those working in construction and services, part-time employees, with shorter employment durations, lower wages, and...

European Journal of Education, 2016

This study addresses the link between technological change and employer-provided training in the ... more This study addresses the link between technological change and employer-provided training in the Western Balkans. It is hypothesised that firms subject to technological change have an increased demand for skills and one mechanism to accommodate this demand is by providing additional training for their workforce. To test this proposition data are extracted from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development-World

Eastern European Economics, 2012

International Journal of Manpower, 2010

There is a wide range of theoretical and empirical analyses suggesting that technological change ... more There is a wide range of theoretical and empirical analyses suggesting that technological change has increased the demand for skills. Since training is a mechanism to upgrade workers' skills, it would be expected that technical progress strengthens the importance of training on account of the requirement for skills to complement new technology. However, the relationship between technical progress and firms' (employer-funded) continuous training has been little investigated. In our research we address the theoretical gap by building upon existing models from the skillbiased technological change and training literatures. This theoretical platform supports a maintained hypothesis of a positive relationship between training and technological change, which we investigate empirically for Germany using data from the IAB establishment panel. Our empirical findings indicate that in Germany a greater share of workers undergo further/continuing training in establishments subject to technological change. An important issue we raise in our empirical analysis is the possibility of endogeneity/simultaneity between training and technological change.