Background Tobacco tax policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) assumes a gradual annual increase in specific excise taxes on cigarettes. However, it is insufficient to reduce significantly consumption. This paper examines effects of the increase in cigarette prices and disposable income on cigarette demand in B&H by different income consumer groups. Methods Based on the Household Budget Surveys and microdata from 2007, 2011 and 2015, we employed logit model to estimate prevalence and Deaton’s model to estimate intensity elasticity of cigarette demand for the sample of 21 424 households (9953 are smoking households) by different income groups. We used obtained elasticities and estimated the impact of tax increase on cigarette consumption and government revenue in three tax increase scenarios. Results Ten per cent price increase would reduce the consumption of low-income households by 14%, as opposed to 9.9% for middle-income and 7% for high-income households. Low-income households would significantly increase the demand for cigarettes compared with high-income households if income increased. Increase in the specific excise tax by 25% would reduce cigarette consumption and increase government revenue, while the low-income group would experience a reduction in tax burden. Conclusions Changes in prices have different impacts on tobacco prevalence and consumption of low-income compared with middle-income and high-income socioeconomic groups. Low-income households are most responsive to changes in prices and income. Thus, the poor in B&H would benefit from an increase in tobacco excise taxes and price.

Transformation processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are characterized by continuous social conflicts between the working class and the ruling class of (ethno-)political and economic elites who have appropriated once socially owned enterprises through the nationalization processes, to be partially sold out through the privatization and bankruptcy procedures. The results of these processes, combined with the war atrocities and the break-up of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, have brought about the fragmentation, disempowerment and pauperization of the working class. Workers' strife during and after the privatization and transformation processes shows the still present combativeness of the working class. This paper covers three cases of workers' struggles, as examples of social conflicts in labour relations within transformation processes in BiH. Cases taken from different periods within the three-decades of post-socialist transformation of BiH, show the similarities and differences in mechanisms used by the workers of the taken examples of Rudi Čajavec, Dita and Elektroprivreda BiH mines, during the organizing of workers' strives for realization of workers' interests. The key difference between the first and the two latter cases is in the contribution of the social media networks for popularizing the wider public support to the workers' demands.

Background Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) is among the top 10 countries in the world in terms of number of smokers. The cigarette prices in B&H are under a direct impact of state excise tax policy. The specific excise on cigarettes was introduced in B&H in 2009. Since then it has been increasing every year thus being the main driver of cigarette prices growth. Methods In this paper we estimate price elasticity of demand for cigarettes following Deaton demand model and apply it on microdata obtained from the Household Budget Surveys in B&H conducted in 2011 and 2015. Deaton model uses within-cluster information to estimate total expenditure elasticities and then uses between-cluster information to estimate price elasticities. For B&H, the cluster is defined as a municipality × in the year t. Our sample contains 14 252 households, divided into 267 clusters. Results Our results show that the price elasticity is statistically significant and amounts to −1.366. This means that if cigarette prices in B&H are increased by 10%, the demand for cigarettes would decrease by 13.66%. Conclusions We found a negative price elasticity of demand for cigarettes of −1.366. These results of the econometric estimate of elasticity of demand are more elastic compared with the results of similar surveys carried out on the sample of low and middle-income countries. It demonstrates that the demand for cigarettes responds strongly to the price increase.

Tobacco consumption continues to be behavior engaged in by a large percentage of Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) citizens. According to the official statistics, nearly half of the state’s adults, that is about 1,200,600 people, consume tobacco products on a daily bases. The state excise policy is one of the main available tools for reducing smoking prevalence because cigarette prices are under the direct impact of this policy. The specific excise on cigarettes introduced in BiH in 2009 and has increased every year so it was the main driver of cigarette price growth. In order to provide research-based evidence for more effective tobacco taxation policies in BIH, in this paper we estimate the price elasticity of demand for cigarettes using the macro-level data for the period 2008 to 2017, on a semi-annual basis. The results have shown that the increase in prices of cigarettes has a statistically significant impact on cigarette consumption, at a significance level of 1%. The estimated price elasticity coefficient is in the range from -0.71 to -0.83, depends on the selected control variables used in the model. It means that the increase in real cigarette prices for 10% led to a decrease in cigarette consumption in the range from 7.1% to 8.3%.

