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This paper explores the empirical impact of the crisis in the interdependence degree of the stock exchanges during the period of 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent stability period until 2020. In this regard, the interdependence between the Macedonian stock exchange index as a developing country and Italian stock exchange index as a developed country, has been analyzed by dividing the time framework into two sub – periods: during the global financial crisis and post-crisis. Thus, by conducting the Pearson correlation and linear regression model it has been revealed that there is higher interdependence between the Macedonian Stock Exchange and Italian Stock exchange during the period of global financial crisis, rather than during the post-crisis (stability) period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a long time, scholars and governments had been dealing with the question of whether there is a nexus between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and economic development, and if so, how strong is the link. From the studies done until now, we have clearly indicated that the impact of IPRs is a complex issue and significantly varies across industries and across development stages. The conclusions of the economic literature are ambiguous: some studies conclude that this connection is apparently strong, while others conclude the connection of IPRs and economic development to be fairly weak. Nevertheless, the income of the country is an important determinant while analyzing the impact of IPRs on economic growth of a country. The effect of IPRs protection on growth depends upon the level of development. It is positively and significantly related to growth for low-and high-income countries, but not for middle-income countries. This suggests that, although IPRs connection is quite significant for high-income and low-income countries, middle-income countries are not a typical case of it. The study looks at the impact of intellectual property rights on the economic growth for the case of the Republic of North Macedonia. To address some of the issues concerning IPRs, this study defines what Intellectual Property Rights are, their definition, history, protection, regime, their instruments, international and national laws etc. It also attempts to evaluate the relationship between the protection of intellectual property and economic activity in the Republic of North Macedonia. Despite many inquiries into this particular field, it is important to accentuate that there is less research made on intellectual property rights and economic growth that is focused on data in a transitional context. Therefore, there is a significant gap in this area, which is evident from the dispersed regulation of the intellectual property rights in the Republic of North Macedonia. Put differently, there is no State Office for Intellectual Property, but State Office for Industrial Property. This makes research in this field even more complicated. In the case of the Republic of North Macedonia this is a highly new prosperous field where less research is done. Therefore, the research results will highly contribute regarding this field to the country and its government regarding the economic development of the country as well as the establishment of the new sphere such as intellectual property. Results of econometric modeling and the analysis of gathered data will provide the empirical evidence for the nexus between intellectual property rights and economic growth of the Republic of North Macedonia. Moreover, the research will discuss the reform of IPR’s regime and will offer recommendations for their enforcement and administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undoubtedly, global warming is one of the main debatable topics among politicians, scholars, academicians, being discussedeverywhere and by everyone. Having into consideration that one of the main factors of the global warming are the greenhouse gas emissions, where carbon dioxide represents 76% of these emissions, the main aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of the CO2 emissions as well as other greenhouse gas emissions on the economy and society. In addition, a panel analysis has been conducted, where OLS, Fixed and Random effects models are used in order to check the impact of the CO2 emissions on the GDP per capita of developing countries of Western Balkans region, for the last three decades. Finally, the main conclusions and consequences from the negative impact of the CO2 emissions on the society, economy and growth of the developing countries have been highlighted as well as several important suggestions have been stated for emphasising and addressing the problems that we will be facing soonbecause of the global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, economic freedom it is seen as a catalyst for enhancing economic growth, which de facto will return to produce even more economic freedom in the economy. Certainly, there is no doubt about the significant direct and indirect effect of the economic freedom on the growth of both developed and developing countries, where empirical evidence claims a strong positive association among these two variables. Thus, having into consideration the emphasizes of the research of this nexus in the past decade and the highlighted importance of the economic freedom in enhancing the economic growth, a panel of total 6 countries in the region of Western Balkans, for the time -period 2000 – 2022 has been conducted. In this regard, several techniques have been used, such as Ordinary Least Square, Fixed effects and Random effects