Determinants Affecting Economic Growth – Evidence for Western Balkans Countries

The purpose of this paper is to find out if selected determinants have any effect on the economic growth rate using the strong balanced panel data for the Western Balkan countries for the period 2001-2017, and the data used are on an annual basis, which in total there are 102 observation periods. For the realization of the paper, secondary data and an advanced dynamic approach were used, such as pooled OLS methods, fixed and random effects model, to test economic growth rate as dependent variable, and explanatory variables such as working remittances to GDP, exports to GDP, imports to GDP, foreign direct investment to GDP and inflation rate.  From the generated outputs, it is true to say that working remittances to GDP, exports to GDP, and imports to GDP have an effect that influences economic growth, respectively GDP growth. Even though foreign direct investment to GDP and inflation rate does not have a significant effect on economic growth, respectively GDP growth.   Keywords: Economic growth; macroeconomic determinants; panel data. JEL code: O47, O11, C23