A Multicriteria Analysis on Regional Disparity of Economic and Demographic Development in the Republic Of Serbia

Abstract

Abstract The disparities between the regions are the main obstacle to a balanced and harmonious economic and social development. Increasing regional disparities in the countries in transition has led to the increasing attention paid to multicriteria analysis of regional disparity of economic and social development. The regional development in Republic of Serbia, as a country in transition, after wave of recession faced with additional challenges, such as: increasing the economic gap between regions and increasing regional demographic regression. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the regional disparity of economic development as well as the regional disparity of demographic development in the Republic of Serbia. The aim is to analyze the interdependence between economic and demographic development of the regions. According to the six indicators of economic development and the six indicators of demographic development, this paper makes the analysis by VIKOR and the method of ENTROPY as well as correlation analysis. The results of research indicate that there is a statistically significant relationship between economic and demographic development of regions in the Republic of Serbia. This paper indicates the need for a further research in order to identify the main obstacles that countries face within the process of economic and demographic development.