Rural tourism supports the linking of the economic, social and environmental development elements, while boosting employment and stepping up rural development This paper aims to assess the importance of rural tourism in terms of the economic and rural development in the Republic of Serbia. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the values referring to the number of registered tourist arrivals and overnight stays per region. According to the research findings, the region of Šumadija and Western Serbia has the largest number of rural households and also records the highest number of tourist arrivals and overnight stays. In developed countries, the tourism industry strongly supports the agricultural sector by creating new jobs and contributing to the overall economic development, however, the situation is quite different in Serbia. Furthermore, considering the EU, where the rural areas cover a large part of the overall territory, it is exactly the rural areas that account for a significant number of overnight stays and accommodation facilities.

This study examines the impact of renewable energy, economic growth, and trade openness on CO₂ emissions in the EU-15 countries over the period 1980–2022, employing the ARDL modeling framework. In addition, a panel PMG-ARDL model is employed as a robustness check. The analysis identifies cointegration among the variables in 11 out of the 15 countries studied. Economic growth is found to increase CO₂ emissions, highlighting the ongoing challenge of aligning economic expansion with environmental objectives. The estimated coefficients for economic growth range from 0.43 to 5.70, depending on the country. Renewable energy significantly reduces emissions, highlighting its critical role in achieving sustainability (the corresponding coefficient moves in the range −0.13 to −0.96). Trade openness generally shows a neutral impact on emissions across most cases. Overall, renewable energy contributes to reducing CO₂ emissions, whereas the effects of economic growth and trade openness remain mixed and country-specific. These findings highlight the need to promote cleaner technologies, enhance energy efficiency, and ensure broader access to environmentally friendly energy sources.

The need for a modern agricultural development conditioned the concept of multifunctionality of agriculture. Multifunctionality of agriculture is often considered as a useful tool for achieving economic and sustainable development goals. It is increasingly gaining importance in the field of sustainable rural development by linking traditional and contemporary agricultural functions. Namely, sustainability of development requires food for people, but also other positive social, ecological and economic effects. The aim of this paper is to identify the most important indicators of agriculture from the point of multifunctionality of agriculture as a factor for sustainable rural development of the Republic of Serbia, and also compare rural indicators of the Western Balkan countries. The multivariate linear regression in the paper showed that more indicators of agriculture have impact on economy than on sustainable development of the Republic of Serbia, with particularly significance of rural population and its activity. Thereby, some statistical tests showed a decrease in rural population and employment in agriculture of the Western Balkan countries. It is concluded that support to multifunctionality of agriculture is of particular importance for sustainable rural development of the Republic of Serbia.

Due to considerable share in total employment and foreign trade exchange, agriculture represents an important sector of the Serbian economy. It is, therefore, necessary to continuously analyze the financial performance of agricultural companies and key determinants of financial performance. The objectives of this paper are to analyze the corporate income tax burden of agricultural companies in Vojvodina, as well as its impact on company profitability. Statistical tests showed that effective corporate income tax rates (ETRs) in agricultural companies are significantly lower than the statutory corporate income tax rate. Furthermore, nearly 69% of observations have both a current ETR and cash ETR of 0%, which indicates that agriculture is an industry with an exceptionally low corporate income tax burden. Panel regression showed that agricultural companies with lower ETRs are more profitable than companies with higher ETRs. Results of the analysis are not sensitive to changes in corporate income tax burden and profitability proxies.

Agriculture is of great importance in developing countries, and in the Western Balkans it has a large share in economic development and employment, but with a tendency to decline. The subject of the paper refers to the review of the current state of agriculture in the Western Balkans, while the goal is to point out the possibilities of improvement and development of both agriculture and other non-agricultural activities in rural areas, with the aim of diversifying activities and reducing dependence on the primary sector. OLS panel regression showed a negative impact of dependence on agriculture, in terms of participation in GDP and employment, on economic development, while a positive impact was established for agricultural production and export of agricultural products. The Kruskall-Wallis' test showed that the Republic of Serbia is still highly dependent on agriculture compared to other countries of Western Balkans, which is why multifunctional agriculture and diversification of activities should be developed in order to reduce the share of agriculture in GDP and employment. On the other hand, the Republic of Serbia is the leader in the region in terms of agricultural production and export, so it is necessary to work on improving production through the introduction of modern technologies and production methods, so that agricultural products become more competitive on the international market, which would encourage export growth and economic development.