No abstract

The crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus is not just a global health crisis. The impact of the pandemic, caused by this virus, has strongly affected almost all vital economic sectors of the United States, which has seriously affected the global economy and other financial markets around the world. Significant declining incomes at all levels, rising unemployment, and disruptions in the industrial and transportation sectors are just some of the consequences caused by this virus in the economy of the United States. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the United States strongly opposes further reductions in economic growth and profits with several measures taken to mitigate the effects of the virus. In that sense, proactive action by the Government of the United States is necessary to protect economic prosperity and maintain sustainable economic growth for a longer period.

The combination of accelerated digitalization and the recent COVID-19 crisis has increased the number of remote workers worldwide to unimaginable proportions. Among the large number of remote workers that execute their projects from home, there is a significant number of permanently self-employed remote workers, usually referred to as freelancers. Despite the importance of this kind of business activity for modern project management society, perceived drivers of freelancing are still unknown. The goal of this paper was to shed some light on the general subjective well-being of freelancing activity and investigate differences concerning gender, age, and education. The study was performed in late 2020 and included 471 freelancers from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro that participated in an online questionnaire evaluating their subjective well-being while participating in the “gig” economy. Factor analysis was used as a primary statistical method and two major groups were identified: (1) Impact of working from home on a freelancer’s personal life and health and (2) Fulfillment of expectations in the economic and professional sense. Gender was found not to be significant for overall work satisfaction. However, older freelancers proved to be more satisfied with the fulfillment of economic and professional expectations, which correlate with years of professional experience. Another conclusion is that more educated freelancers are generally less satisfied with both groups of drivers - fulfillment of personal life and professional expectations. Understanding how the combination of occupations, technological infrastructure, and demographic characteristics in the region has affected the well-being of freelancers may help policymakers and organization owners, as well as future entrepreneurs, better prepare for this model of work in the future. It also increases the possibility of exploring individual dimensions of wellbeing useful for targeting interventions at the level of each country separately. In line with this, the present study contributes to the existing body of knowledge and the impact of hybrid models of work on the subjective well-being of workers in the “gig” economy.

The macroeconomic environment in the Western Balkans is based on the progress of the market economy and the development of the private sector. Strengthening the role of governance, education and social inclusion is crucial to improving countries' capacity for innovation, a stable financial environment, the successful implementation of broad-based reforms and the establishment of a macroeconomic environment that supports private sector activities. It is especially important to emphasize the importance of properly understanding the importance of scientific infrastructure in the field of research on the growth of "innovation capacity", so that national policies in this area can be formed. The analysis of the connection between innovation and globalization in the conditions of modern trends of economic development, showed that the reform momentum in the Western Balkans region has slowed down, which reflected that many of these economies have failed to use their potential for innovation.

In today's business environment, telework has become more common. It provides a win-win situation for employers and employees. Namely, for workers, the benefit is the flexibility to work when they want and where they jobs, across geographies. On the other hand, employers reduce labor costs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of workers who did their work from home increased significantly and it is predicted that this way of working will continue its growth trend not only due to the flexible and agile ways of working. but also due to the cost reduction opportunities this change brings.