In this thesis, we aim to find the relationship between the economic crisis and the rise of nationalism in Yugoslavia. In addition, we focus on the political framework, as defined by the 1974 Constitution, which significantly changed the course of Yugoslav institutions after the death of Tito. We find that the rising levels of debt and economic misbalance across republics were key contributors to increasing tensions between republics. We conclude that the combination of these factors with the lack of political will, stemming from decentralization and increased power to republics, as the main culprits behind the rise of nationalism. We build on the existing literature, contributing to the further cross-examination of reasons behind the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The importance of this thesis is related to the political elite, who can apply key takeaways from the case of Yugoslavia to the modern geopolitical context dealing with economic and political crises.

This study applies the cross-country growth accounting regressions derived from the augmented Solow-Swan model to ascertain the growth effects of education in CEE and Balkan countries. We firstly test whether the total stock or accumulation of education matters more for corresponding countries' growth and afterwards we decompose the total stock into educational stocks at primary, secondary and tertiary levels to test whether the disaggregated educational levels have different growth effects. We do so by applying the panel fixed effects technique on 17 CEE countries during the 1990-2010 period. In addition, we address the endogeneity of education by using the lags of different educational proxies as instruments. The results suggest that the average stock of education is significantly contributing to economic growth of CEE countries with the biggest growth effect of tertiary education. Regarding the Balkan countries only, the growth effect of education is almost a null. We conclude that one cannot have economic growth without a good educational system and efficient usage of human capital. Thus, the policy implications should be related to the proper identification of the quality of educational governance, problem of mismatch on labor market and better utilization of human capital. Keywords:...

Les phlébovirus présentent sont présents dans toutes les régions du globe. Certains phlébovirus transmis par phlébotomes provoquent une maladie fébrile et des infections du système nerveux central. Depuis, de plus en plus de données montrent que la péninsule des Balkans joue un rôle majeur dans l'émergence de maladies à transmission vectorielle. Au début de ce travail, on comptait un nombre très limité de phlébovirus identifiés et isolés dans cette région. Une étude intégrée et transdisciplinaire en vue d'un inventaire des virus circulant dans pays des Balkans. (i) Un total de 3,850 phlébotomes sont été recueillis dans sept pays des Balkans en 2014 et 2015. Ils ont été testés pour la présence d'ARN viral et inoculé sur des cellules VERO afin d'isoler le virus détecté; (ii) des études de séroprévalence utilisant des tests de neutralisation ont été effectuées sur des échantillons de bovins et de moutons pour évaluer à deux agents pathogènes humains : le virus Toscana (TOSV) et le virus Sandfly fever Sicilian virus (SFSV). Nos résultats se composent de (i) la découverte et le séquençage de 3 nouveaux phlébovirus appartenant à 2 espèces différentes, (ii) la première identification du genotype B de TOSV en Croatie, (iii) la preuve de la co-circulation de deux genotypes (B et C) de TOSV, (iv) des taux d'anticorps neutralisants qui sont beaucoup plus élevés chez les bovins et les moutons pour le SFSV que pour TOSV. En conclusion, les résultats obtenus au cours de ce travail démontrent qu’es les Balkans représentent une zone de très importante activité pour les phlebovirus et donc mérite une surveillance particulière à cause du risque d’émergence et de dissémination. / Phleboviruses have a worldwide distribution. In the areas where sand flies are present, some of the sandfly-borne phleboviruses cause febrile illness and central nervous system infections. Sandfly fever was first reported in the Balkan Peninsula at the end of the 19th century. Since there is accumulating data showing that the Balkan peninsula plays a major role in the emergence of vector-borne diseases. At the outset of this work, a very limited number of phleboviruses had been identified and isolated in this region. To fill this gap, an integrated and transdisciplinary study was designed aiming at an inventory of viruses circulating in Balkans and associated seroprevalence studies using domestic animals: (i) a total of 3,850 sandflies were collected in seven Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia and Serbia) in 2014 and 2015. They were tested for the presence of viral RNA and inoculated on VERO cell for virus isolation; (ii) seroprevalence studies using neutralisation tests were performed on cattle and sheep samples to assess the level of exposure to two human pathogens, Toscana virus (TOSV) and Sandfly fever Sicilian virus (SFSV). Our results consist of (i) the discovery and sequencing of 3 novel phleboviruses belonging to 2 different species, (ii) the identification for the first time of TOSV lineage B in Croatia, (iii) evidence of co-circulation of two lineages (Lineage B and C) of TOSV, (iv) rates of neutralising antibodies that are much higher in cattle and sheep for SFSV than for TOSV. Together the findings obtained during this work demonstrate that the Balkan area is a hot spot for phleboviruses.