INSURANCE MARKET DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: EVIDENCE FROM WESTERN BALKANS REGION

The basic objective of the paper is the examination of mutual interdependence of the parameters on insurance market and the economic growth at the specific area of ex-Yugoslavia. Time horizon of the observation encompasses the period 2005-2019, and as the appropriate methodological framework the econometrics of panel data was used. Accompanying cointegration tests and tests of long-term effects have shown that the insurance sector and economic growth are long-term related, as well as that the insurance sector exerts positive and statistically significant influence on the economic growth. Additionally, it was shown that nonlife insurance realizes more significant effects on growth. To confirm robustness, causality test has shown that changes in insurance sector cause the changes in economic growth. Economic policy makers have an important task ahead of them, which consists in promoting insurance markets, improvement of regulation, and legislation framework that should contribute to the growth of economic activity in analyzed countries.

STUDENT LEADERS ON BOLOGNA PROCESS IMPLEMENTATION – ADVANTAGES, SHORTCOMINGS AND PERSPECTIVES

Almost two decades after the implementation of the Bologna Process in higher education around the world, the question of the applicability, justification and effectiveness of reforms implemented globally arises. The aim of this paper is to explore the attitudes, optimism versus pessimism, more precisely student representatives’"mood" regarding the implementation of the Bologna Process and Bologna tools. The overall sample consists of student representatives from 17 European Higher Education Area countries. The results of the research should be a step towards further higher education reforms, or, more precisely, a proposal to modify the existing plans, bearing in mind the different conditions and characteristics of the countries where they are implemented and their willingness to accept the reforms. The results indicate that mobility, diploma supplements and quality assurance are the most positive aspects of BP and employability, the social dimension and the financing model of higher education are weak points of BP.

ПРИПРЕМА БУДУЋИХ УЧИТЕЉА И ПРОБЛЕМ ФОРМИРАЊА КУЛТУРНОГ ИДЕНТИТЕТА

In the Republic of Serbia, education reforms have been implemented since 2000 with the aim of harmonizing this important field of society with the so-called European Education Area. The whole range of changes lawfully adopted and applied in practice at all levels of institutionalized education is mainly directed towards the standardization and unification of "domestic" education with the educational paradigms of a neoliberal society. Maintaining the continuity of cultural development and the formation of cultural identity are important issues for overall social development, and they are not given proper attention in the education strategy. In addition to that, the institutional preparation of future teachers does not sufficiently focus on this issue.In this paper we consider: (1) the normative framework that regulates the field of primary education and the formation of cultural identity in the Republic of Serbia, (2) the factors influencing the process of training future teachers for the formation of cultural identity and (3) the teachers’ competencies as a support to the formation of the cultural identity of younger school-age children.The importance of the harmonization of the basic guidelines of the normative framework regulating primary education and the formation of cultural identity with the basic intentions of preparing future teachers is emphasized. Especially from the perspective of the role of teachers in the process of establishing and preserving the cultural identity of generations reaching compulsory primary education in the context of intergenerational transmission of culture, cultural patterns and values. At the same time, the paper emphasizes the insufficient presence of content in the education of future teachers that would adequately prepare them for understanding the complex problem of forming a cultural identity.The authors point out the importance of the groundedness of future teachers’ preparation in terms of their academic knowledge of society, history and culture. The aim of the paper is to emphasize the importance of developing teachers’ competencies necessary for understanding identity issues and forming a cultural identity.The paper employs the descriptive-analytical method.

MACROECONOMIC ASPECTS OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

Public-private partnership (PPP) has been getting momentum in market economies since the 1990s. Originally, it was created as a way of financing infrastructure projects, but its application since then has covered areas such as education, healthcare, high technology and many others. As the bulk of research in the domain of PPP is on the microeconomic impact and the analysis of the success of concrete PPP projects, the aim of this paper is to integrate these findings into a broader framework depicting macroeconomic aspects of public-private partnership. The existing literature, although not as extensive, points to several aspects that may affect economic development on the local, regional, and national levels, with greater adoption of PPP projects and their implementation. The paper introduces explanations for the elements of risk sharing between public and private partners, economic benefits, and costs in PPP, as well as the specific PPP channels of influence on the national economy and the PPP system dynamic model. One of the objectives is the analysis of the existing concept for estimating macroeconomic impacts of PPP, which could be used for evaluating its potential contribution to the growth and development of the national economy.