model. Finally, the results reveal that there exists a strong negative association between economic freedom index and GDP per capita in these countries in the countries of Western Balkans, for the last two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free foreign direct investment is of great importance for economic growth and the development of emerging economies. Namely, foreign direct investments do not allow entry into unemployment, transfer of modern technology and knowledge, unless you want to increase competition in the domestic market, you can ask for encouragement of innovation, how to show productive and stable growth in developing countries. The rapid development of information and communication technology, as well as the impact on traffic infrastructure is functional if it needs to be adjusted to active foreign investment. The banking sector, on the other hand, occupies an important place within the financial system in the economic development. Thus, in the Republic of North Macedonia, the banking institutions participate with about 84% in the total assets of the financial system. Hence, the liquidity and reliability of banking institutions are crucial in terms of maintaining the stability of the financial sector. The changes that have affected the financial sector in the last few decades, as a result of the impact on deregulation, competition, consolidation process, globalization, technological changes has made possible the drastic transformation of banking institutions. Banks are responding to such changes by expanding their service offer, not only in the country but also abroad. Thus, the activists of modern banks are not limited to traditional banking activities, such as adjusting deposits and issuing loans, unless many other non-banking services are required. If modern banks have more compared to universal financial institutions, clean transformation should be aimed at: efficient implementation, optimization of the capital structure, strengthening measures due to weakness and so on. Given the preferred prospects for knowledge of foreign security investments for use in the economy, but also the role of the banking system in the economy, the main purpose of this doctoral dissertation will be to examine the factors in the banking sector in Republic of North Macedonia and foreign direct investments, for the period 2000 until 2018. Namely, the causal relationship is related to investments in foreign investments (FDI) and banking sector in Republic of North Macedonia, and on the other hand there are many choices and theoretical studies on mutual international investments and the economy. Therefore, in this doctoral dissertation I will try to determine whether total deposit, total loans and other activities of the banking sector and its performance have impact on the Foreign Direct investments. In order to achieve the required objectives, this study will use the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). At the end of this dissertation, several measures and recommendations regarding the health efficiency of the banking sector will be given, through the implementation of operational innovations, which is essential for an attractive foreign investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taxation plays a crucial role on the economic growth of both developed and developing countries and is seen as important tool through which the government achieves important goals and finances its public expenditures. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of taxation and tax regime change in the case of the Republic of North Macedonia for the time period 2000 – 2017, by incorporating quarterly time series of real GDP growth rate, Personal Income Tax, Corporate Income Tax, Labor force participation rate and Gross fixed capital formation as well as a dummy variable regarding the time period of the tax regime change has been employed. One of the main justifications for changing the tax regime from progressive to flat tax rate was to achieve an improvement of the employment, by reducing the unemployment rate. Thus, having into consideration the main objective of this paper, firstly it is analyzed the effects of taxes on the economic growth through co-integration methodology and later to investigate how the tax regime change has affected the economic growth in Republic of Macedonia by analyzing two different time periods, first when was applicable progressive tax rate from 2000 – 2006, and then the second time period 2007-2018, when was applicable flat tax rate, by applying the VAR model and by creating a dummy variable indicating the period t > 2007q1. The results imply that the effect of the change of the tax regime was insignificant and inefficient for the case of the Republic of North Macedonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Banks' liquidity is a critical phenomenon that must be constantly monitored and managed in order for bank to achieve an appropriate maturity transformation of liabilities into assets, while maintaining an appropriate level of profitability. Additionally, liquidity as a critical point in the management of the bank's assets indirectly affects the growth, development, but also the functioning of the banks in general. The purpose of this research is to determine the factors that affect the liquidity of banks in the Republic of North Macedonia measured through gross loans to total assets ratio. In order to determine which factors affect the liquidity of the banks in RNM, the regression model includes secondary data on micro-factors affecting the liquidity of the banking sector, ie NPL / Gross loans (non-fin.), ROAA, Cost to income ratio, Loan growth, Deposit growth, CAR and