Economic Analysis

The Evolution of Intellectual Capital Research – a Bibliometric Analysis of Highly-cited Papers

Mihailo Paunović — 2024-01-17

This study presents and evaluates the development of research on intellectual capital (IC) using bibliometric analysis of highly cited research papers. It also uses social network analysis (SNA) to decipher the complex patterns of collaboration, influence, and knowledge diffusion in the field of IC research. Data for the SNA were extracted from the top 1% of highly cited papers identified through bibliometric analysis. The extracted data were processed using BibExcel, which allowed for the extraction of important metadata, statistical calculations, and an in-depth examination of the selected documents. Pajek, a network analysis tool, was used to visualize and understand the complex network of these influential articles. Our analysis shows the evolution of intellectual capital from a niche interest in the mid-20th century to a dynamically growing field of study. The number of publications increased from double digits in the early 1990s to over a hundred publications per year in the early 2000s. From the mid-2000s to the present, the field experienced almost exponential growth, peaking in 2022 with 796 publications. Analysis of the 103 most cited papers in intellectual capital identified a total of 212 authors. Remarkably, 92% of these authors contributed to only one publication each. The co-authorship analysis unveils a decentralized structure characterized by several smaller research clusters embedded within the broader network. The results of this study enhance our comprehension of intellectual capital research by identifying influential authors, highly cited journals, and co-publication networks, thereby providing valuable insights into the field's dynamics.

Inflation in Eurozone, Converging and Diverging Countries

Svetlana Popović — 2024-02-05

The paper analyses the progress eurozone members made towards the convergence of inflation rates, which is a necessary condition for the effective implementation of the common monetary policy broadly appropriate for all members. It was expected that the common monetary policy would lead to the convergence of member states’ economic performance, including inflation rates. The literature review shows that the majority of authors agree that a significant convergence process occurred before 1999, but no further progress was made after that. Our analysis indicates that inflation processes in member countries are diverse. Namely, monetary stability has been achieved in some countries, while inflation is more volatile in others. There is an insufficient correlation between inflation rates, the different transmission of shocks to inflation and different exposure to risks of rising energy and food prices. We conducted a unit root test on the series of inflation differentials for each country to determine which countries were in a process of absolute convergence. In the group of the first 12 members, we found evidence of convergence for the majority of countries, as there is no unit root. Thus, individual countries indeed made progress toward greater monetary stability (and the EMU level). We examined the standard deviations of the inflation differentials in the group of converging countries (separately for converging core and peripheral countries) and found no evidence that these groups of countries are becoming more homogeneous. In the group of new EMU members, we found evidence of convergence towards the EMU average for only four countries in the period of their membership, but not in the previous period.

Causality Between Exchange Rates, Economic Growth and Inflation in Indonesia

Elisa Aprilia — 2024-04-18

The primary objective of this study is to examine the causal relationships among exchange rates, economic growth, and inflation in Indonesia. The data used in this research is secondary data with time series data for the period 2000 to 2019, obtained from the Bank Indonesia, Indonesia Central Bureau of Statistics, and World Bank. The method used in this research is Granger Causality. The outcomes of the analysis reveal a bidirectional causal relationship between economic growth and the exchange rate in the short term, as well as between inflation and the exchange rate. An appreciation of a country's exchange rate of one percent has an impact on changes in the overall price of goods, while an increase in the inflation rate causes a depreciation of the exchange rate. The relationship between inflation and economic growth shows that there is a one-way causal relationship, namely that inflation affects economic growth but not vice versa. These findings have significant policy implications, indicating that the Indonesian government needs to prioritize efforts to control inflation to support sustainable economic growth. Therefore, it is necessary to implement appropriate monetary and fiscal policies to maintain price stability and encourage balanced economic growth in Indonesia.

Enterprises’ Emissions Intensity and Financial Performance in Serbia: The Case Study of Wastewater

Jelena Minović — 2024-04-23

Untreated industrial and municipal wastewater is the key factor that leads to water pollution in Serbia. The aim of the paper is to examine the impact of environmental performance (using eco-intensity indicators) of enterprises on their profitability in the period 2011-2020 in Serbia in the area of wastewater. Apart from using the panel data technique in the paper, the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) is also used to estimate the parameters in the model. The results demonstrate that if the eco-intensity indicator increases, the profitability of an enterprise increases significantly, whereas the profitability of an enterprise decreases with the increase in the size of an enterprise. According to the results of the evaluated model, the capital intensity variable has no influence on the profitability of an enterprise. Additionally, it has been determined that the coefficient with the eco-intensity indicator is quite large, indicating the poor eco-efficiency of Serbian enterprises in the area of wastewater.

Causality between Greenfield Investments, Regulatory Quality, and Economic growth: Is the Western Balkans different?

Azra Branković — 2024-04-23

The study aims to examine the causality link between Greenfield Investments, Regulatory Quality, and Economic Growth by using seven Western Balkan countries between 2003 and 2022. Johansen cointegration tests, the VECM model, and multiple empirical unit root tests are the foundation of the empirical analysis. The study's findings indicate that, in the short run, GFI-led growth in Albania and North Macedonia is supported. In the long run, the analysis backs the growth driven by GFI in Serbia and Montenegro and the growth driven by regulatory quality in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria. The findings support the growth driven by regulatory quality in most Western Balkan countries, reassuring national policymakers that encouraging improvements in regulatory quality and GFI inflows is warranted and will ultimately spur economic growth.

Partisan Conflict and Uncertainties Spillover in the United State

Andrew Alola — 2024-05-17

Given the increasing political polarization in the United States, especially on cogent issues of climate change, health policy, immigration, and recently the handling of the Coronavirus pandemic, the current study divulged further on the link between policy divides and partisan conflict. In the context, we employed the Diebold and Yilmaz index model to examine the potential spillover effect among partisan conflict (PC), economic policy uncertainty (EPU), fiscal policy (FP), and monetary policy (MP) over the period from January 1996 to June 2020 for the case of the United States. Importantly, the result posits a total spillover index (interconnectedness) of 30.04% among the examined variables, thus showing that shock transmission exists among these variables. In addition, the EPU transmits the largest share of shock (56.78%) to PC, FP, and MP, thus illustrating that the EPU is the only net giver of potential shock but with a net spillover of (+) 12.325%. Moreover, with the largest spillover index of 84.569%, PC directly contributes the largest shock to the EPU (6.691%), which is followed by a direct 4.608% to fiscal policy and a lower shock of 0.526% to monetary policy. Apart from making a significant contribution to the existing literature on partisan conflict in the United States, this study further highlighted the grey area to pursuing more inclusive democratic discourse and dialogue among the country’s social, cultural, and political representations.