INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS

One of the basic traits of modern national economies is their openness. Economic openness implies a free movement of goods, services, and money across countries.

Since the growth of small and open economies, such as the Croatian economy, is generally based on attracting direct foreign investments and exports of goods and services, the Institute of Economics, Zagreb engages within the research area of International Economics with research dealing with basic determinants of export competitiveness of economies.

Within this process, our researchers are interested in total national export competitiveness, export competitiveness of individual economic sectors and their main products, as well as determinants and the effect direct foreign investments have on economic and export activity of post-transition countries.

As a part of this research area, we also examine the determinants of national currency formation as well as the influence exchange rate movements have on economic activity and export competitiveness. Due to the fact that Croatia is a member state of the EU and is therefore obliged to adopt the euro, our research also tries to examine the economic justification of euro introduction and provide an analysis of the compliance of economic perquisites necessary for the introduction of a common currency.

Since Croatia simultaneously also belongs to the Western Balkan region, whose countries are not EU members but are extremely important for Croatia due to strong economic ties, the focus of the researches from the Institute of Economics, Zagreb is also placed on examining the various aspects of economic cooperation between the Western Balkan countries.