THE MOTORWAYS AVAILABILITY IMPLICATIONS FOR EMPLOYMENT AND EARNINGS AT MUNICIPAL LEVEL IN SERBIA

Investments in transport infrastructure in Serbia have been characterized by an upward trend over the past few decades. The latest data indicate that these investments have reached the level of 2.3% of GDP and that they relate mainly to road infrastructure, i.e. motorways. Theoretical and empirical literature recognizes numerous economic and social benefits of motorways development, such as positive impact on economic growth, economic development and level of employment, decrease of regional disparities and income inequality, reduction of transport costs and increase of productivity, decrease of external costs of transport etc. The aim of this paper is to examine whether the motorways availability in Serbia has created any implications for employment and earnings. The analysis is carried out at the level of local administrative units. Data on employment and wages are collected for 143 municipalities in Serbia. The municipalities are classified into two groups according to distance from the nearest motorway. Using the non-parametric Wilcoxon rank-sum test, which is appropriate given that the data do not follow a normal distribution, we concluded that statistically significant differences exist between the employment rates and earnings in the identified groups of municipalities. These differences are particularly pronounced in the Serbia-North region, which encompasses Belgrade and Vojvodina, while the differences in the Serbia-South region are considerably smaller.