EKONOMIJA DIJELJENJA: OSVRT NA ZEMLJE ZAPADNOG BALKANA
SHARING ECONOMY: EVIDENCE FROM WESTERN BALKAN COUNTRIES

Summary/Abstract: With the development of technology, especially information and communication systems, new ways of providing services emerged, based on the model of “collective consumption” or “sharing economy”. These models include the maximum use of scarce resources on the basis of technological support and social capital of the community. By using technology, especially the Internet, community of consumers seeks to maximize the use of their own resources through the supply and demand of certain products and services. Consequently, efficiency and confidence are essential for the functioning of sharing economy whose size is estimated at 225 billion dollars by 2025. The biggest challenge for this model is the legal and political environment that is not flexible to quick-change business rules, leading to sporadic bans on certain models of sharing economy, such as the ban of UBER in France. Sharing economy opens new issues, such as the informal economy and the black market, which creates pressure and additional challenges for policy makers. The main objective of the paper is to analyze the functioning of the sharing economy, with the presentation of different business models based on the principles of sharing. The paper will use scientific methods of systematization and analysis, in order to present the models of sharing economy in the countries of the Western Balkans, while comparing and analyzing the regulatory responses of the governments of these countries. The paper shows that in comparison to developed countries of the world, the sharing economy is still not widespread in the countries of the Western Balkans. In addition, paper includes conclusions and recommendations on the development of potential of the sharing economy for the countries of this region.

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