The impact of the recession on the structure and flow of youth unemployment in Croatia – ZAMAH

Program: Research grants within the so-called “Research scholarships for professional development of young researchers and postdocs” were part of the Operational Programme “Human Resources Development 2007-2013” by the European Social Fund and conducted by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and Agency for Vocational Education and Training and Adult Education.
 

Project goals:
The project addressed the under-development of competencies in the field of research and development of young researchers after completing their doctorates, weak international visibility of research results, and generally low levels of mobility and networking. The main objective of the project was to support the strengthening of scientific research competencies of Iva Tomić, employee of the Institute of Economics, Zagreb, as a target group, and her inclusion in the European Research Area, through the execution of a competitive applied scientific research on the subject of youth unemployment in Croatia. In this particular case - the analysis of youth unemployment in the Republic of Croatia - the main objective was to get new insights on the specific causes of this phenomenon in Croatia and beyond, and to identify people who have a higher risk of unemployment at a young age in more detail.

Results/outputs:
The main result of the project was the production of scientific research on the impact of the recession on the structure and flow of youth unemployment in Croatia, sent for publication in an internationally competitive scientific journal. Inter-results of the project included presentations of (parts of) the research at seminars and conferences, published professional articles, the publication of the results in the EIZ Working Papers, and increase of the scientific research competencies of Iva Tomić, employed at the Institute of Economics, Zagreb, as a target group, and her inclusion in the European Research Area.   

Activities:
Project activities, among other things, included the management and coordination of the implementation of project activities; financial management and reporting; short-term mobility - attending shorter forms of education in the form of summer schools; medium-term mobility – research stay at a foreign institution (up to 6 months); the sole implementation of scientific research (data gathering, collection and interpretation of relevant literature, descriptive statistics of the gathered data, data analysis by standard micro-econometric techniques, the analysis by non-linear decomposition methods, connecting parts of the study into one unit) and the dissemination of project results through participation in international science conferences, public presentations, and through professional and scientific publications.   

Methodology:
The methodological approach followed a standard micro-econometric approach for this type of research, i.e., probit model, to estimate the contribution of different characteristics to the individual risk of unemployment before and during the crisis. To establish the size of the impact of the recession on the Croatian labor market, in particular youth unemployment, and to determine the qualitative and quantitative adjustments to the recession, the so-called nonlinear decomposition techniques were used. 

Commissioned by: Research grants within the so-called “Research scholarships for professional development of young researchers and postdocs” were part of the Operational Programme “Human Resources Development 2007-2013” by the European Social Fund and conducted by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and Agency for Vocational Education and Training and Adult Education.

Research results: https://bib.irb.hr/lista-radova?sif_proj=HR.3.2.01-0136 

Contacts: 
Samah Oreč, tel. + 385 1 2362237; e-mail: sorec@eizg.hr 
Tihana Iviček, tel. + 385 1 2362237; e-mail: tivicek@eizg.hr