Economic impact of the creative industry and the example of Serbia

Abstract

The creative industry plays an important role in the economic development of countries. Its role has been the topic of various studies, confirming not just the importance, but also the specifics of its operations and characteristics. Creative industry in Serbia is an important part of the economy. This paper creates additional value in terms of understanding its economic impact and shows that this sector in Serbia demonstrated evident growth in the analysed period, with the average increment rate of the number of entities being 6.2% when observing the narrow classification and 7.8% when observing the broad one. Having in mind the structure of the sector in Serbia, 73.8-77% of its participants are entrepreneurs, and 92-93% of the companies are micro firms. In addition to this, most of the creative industry firms are registered in the capital city. In the observed period, GVA of the creative industry's private sector increased by 64.9% in terms of the narrow classification, with average annual growth rate of 18.1%. The share of GVA in GDP of the creative industry when taking into account the broad classification is higher compared to certain traditional industries in Serbia, such as construction, and somewhat lower than the share the agriculture. This paper also analyses the employment structure in this sector and its impact on overall employment.