The Analysis of Poverty Variables in the Balkan Region- the Case of Kosovo

Abstract

Poverty continues to remain a major challenge during the whole period of transition, since the collapse of communism and which is continuing even today. In this article, the macroeconomic trends in the Balkan region are treated in synthesized way, with a special emphasis on Kosovo for the years of transition. In addition, the paper is focused on some economic indicators that have direct or indirect impact on labour market policies and employment policies. The trend of these indicators is analyzed in terms of nominal and real convergence, aiming at the progress of the Kosovo economy during the years of transition in the process of integration into the current level where it is located, as well as the challenges that has faces in meeting other standards in political and economic system. The focus of this analysis are the employment policies as well as the structural reforms, institutional reforms of the labour market, policies for the reduction of the unemployment rates, generating of new work places, taking into account the fact that in Kosovo the unemployment especially at young people is very high. The purpose of this study is to identify the current state of poverty, considering that the state should take some measures to reduce its level by being based on market instruments of labour and employment policies, migration, remittances and their impact on the labour market, its structuring and their components in the Balkan region, but with particular focus on Kosovo. Poverty is a cycle that is repeated constantly and has negative impacts not only on the economy of a country but also on the lives of its citizens. Its causes are as complex as poverty itself. On the other hand, poverty reduction is as a result of economic growth. In the reduction of poverty, government plays a very important role. So, the government with its policies can cause an increase in the economic growth and then reduce the poverty level. The situation, instead of being relaxed, nowadays, it is experiencing difficult times. This is happing because the world today is undergoing through a global financial crisis which had started in the United States in 2008 and which has spread all around the globe. It can be said that this global financial crisis has been the longest that this world has recognized. For this reason, to the government of a country is added one more task, which is even more difficult, that through its policies to do the impossible in order to overcome this crisis and to send the respective country towards economic development, and thus to reduce poverty.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v413s2p297