Serbia - Geographical Aspects of Development after 1990

The main aim of this work is to determine if typical processes of regional development during transition and transformation period, as they have been observed in other post-communist countries, are taking place in Serbia and, on the other hand, what processes are specific for the country. Three hypotheses are set: (1) economic convergence during times of industrial decline, (2) reproduction and deepening of north-south zonality and (3) concentration of economy being the dominant regional process during the periods of growth. The primary method employed in the work is examination of basic indicators of regional variability applied on GDP per capita and simple aggregate of employment and average wages. The findings are proved using principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Conclusion resulting from the empirical part are following: regional convergence was confirmed only during the first years of 1990's and during transformation was replaced by strong divergence typical for other post-communist countries. The north-south zonality appears to be strong, but the dominant determinant of regional development proved to be position in the settlement system hierarchy. The dominant regional processes of the transformation period are therefore equivalent to those observed elsewhere. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org