PUBLIC ROLE OF (PUBLIC) THEATRE

Today, public theatre is directed toward adapting to its contemporary socio-economic context. In doing this, it is trying to preserve its artistic values and at the same time fulfill and diversify its social functions and missions. When we talk about public theatre’s social function, i.e. the public value it produces, some of the main issues concern its contribution to the most pressing social matters. In general, these issues concern public theatre’s role in strengthening social cohesion, cultural emancipation and social inclusion, its role in the process of opening dialogues, revising formal history and re-examining traditional forms of thinking. Fulfilment of these functions is strongly linked with the character of public theatre’s audiences. In more practical terms, the scope of public theatre’s social influence is dependent on how homogenous its audiences are. If one considers artistic organizations’ need for sustainability as a key factor in their need for constantly widening their audience, and particularly the inclusion of “others” (those not belonging to the dominant cultural group), in the context of contemporary society’s need for social and cultural inclusion, then the task of today’s public theatres becomes rather difficult. Simply said, there are too many needs to be met at the same time. The main questions this paper is asking is: to what extent do Belgrade’s public theatres understand the importance of diversifying its audiences, and how do they perceive their social role? Starting from the fact that human capital is the primary resource and success factor of any theatre organization, we explore in what manner management and employees in these theatres address these issues, i.e. how they redefine theatre’s social role and attract audiences that do not fit the dominant theatre audience model.

CYBERSECURITY – VIRTUAL SPACE AS AN AREA FOR COVERT TERRORIST ACTIVITIES OF RADICAL ISLAMISTS

Over time, terrorism has evolved into different forms. One of the most dangerous is certainly cyber terrorism. There are many different motivations for terrorists to deploy cyber terrorism as a tool in their fight. Internet and computer networks are powerful resources on which contemporary society relies heavily. Terrorist groups have developed new tools and methods of the fight and they have become more effective, efficient, and unpredictable. Virtual, or cyberspace, is perfect and very safe ground for terrorist groups’ various activities, such are secret encrypted communication, file sharing, indoctrination and recruitment of vulnerable individuals, fundraising and promotions of their future actions and accomplishments spreading fear among common people. Are we adequately aware of these facts and prepared for countermeasures? The fact is that terrorists use mostly open-source tools (software) for their purposes, widely available and free of charge, as well as video games, popular social networks (mostly Twitter), and software developed by their programmers. The purpose of this paper is to point out some of the methods radical Islamic terrorist groups have been using and underline the importance of responding to this new security challenge.

МАГА МАГАЗИНОВИЋ: МОДЕРНА ИГРА УМЕСТО ДОКТОРАТА ИЗ ФИЛОЗОФИЈЕ

Book Review

STRUCTURED AND UNSTRUCTURED TIME AND RISKY BEHAVIOR OF ADOLESCENTS IN CONDITIONS OF SOCIAL CRISIS

The main objective of this research is to determine how much adolescents prefer certain types of structured free time and unstructured time (leisure time), as well as their connection with risky behavior of adolescents in social crisis. The sample consists of a number of adolescents (N = 287), 116 or 40.4% of male and 171 or 59.6% of female respondents, age from 18 to 24, average age is 20.44 years (AS = 20.44, SD = 2.75) living in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. Leisure and Leisure Assessment Questionnaire (constructed only for research purpose), Risk Behavior Rating Scale (RBRS), Scaar, 2009 were used in this research. The data was processed through descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis and the T-test. Results showed that adolescents mostly prefer internet as an unstructured activity and the least preferred is the theater as the structured one. A negative correlation was obtained between academic success and risky behavior, which indicates that if adolescents achieve better results in academic career, they have less propensity for risky behavior. According to the results, boys are more prone to risky behavior than girls, and risky behavior of adolescents can be predicted with 14% variance (significant predictors are unstructured leisure time and the gender of adolescents). Within our work, our objective is to bring attention to the importance of a structured way of spending leisure time regarding adolescents, with necessary engagement of experts from different areas.

IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT OF CURRENCY CRISES IN THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

The aim of the paper is to identify the episodes of currency crises in the Republic of Serbia using the exchange market pressure (EMP) index. The country's resilience to currency crises prevents the collapse of the currency and the transfer of negative effects to the entire financial and real sector, so the research and assessment of the factors of currency crises is extremely important. The survey shows that the strongest strikes on the Serbian dinar were in the period of the global financial crisis in 2008, so that adjusting to shocks from abroad is crucial for the sustainability of the applied managed floating exchange rate regime. On the other hand, the stability of the national currency depends mainly on the achieved macroeconomic results, which are presented globally using the misery index.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH POLICY IN THREE SOUTH EASTERN COUNTRIES

The legal framework for occupational safety and health is a key factor in effective policy implementation in this area at the local level. Employees in local self-government units perform tasks of immediate interest for the local population and, because of that, their workplace safety and health is an important issue. Given that there is not much research on the safety and health of employees in local self-government units in the countries of Southeast Europe, there is a need for the analysis of the protection provided by the applicable regulations. The conducted research shows that this category of employees is not specifically recognized either in the regulations on occupational safety and health or in the regulations on local self-government. It is desirable to improve the quality of legal protection which will contribute to the improvement of the workplace safety and health of these employees and will improve the quality of work in local self-governments.