Driven by the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA), decentralisation in Macedonia is a policy choice for spurring national cohesion rather than an economic instrument for the more efficient delivery of services. The OFA resulted in a new Macedonian Constitution with policies related to the decentralisation process and equitable representation of communities. This paper aims first to estimate the spending efficiency of Macedonian municipalities in service delivery from their own resources and, second, to ascertain the determinants of that efficiency. The ethnic fragmentation of municipalities is taken into account as a possible determinant of efficiency, which represents a novelty in such types of studies. We employ the DEA-VRS, Kernel and SFA estimation techniques to control for the robustness of our estimates. Our findings show that on average Macedonian municipalities exhibit low efficiency in service delivery, although there are significant variations among municipalities. The ethnic fragmentation of municipalities together with the population density, own tax revenues and political affiliation of the mayor with the leading political coalition at the state level explain differences in their efficiencies. More fragmented municipalities tend to be less efficient when providing services to citizens.
Macedonia started its transition from a command to a market economy after its declaration of independence in 1991 from the former Yugoslavia. In 1991, ethnic Albanians abstained from voting for the first Macedonian constitution. Soon claims of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia started to aim at proportional representation in all political institutions, more education in the Albanian language at the university level and changes to the constitution proclaiming Macedonia to be a multi-ethnic country made up, on an equal basis, of Macedonians and Albanians. In 2001, immediately after the Macedonian parliament ratified a border treaty with Serbia, ethnic Albanians clashed with Macedonian armed forces. The clashes ended with the signing of the Ohrid Framework Agreement (OFA) in 2001. Decentralization was a main preferential policy choice out of the OFA. This paper estimates the efficiency of Macedonian municipalities by using the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). We hypothesise that ethnic fragmentation may have a negative impact on the efficiency of Macedonian municipalities. We also hypothesise that political variables at municipalities in Macedonia also have impact on the municipal efficiency.
Roma community are vulnerable to both the economic and social shocks which hamper their participation within the national employment policies. Relatively few Roma use the state's programs for employment and entrepreneurship enhancement despite their willingness. Even though the access to these programs is still low, the perception among a significant number of the Roma entrepreneurs (formal and informal) is that the offered programs may help in the development of their businesses. The research reviews and analyzes the policies for socioeconomic access and inclusion of Roma in Macedonia within the context of entrepreneurship, covering formal businesses and informal businesses as well as considering a gender perspective, and regional variation of the usage of the policy measures.
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