REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

PART IV:
Balkan transition economies should take an example from the European countries and
pay more attention on investments in human resources. There are open opportunities for
transition economies to develop human resource, by using the new EU program of help.
Candidates and potential candidate countries for the accession to the EU can receive
help in transition and institution building and in improving regional and transborder
cooperation. Beside that, countries candidates can receive help in regional development,
human resources development and rural development. (Huskić, 2007-2008, pp.4) It’s up to
transition countries whether they would be capable to use that chance in the best possible
way, or wouldn’t.
2.
Higher education as an investment in human capital that pays individual and
social dividends
As it is presented in the Ireland’s example investment in the higher education is actually
investment in human capital. As well as, many surveys show that education is an investment
in human capital that pays individual and social dividends. Data from the U.S. Bureau of
Labour Statistics show that earnings rise and unemployment declines for each higher level
of education. (Schiller, 2008, pp. 17) According to the data from the Brazilian Statistical
Bureau, in 1998, the difference between a monthly wage of a university graduate and a
worker with no degree was 814% (Blom, 2001, pp.185). This undoubtedly indicates that
education is a key determinant of wages in Brazil. But relation between level of education
and wages wasn’t examined only in the developed and developing countries, no it was a
subject of a great interest in transition economies, as well. Valuation of human capital and
the role of education have attracted a great deal of attention in the studies on the pro-market
reforms in post-socialist economies. A large body of literature has documented substantial
rise in private returns to education during early transition from central planning to market
economy: (Krueger and Pischke, 1995) for East Germany, (Rutkowski, 1996) for Poland,
(Chase, 1998) for Czech and Slovak republics, (Kertesi and Kollo, 2002) for Hungary,
(Lubyova and Sabirianova, 2001) for Russia and Slovakia. In 2004 year, research was
conducted in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia and the results provide estimates of returns to
education. The results indicate that there are significant differences in the “marketability”
of different types of education. Tertiary education is highly and increasingly rewarded in all
three countries for both sexes. Despite the largest relative supply of higher educated in the
labour force in Bulgaria, they receive much higher wage premium than their counterparts
in Serbia and Romania. It is also interesting to point out that labour markets in Serbia and
Romania provide higher rewards to education for men than for women. In both countries
for men, each succeeding educational level brings wage premium but for women only the
higher education brings a significant wage premium. Further explanation of the differences
in valuating human capital between men and women in Romania and Serbia may be found
in the different employment compositions and chances of salaried employment across
gender. The analysis also reveals significant positive contribution of the individual postgraduate
training to the wage determination. This finding hints at the existence of some
imperfections in the formal educational systems and their incapability to respond fully to
the current labour market demands. (Arandarenko et all, 2006, pp. 15)
In Serbia the difference between average salary of highly educated employees and
unqualified workers, in 2008 year, is very significant. The detail data are presented in the
table 2.
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