Maja Bacovic | University of Montenegro (original) (raw)

Papers by Maja Bacovic

Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Dec 21, 2021

European Research Studies Journal, 2007

Demographic changes have aroused considerable anxiety in transition countries, affecting fiscal p... more Demographic changes have aroused considerable anxiety in transition countries, affecting fiscal policy, labor markets, investment and savings behavior. Montenegro faces an aging population, falling fertility rates, low income per capita, low savings rate and a national budget constrained by fiscal deficits, escalating social costs, and foreign debt service problem. Devising a viable solution for the economic and social welfare of current and future generations is critical.

Academia letters, Oct 22, 2021

Montenegro has started transition process from centrally planned to market oriented economy in la... more Montenegro has started transition process from centrally planned to market oriented economy in late nineties of the XX century. Being still part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, official currency was dinar in that period.

International Journal for Quality Research, Dec 1, 2016

Previous scholars argue that human resource practices advance valuable knowledge what could be re... more Previous scholars argue that human resource practices advance valuable knowledge what could be reflected positively on innovations. Accordingly, we empirically investigate whether human resource related practices such as top management support and regularity of employees meetings are related to profit generated by the innovation activities. Using survey data of Montenegrin firms, we find that firms in which top management supports employees' idea and have regular employees meetings related to innovation activities are likely to report higher profit generated by innovations. Therefore, our results underline the crucial role of human resource practices in the process of innovation that generates profitability for firms.

Journal of The Knowledge Economy, Jul 4, 2021

The share of STEM programs graduates in relation to the total tertiary graduates declined in Euro... more The share of STEM programs graduates in relation to the total tertiary graduates declined in Europe for the past two decades, although the expenditures for education and share of tertiary education graduates in total population increased, respectively. The quality of education, measured with the sample mean PISA scores, was almost equal to its 2000 value, lacking improvements. Simultaneously, GDP per person growth rate declined in Europe, the structural changes occurred, with growing share of the services and diminishing of the goods sectors. The share of the high-knowledge manufacturing in relation to GDP declined, which is the subsector with the highest average annual output and productivity growth rates. In services, the share of the knowledge-intensive services, respectively, increased. The descriptive statistics analysis shows strong linear association among the science and technical education, output’s structure, income per person and productivity growth. Applying the panel least square (fixed and random effects) model on the sample of thirty-five European countries and period from 1995 to 2019, we found significant contribution by STEM educated workers to output growth. Contribution to output growth by tertiary educated employees and the outcome of the investment in research and development in the high-knowledge manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services were above all sectors’ average. This is relevant as output and employment growth in these sectors surpass the same in other sectors, therefore contributing to higher income per persons and GDP growth. As STEM skills and investment in research and development have positive impact on GDP per person growth and productivity, its growth is indispensable to foster economic progress.

European Journal of Sustainable Development, Feb 1, 2022

Intensive industrialisation in the second half of XX century was the main driving force of the mo... more Intensive industrialisation in the second half of XX century was the main driving force of the most dynamic economic growth in the Montenegrin economic history. Since the transition from selfmanagement socialism to a market-oriented economy, the Montenegrin economy has become more service-oriented. Empirical studies show that TFP growth is higher in industry and knowledgeintensive services than in other services, leading to service-oriented economies growing at a lower rate. This study confirms the same for the Montenegrin economy. If industry and knowledge-intensive services do not expand, will Montenegro diverge instead of converging to developed economies? The results from this study contribute to convergence analysis and serve as an example of the growth prospects of developing countries with fewer industry and knowledge services-oriented economies.

Ekonomicky Casopis, May 25, 2022

We explored the patterns of structural changes in Europe and found growing relevance of the servi... more We explored the patterns of structural changes in Europe and found growing relevance of the service sector, particularly knowledge-intensive services. The study shows that labour productivity and TFP growth were lower in the service sector than in the goods sector but were higher in knowledge-intensive services than in other services. GDP per capita growth is positively related to the output's share of knowledge-intensive services as well as GDP growth and TFP growth in high-income countries, but not in medium-income economies. This might be explained by the rapid growth in the earlier stages of development in less-developed countries and its subsequent slowdown. Although knowledge-intensive services are the fastest growing sector in all countries, industry is still the most relevant sector for long-term growth, with the highest TFP and labour productivity growth. The growing knowledge-intensive services sector, with its higher TFP growth than other services, partially overcomes the negative effects of expansion of the service sector on long-term output growth. This study shows that R&D investment growth leads to significantly higher output growth in knowledge-intensive services than in other sectors, which may be used as a relevant policy tool.

