Education is a crucial factor for sustainable economic growth. Therefore, public expenditures on education are of great interest to both researchers and policy makers. The channels through which education affects economic growth differ according to the level of development of the country. This study aims to measure the impact of public expenditure on education for economic growth in North Macedonia. The data used are secondary data derived from the World Bank Indicators for the period 1917–2020. The econometric model employed in this study is an Instrumental Variable Two-Stage Least Square. The dependent variable in the model is Gross Domestic Product and the independent variables in the model are public expenditures on education, labor force participation rate, gross capital formation, unemployment, industry, wages, employment, information, and communication technology, and the instrumented variable is tertiary enrolment. This study suggests that a one-point increase in public expenditures on education will positively affect economic growth in the North Macedonia. The study also shows that a one-point increase in unemployment will increase economic growth and a one-point decrease in employment will increase economic growth in North Macedonia. These two results, which contradict the theoretical and empirical approaches, prove the mismatch between the supply and demand of real occupations in the labor market in North Macedonia.

COVID-19 pandemic well-known worldwide for its serious health consequences is having a profound effect on every sphere of life. Taking into consideration that COVID-19 is harming the labor market and economic activity in general, we also consider that this situation is affecting the personal consumption expenditures in case of Kosovo (Ziberi, Rexha, & Gashi, 2021). The main aim of this paper is to analyze how the customers’ behavior will shift the traditional business to an online one in case of Western Balkan countries with special emphasis on Kosovo, North Macedonia and Albania. The study considered the mixed methods using the questionnaire as a method for primary data collection in a random sample of citizens from countries in the analysis. The questionnaire was distributed online using social media in a sample of 1250 respondents. The paper uses the SPSS software for data analysis and hypotheses testing. The study comes to the conclusion that buying behavior is changing due to the imposed measures by governance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the confidence in online shopping has increased significantly which is a good base for further recommendations for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to start reworking selling strategies and to shift their activity from purely traditional to hybrid one — traditional and online — promoting so better the traditional business. Our findings also are in line with a study by Bytyçi (2020) who stated that the consumers in case of the Republic of Kosovo prefer online shopping for one main reason — time loss reduction.

This paper investigates how typical macroeconomic indicators affect the economic growth of Western Balkans countries. A static panel empirical investigation for the period 2010 to 2019 has been conducted using GDP growth rate as the dependent variable, while independent variables in focus include foreign direct investments, remittances, unemployment rate, population growth rate, and control of corruption. The most interesting finding is that a rising share of remittances positively affects economic growth. This might indicate that even when remittances are used for non-investment purposes, they might increase domestic production of consumption and intermediate goods. There is also evidence of a non-linear relationship between FDI and economic growth, which may be a consequence of undeveloped capacities to use the positive side of FDI. To foster economic growth policy-makers should focus on reforms that target sectors that show sharp declines in FDI and remittances inflows, including also a need for better control of corruption in the region.

The basic function of public finances is economic stability that implies the use of public finance instruments in order to stabilize economic cycles to achieve full employment, overall price stability, achieving an adequate rate of economic growth, a stable rate economic development.Governments to contribute to economic balances, job creation, and productivity growth tend to boost productive public spending by undertaking long-term activities in the sphere of public investment, namely public, health and education infrastructure, as well as in the sphere of research and development. Both theoretical and empirical studies conclude that public investment impacts on economic growth, represent an instrument of low growth, but their increasing effect is influenced by various factors such as economic circumstances, level of development the quality of governance, the efficient management of investment projects, the sectors in which it is invested, the capital fund, etc.The purpose of this paper is to research the short-term and long-term effects of public investments in the Republic of Northe Macedonia in economic growth. The analysis takes into account the data on the structure of public investment, gross domestic product for the time period 2008-2017. Using the multiple regression analysis OLS, we conclude that in the long run the impact of public investment on economic growth is symbolic given that a very small percentage of public expenditures for public infrastructure investments although Macedonia is characterized by a low capital public fund.

One of the biggest interests for companies in today’s market is considered consumer preference, why they make the choice of one product over another. The main aim of this study is to analyse the impact of neuromarketing in the process of identifying the preferences and needs of consumers. Neuromarketing tools provide insights into measuring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns in making an impact on the consumers in online retailing (Singh, 2020). In this study, neuromarketing has been analyzed, understanding the structure of the brain and its functions, the importance of perception, as well as consumer behavior during the purchasing process. In general, it is assumed that these choices are developed in a logical way, selecting the option that represents the greatest utility (Blazquez-Resino, Gutierrez-Broncano, & Gołąb-Andrzejak, 2020). The method used for primary data collection is the questionnaire, which addresses elements that are important in choosing a product for a customer. This study concludes that neuromarketing contributes to the discovery of consumer preferences thus helping companies to be closer and meet the needs of consumers. The recommendation of this paper is to use neuromarketing in identifying customer preferences