The tourism industry represents a significant part of the global economy. However, tourism demand is very sensitive to crisis events, such as economic crises, epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Regarding this, the primary research goal of the paper is to analyze the impact of the Covid-19 disease on global tourism. During 2020, in order to prevent further spread of this contagious disease, almost all countries in the world have introduced a ban on movement, closing of borders and other important health measures. The review of the relevant literature provided in the paper shows that the introduced measures have a negative impact on the global hospitality, travelling and tourism industry.

Background: Based on the results of research on the influence of certain internal and external factors on the profitability of insurance companies in the countries in Europe, America, Asia and Africa in the 21st century which were published in a significant number of scientific and professional papers, the present study analyses insurance companies in Serbia in the period from 2015 to 2021. We chose this analysis bearing in mind the previous negative experiences and expressed distrust in the financial system, which greatly affected the readiness of policyholders to invest in life insurance products, as well as affecting significantly the development of life insurance in Serbia. Purpose: The aim of the paper is to present the business results of the insurance companies on the Serbian market in the analysed period and to determine which business performance the management of an insurance company should pay attention to in order to ensure positive business results. Study design/methodology/approach: We applied a fixed effects model on the nine selected variables. In the model, return on assets (ROA) is used as a dependent variable, while operating margin, expense ratio, investment ratio, growth rate of written premium of a company, company size, log (financial leverage), log (liquidity ratio), and market share are independent variables. Findings/conclusions: The results of the research indicate that there is a statistically significant and positive impact of operating margin and liquidity ratio on ROA, and statistically significant but negative impact of expense ratio and financial leverage on ROA. Limitations/future research: The limitation of our profitability analysis is that we were unable to analyse the impact of individual life insurance products on profitability. Bearing in mind numerous and significant social and economic changes over the last two years, the directions of our future research will be focused on their impact on the business operation of insurance companies.

The importance of the tourism sector for the successful functioning of the national economy differs considerably from one country to another. Economic research has mainly dealt with the impact of tourism on economic growth, development and employment. The subject of this paper is an examination of the tourism sector as a possible factor in reducing the balance of payments deficit in the Republic of Serbia. The goal of the research is to find out to what extent the tourism sector can contribute to the correction of the disequilibrium in balance of payments of the Republic of Serbia. Secondary data analysis, comparative methods and correlation analysis were used in the research. The results of the research indicate that the decline in imports of tourist services, due to the change of direction of domestic tourist demand, can have a positive effect on the reduction of the current account deficit and, consequently, the balance of payments deficit in the Republic of Serbia.

This paper studies the causal relationship between government revenue and government expenditure in Serbia, using quarterly data for the 2003 (Q1) - 2012 (Q4) period. In addition to the theoretical arguments regarding this causality, extensive empirical literature is also available. The problem of the fiscal deficit has been a significant burden for the economic system of Serbia for a number of years. Therefore, the relationship between government revenue and government expenditure represents an important issue that should be studied empirically in order to draw certain conclusions. In this paper, the Toda-Yamamoto long-run non-causality method is used to determine whether the causal relationship between government revenue and government expenditure exists in Serbia. The application of this method confirms the existence of a unidirectional (one-way) causality running from government expenditure to government revenue, which means that government expenditure Granger-causes government revenue.

The subject matter of the research study conducted in this paper is the interactive relationship between banks' credit activity and economic growth. In connection with that, the paper is aimed at examining the existence and direction of the cause and effect relationship between the credit activity of the banking sector and the overall economic activity in the Republic of Serbia. The quarterly data related to the period from 2003 to 2019 were collected for the purposes of the research. The share of the loans granted to enterprises in the GDP and the share of the loans granted to households in the GDP are used as the indicators of the credit activity in the study, whereas the real GDP growth rate is determined as the indicator of economic growth. Given the fact that the observed time series are of the different order of integration, the analysis is conducted within the VAR model by applying the Toda-Yamamoto procedure of the Granger causality test. The results of the research show a significant unidirectional causal relationship according to Granger, which starts from the direction of banks' credit activity towards economic growth. The results of the conducted research study can be useful to the makers of the economic policy and the creators of a strategy for the development of the national economy.

The paper analyses the neutrality of taxation of investment projects on the example of Serbia. The aim of the research is to confirm/reject the existence of uniformity of the tax burden on investment projects that differ regarding the asset type, industry and the source of finance. The uniformity of tax burden, that is, the absence of discrimination and distortive effects of taxation, may be considered a confirmation of the tax neutrality. To investigate neutrality of taxation the analysis employed King-Fullerton framework of calculating effective marginal tax rates. The research results show that the tax treatment of investment projects in Serbia is nondiscriminatory. Marginal effective tax rates for different types of investment projects do not vary widely; that is, there are no investment projects that have a markedly favourable (unfavourable) tax treatment compared to the other types of investment projects.