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Sep 1, 2016

Considering that quality is one of foundation of harmonized regional development, in this paper, ... more Considering that quality is one of foundation of harmonized regional development, in this paper, overall view of identified need for level of product quality, improvement of environmental protection, improvement of competitiveness and improvement of quality of tourism services has been analysed. In the next phase requests of stakeholders are presented. Author has also analysed feasibility of investing in quality improvement and environmental protection in Sumadija and Pomoravlje and identified the most significant types of economic benefits and economic costs that may result from the introduction of ISO 9001, ISO 14001, HACCP and obtaining the CE mark for products and diagrammatic unveiled in the assumed maximum, realistic and minimum value applying cost/benefit analysis. On these bases, mathematical functions and calculations are applied to determine if there are different variants of total economic benefits and total economic costs. Goal was to determine if the investment in quality improvement and environmental protection in SMEs in Sumadija and Pomoravlje is largely justified and profitable.

BH ekonomski forum, 2021

Growing public debt is one of the biggest challenges faced by both developing and developed econo... more Growing public debt is one of the biggest challenges faced by both developing and developed economies. Available research indicates the negative impact of public debt growth on economic growth. Applying the OLS method to the panel data for the countries of the Western Balkans and the period from 1998 to 2019, we found that one percentage growth in public debt leads to a decrease in the GDP growth rate by 0.036 percentage points. In addition, an increase in public debt by one percentage point leads to a decrease in the productivity growth rate by 0.079 percentage points. The results of the research for Montenegro as a case (two scenarios of fiscal policy and the period 2021-2040), showed that, if expenditures remain intact, due to the small difference between the forecasted average GDP growth rate in the period 2021-2040 and interest rates (assumed constant), such a scenario will lead to a slower change in the public debt-to-GDP ratio (23% decrease in two decades). In addition, the cost of interest in public debt in this scenario over the entire period is higher than 2% of GDP. If the fiscal policy is changed toward a reduction in government spending, the short-term GDP growth rate would be slightly reduced, but both the expenditures for interest (less than 2% of GDP) and public debt (decrease of 63% in two decades) would be reduced significantly. Although reduced government spending will have a negative impact on GDP growth in the short run, the country will benefit in the long run as reduced public debt will have a positive impact on GDP and productivity growth.

Asian development policy review, Oct 18, 2021

In this study, we analyse the impact of service exports on GDP and productivity growth in a sampl... more In this study, we analyse the impact of service exports on GDP and productivity growth in a sample of thirty-eight European countries for the period 2000-2019. Descriptive statistics analysis of the panel data shows that growth in exports of goods is more positively related to GDP growth, total fixed assets growth and productivity growth, while growth in export of services is more positively related to employment growth. In addition, the analysis shows that the volume of exports (in terms of its share in relation to GDP) of knowledge-intensive services (information and communication, other business services, intellectual property) is higher in more developed countries (measured as GDP per person). The pooled panel OLS model (fixed effects) with GDP growth rate and labour productivity growth as the dependent variables shows a positive impact on GDP growth of exports of services, although the positive impact of growth in exports of goods is higher. It applies to labour productivity growth, with a larger positive impact from exports of goods than services. Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes to the literature as presents the estimation of the impact of exports of services on GDP and productivity growth using the most recent data for European countries over the last two decades.

Transition Studies Review, May 1, 2006

Economic freedom, understood as absence of barriers for business entry, business operations and b... more Economic freedom, understood as absence of barriers for business entry, business operations and business exit, is a source of economic development. Its impact is indirect: through institutions framework creation and environment that encourages economic development. Primarily, economic freedoms are a reflection of institutional arrangement, which makes business operations and the realization of business ideas easier for entrepreneurs and managers, who are two extremely important groups for economic development. The aim of the paper is to present empirical analysis of interrelation between economic freedom and economic development, expressed through several indicators, such as gross domestic product, income per capita, foreign direct investment per capita.

Argumenta Oeconomica, 2021

The author estimated TFP in the total economy and at sectoral level (agriculture, industry and se... more The author estimated TFP in the total economy and at sectoral level (agriculture, industry and services) in seven upper middle-income Balkan countries

BH Ekonomski forum

Southeast European and Black Sea Studies

Ekonomický časopis

Eastern European Economics, 2022