secondary data on macroeconomic factors. ie GDP growth, inflation and unemployment. Furthermore, the empirical research continues to focus more on the individual groups of banks by size, in order to determine the micro factors that have a significant impact on the liquidity of large, medium and small size banks in the Republic of North Macedonia for the time spin 2005q1 - 2020q1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to determine the impact of the change of tax regime in Republic of Macedonia, where from being a progressive tax rate until 2006 it became flat tax for the time period 2007 - 2017. In order to analyze such effects on economic growth of the Republic of North Macedonia for the time period 2000 - 2017, quarterly time series of real GDP growth rate, Direct tax divided into Personal Income Tax and Corporate Income Tax and a dummy variable regarding the time period of the change has been employed. One of the main justifications for changing the tax regime from progressive to flat, was that this change will reflect in the improvement of the employment, thus will reduce the unemployment rate. Moreover, the main objective is to investigate how the tax regime change has affected the economic growth in Republic of Macedonia, analyzing the two different time periods, first when was applicable progressive tax rate from 2000 - 2006, and then the second time period 2007-2017, when was applicable flat tax rate, by applying the VAR model and by creating a dummy variable indicating the period t > 2007q1. The results imply that the effect of the change of the tax regime is insignificant and inefficient for the case of the Republic of North Macedonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endogenous growth model suggests that the role of education and health in promoting economic growth is significant and positive, thus emphasizing the vital interest and importance of the policymakers regarding the productive public expenditures for fostering economic growth of their country. There has been an increased interest among policy makers and scholars regarding the nexus between productive public spending and economic growth, with emphasizes on its effects on developing countries. In addition, this paper tries to investigate the impact of public spending on education as important tool for enhancing the economic growth of developing country such as the Republic of North Macedonia, for the time spin 2000-2018, by using Johansen cointegration, VECM and Granger causality test. Moreover, main objective is to determine if productive expenditures have positive impact on economic growth in Republic of North Macedonia as well as investigate the relationship between productive public expenditures and economic growth. Further, ADF test it is used for determining the stationarity of the time series 2000q1 - 2018q4, Johansen co-integration test has been used to determine the co- integration relationship among these variables while, VECM it is applied in determining the longrun nexus among productive expenditures and economic growth. The results of the empirical analysis reveal that the data are not stationary in their level but they become stationary in their first difference, while the results of Johansen test for co-integration indicate the existence of one co-integrating vector, thus indicating the existence of long-run significant effects of productive public expenditures in economic growth. Moreover, such results highlight that improving education and health quality at all levels is imperative for the countries growth as well as highlight important implications for fiscal policymakers in order to foster the economic growth in the context of productive public spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lately, there has been an increased interest among policy makers and scholars regarding the nexus between public debt and economic growth, with emphasizes on its effects on transition economies, particularly after the last global financial crisis. This paper tries to investigate the impact of public debt on economic growth in the European transition economies, for the time spin 2000-2016, by using Pooled OLS, Fixed effects, Random effects and Hausman – Taylor Instrumental variable (IV). In addition, results reveal that public debt although has positive effect on per capita growth still is statistically insignificant, whereas debt square has negative effect on per capita GDP growth. Further, gross savings, final consumption and fixed capital formation have positive effect on per capita growth, while government expenditures do not show significant impact. Moreover, such results highlight important implications for fiscal policymakers in these countries in order to foster the economic growth in the context of public debt level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to analyze the effects of institutional factors that affect FDI on developing economies in Europe by utilizing dynamic panel methodology, having into consideration the persistence of the endogeneity issues. Moreover, four institutional factors have been determined affecting the FDI in 15 developing European countries, analyzed for the time period 2004 - 2016. In addition, empirical results show that Control of Corruption; Political Stability, and Doing Business, have significant effect on attracting FDI on these transition countries, while Rule of Law has shown to be insignificant in attracting FDI flows in these countries. Further, such findings will contribute to the existing literature by using these institutional measures to value their impact on FDI attractiveness on European developing economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]