The aim of this article is to provide a closer look of the institutions, their development, education and innovation and their impact on economic growth. The postulates of the neo-classical economic growth theories consider the accumulation of human capital and the technological development as factors that promote economic growth. Thus, investing in education, R&D and innovation is essential for a country's prospects for economic growth. However, the main idea is to present this topic from institutional point of view. By using literature and statistical analysis, the article investigates whether the degree of institutional development in country's educational system is sufficient enough to create prospects for economic growth. We compare four different countries: Macedonia and Serbia as non EU countries and Bulgaria and Slovenia as EU member countries. We perform two analysis -the first one is comparison of selected statistical data, and the second one is comparison of the Human Development Index for the four countries of interest. The research findings indicate to the fact that institutionalized society with higher degree of institutional development in this case in the educational system is more likely to boost the economic growth. The results also indicate to the fact that societies in which the degree of institutional development is higher, as it is in our case in Slovenia and Bulgaria, are more likely to produce well qualified and skilled labour force which will further impact the economic growth.

The analysis of the demographical data indicates that currently the main challenge for the sustainability of the pay-as-you-go public pension system in Macedonia is not the aging population. The revenues from contributions as a percentage of total pension system's revenues are decreasing due to low labour activity, low wages and slow job-creation. The larger deficits of the fund call for an analysis and possible reform action. The paper provides simulations under proposed assumptions until 2030. In our simulations, the pension fund starts to generate surpluses after 2025-26. They are higher or lower depending on the policy to be chosen. The sensitivity of the pension system is the highest to the GDP growth, which points to the need to find mechanisms to accelerate growth.

As the world is moving ahead, all national economies need to find their own development path. The economic growth should be continually high enough to provide for a normal and growing standard of living for the citizens and, at the same time, provide opportunities for introducing and engaging the new, incoming generations in the world of business. The countries differ not only by the levels of attained development standard, but also by the possible methods which might be used for accelerating growth.The paper discusses growth factors which could help Macedonia find its way to catch up with the developed world in the long run -if this is possible. Obviously, the importance of institutions understood as the "rules of the game" and underpinning them is one of the most important issues related to development that should be seen as a conditio sine qua non and a basic prerequisite of a "developmental wave".

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The aim of this paper is to identify the role of institutions in creating a prosperous business environment for attraction of the Foreign Direct Investments. This research is based on the statement that efficient markets depend on supporting institutions that can provide the formal and informal rules of the game of a market economy, allowing a lower transaction and information costs and reducing uncertainty. Moreover, it has to be stated that the legal and governmental arrangements as well as informal institutions underpinning an economy influence corporate strategies, thus profoundly influence the operation and performance of businesses. The methodology in this paper consists of comparing statistical data for the Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, FYROM and Slovenia). The general conclusion drawn in this paper is that Western businesses entering countries with lower degree of institutional development face higher transaction costs such as bribery than in countries with higher degree of institutional development. Hence, the institutions play significant role in the process of one country's attempt to attract Foreign Direct Investment.