The behavior of market participants often does not rely on market signals, but replicates the investment decisions of other parties. The convergence of their investment behavior leads to the emergence of herd behavior with negative implications for financial stability. Moreover, this phenomenon may be even more pronounced in times of crisis. Although herding is an interesting topic which invites the interest of academic researchers, it still has not been sufficiently studied in terms of comparing the herd effect between differently developed stock markets. The first objective of this research was to determine the herd behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic using static and rolling regression analysis. The second objective was to investigate whether the herd behavior was triggered by the pandemic, while the third objective was to compare the differences in herd behavior between differently developed European stock markets. The results show that this phenomenon is most pronounced in emerging markets, followed by frontier markets and developed markets. Therefore, the results of this study are of particular importance for individual and institutional investors to achieve efficient risk diversification and for financial authorities to establish rules and avoid an increase in herd behavior.

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Energy supply represents not only the energetic and ecological undertaking factor of tourist economy bearers, but the factor of profitability and competitiveness within the foreign tourist market as well. Lower energy costs form the prerequisites for higher profit accomplishments, as well as better market price competitiveness. Instead of exploiting natural resources, tourism should make the most of them, which brings into relief the directing of tourist economy subjects towards the use of restorable energy sources, particularly solar and wind energy. In spite of favourable climate features of Croatia, expressed in terms of insulation and windstrength, the restorable energy sources are still used rather insignificantly. Some positive moves in such a trend are noticeable on the island of Pag and in the town of Sibenik, where the electric energy is obtained in wind power-plants. In accordance with the concept of sustainable development of tourism, both solar energy and wind-mill energy should represent the skeleton for the energetic supply of the Croatian tourist coastline in the future. And only then, with the right amount of energy and without dependence on the world energetic markets, Croatia can develop its own healthy economic and tourist future.

The purpose – It is important to emphasize that liquidity on Croatian stock market is low, the purpose of this paper is to test empirically and find out which variables make crucial role in decision making process of investing in stocks. Design – This paper explores the impact of various liquidity variables on liquidity ratio since it is still insufficiently researched topic. Methodology –This research uses secondary and primary data available from Croatian stock market. Considering primary data this paper use daily data from Zagreb stock exchange for 196 stocks traded in one year, with the purpose of finding the key variables that make up some stocks more attractive to investors. Liquidity is measured with Amihud's liquidity ratio, which shows the amount of capital sufficient to change price by 1%. Approach – With more than 61.035 input data, using the method of multiple regression, this paper examined the influence of different variables on the stock liquidity on Croatian capital market. Findings – Key findings of this paper indicate that size of firm measured by market capitalization, number of issued stocks and achieved volume affects liquidity ratio. This paper uses multiple regression, and correlation matrix to show dependence among liquidity variables. There is strong correlation coefficient among liquidity variables and liquidity ratio, results are statistically significant. The originality of this research – The originality of this work rises from the obtained research results and the fact that this is first paper that studies problem of stock liquidity on Croatian capital market.

This paper describes and evaluates "shadow" sovereign credit ratings, which represent the credit ratings of countries that are not rated by credit rating agencies. Credit ratings represent the creditworthiness of companies or governments. They are important in attracting foreign capital. Countries without credit ratings can face greater difficulties than countries with low credit ratings, for example paying a higher price for capital. This paper has two objectives. The primary objective of this paper was to estimate a rating prediction model to the assess credit ratings of countries that are not yet rated. Large numbers of potential determinants were tested, and nine variables were selected that play a key role in assessing credit ratings. According to the chosen determinants, a highly precise model was calculated (80% of the estimated ratings were identical to the corresponding actual ratings or only one notch different). The purpose of this analysis was to estimate credit ratings for a sample of 31 unrated countries. The results are statistically significant and explained in detail. The second objective of this paper was to demonstrate that countries that are not ranked would not necessarily receive the lowest rating, and the results supported that hypothesis. According to Bissoondoyal-Bheenick, Brooks and Yip (2006), the "ultimate value of credit rating agencies is to contribute the market efficiency that depends on the ability to provide ratings that are clear, credible, accurate opinions which are based on a fundamental understanding of credit risk" (p.