Social transformation and transition from socialist to liberal market economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries of former Yugoslavia, followed by war atrocities, initiated a series of economic and social challenges: deindustrialization, high unemployment, dubious privatizations, impoverishment, ethnic rivalries and structural changes. In this paper, we observe the mentioned social processes focusing on identity politics resulting in transformation of class identity into workers' national identity. The main presumption is that certain critical social moments serve as a trigger for "shift" in primacy of class compared to national identity and vice versa. To address this, we are using cases of workers' resistance/strikes/ protests during the social transformation from socialist into market economy, and after the completed privatization and reign of ethno-national policies in former Yugoslavia countries.

The working class was, at least formally, a formative basis of the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). The transformation of the system from the Communist to the capitalistic one led to its alienation, poverty, and social exclusion. This transformation, as part of the neoliberal globalisation, occurred through the introduction of the so-called 'shock therapy' measures: liberalisation, privatisation, and stabilisation. Large industrial complexes and leading stateowned companies in the SFRY were the subject of, often dubious, privatisation processes. Through such processes, workers, who were once owners and motors of companies they worked at, are now stripped of the ownership and the opportunity to work at the same companies. The majority of research on postCommunist economic transformation focuses on changes to the system, on economic aspects of privatisation processes, and on introduction of market economy. Yet, there are few research focusing on the privatisation and transformation from a workers' perspective. This paper attempts to fill in this gap by providing a different angle to the current studies of transformation of the SFRY and its successor states. Through interviews with former workers of privatised and/or closed factories and industrial complexes (using the local company of 'Rudi Čajavec' as an example), the research presented in this paper analyses workers' attitudes and sentiments towards the labour in the Communist Yugoslavia and the labour today, as well as towards the privatisation processes accompanying the latter.The research gives a voice to the workers, and, by looking at the past, gives a worker-centred approach to imagining labour in the future.

Smoking is an endemic problem in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH), and BiH is among the top 10 countries in the world for cigarettes consumption (World Atlas, 2018). The state excise policy is one of the main available tool for reducing smoking prevalence because the cigarette prices are under direct impact of this policy. The specific excise on cigarettes introduced in BiH in 2009 and have increased every year so it was the main driver of cigarettes price growth. In order to determine effect of increase in cigarette prices, and thus effect of excise policy on demand for cigarettes in BIH, in this paper we estimate price elasticity of demand for cigarettes. We follow Deaton (1988) demand model and apply it on micro data, obtained from the Household Budget Surveys in BiH in 2011 and 2015. Our results show that the price elasticity coefficient is statistically significant and amounts to -0.65. This means that if cigarette prices in BIH increase by 10%, the demand for cigarettes, among smokers of cigarettes, will decrease by 6.5% i.e. continuous increasing in specific excise in BiH can be efficient measure for reducing smoking prevalence in BiH.

ABSTRACT The paper focuses on the role of the ‘Balkanist discourse’, as a collection of negative prejudices on the Balkan people and cultures, in constructing the individual and collective identities of labour migrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Particular emphasis is given to investigating to what extent the Balkanist discourse meta-narrative affects the integration of the labour migrants in host countries’ societies and their reintegration into BiH upon their temporary or permanent return. Based on an analytical model that emphasizes the mutual conditionality of everyday and public discourses, i.e. the typology of Balkanist discourse variations, this study undertakes a discourse analysis of the life stories of 10 young labour migrants from BiH. The research results show that variations of the Balkanist discourse are a dominant referential framework for the migrants in interpreting their own experience and social phenomena in both host country and BiH, regardless of the migrants embracing these Balkanist discourse stereotypes as part of their personal identity or feeling resistance towards them.

The political and economic transformations of peacebuilding and state-building efforts in post-Dayton Bosnia–Herzegovina (BiH) have resulted in a dysfunctional, divided and impoverished country in social crisis. Both international and local political elites have tried to manage the crisis, the former through financial aid in combination with externally imposed measures and the latter through institutionalized ethnic nationalism and clientelism; both approaches were made possible by the Dayton Peace Accords. Articulating a demand for greater social justice, the 2014 protests and plenums rejected both ethnic division and the corruption of post-Dayton political economy. This was rightfully seen as a threat by most Bosnian politicians, and appeared to represent an opening for a new reform agenda by the EU. This was most visible in its ‘Compact for Growth and Jobs’, which aimed to revitalize BiH’s path to European integration. We argue that the Compact and the responses to it offer a useful diagnostic to gauge how the post-Dayton political field has shifted since the events of 2014. In this article, we analyse the Compact and its critics, point out their blind spots and discuss what this reveals about the possibility for wider social change in the wake of the 2014 protests and plenums – in other words, thinking Bosnia’s future beyond Dayton and Brussels, via Tuzla.