Sectors

Five markets we know from both sides.

HealthHow the same money could deliver more and better care.Where demand outgrows supply, and how a provider stands out.EducationHow the system could reach every child and teach each one better.Where families look for more, and how a private school or faculty earns its premium.ICT & digital infrastructureHow support could follow skills and adoption at home, not headcount.Where the market moves from hours to solutions, and which firms are worth backing.Manufacturing & exportersHow support could help domestic firms grow, not only bring new plants.Where domestic manufacturers can sell more, and what it takes to get there.Agri-foodHow farm support could raise what a hectare earns.Where land earns most, and who can capture the value.All sectorsOverview

Topics

Five questions that cut across every market.

SMEs & entrepreneurshipHow support could reach the small and mid-sized firms able to grow.Where domestic know-how sits, and which firms are worth backing.Competitiveness & investmentHow support could raise productivity, not only jobs.Where firms have underinvested, and what it takes to catch up.Public financeHow each dinar could be tied to a purpose, and pay to the value of work.Where the state will spend, and how to compete for it.Green & digital transitionHow carbon revenue and support could help firms measure and cut, not only pay.Where clean power and carbon data open a market, and who can serve it.Skills & labour marketsHow adults in work and out of it could keep learning what the economy needs.Where to find the people a plan needs, and how to train and keep them.All topicsOverview

Services

Economic analysis for governments, donors and international organisations: we diagnose sectors and public spending, design and cost programmes, and evaluate what they changed.Economic analysis for companies and investors: we size markets and plan entry, find and assess firms to buy, and model what a business is worth.

Sector & value-chain diagnosticsWhere a sector creates value, who leads it, and what holds it back.Public expenditure & functional reviewsWhere public money goes, what it achieves, and how the same budget could do more.Policy & programme designWhom a programme should reach, with what instrument, and how it will be judged.Cost-benefit & fiscal impactWhat a policy or project will cost, year by year, and what it returns.EvaluationWhat a programme changed, for whom, and what would have happened anyway.Market entry studiesHow large the market is, who buys, who competes and what it takes to win.Policy, regulatory & public-demand riskHow incentives, licences, rules and public spending move a business case.Market-entry programmesFrom a study to an operation on the ground: set-up, people, partners and first customers.Business plansA plan a board can approve and a lender or investor can fund.Target search & screeningWhich firms exist, who owns them, and which deserve a closer look.Due diligenceWhat a target’s business, clients and earnings really are, before the price is set.Financial models & valuationWhat a business or an investment is worth, and how it pays back under different scenarios.Surveys & primary dataThe evidence that does not exist yet, collected so that it can be trusted.Custom analytical & performance toolsModels, dashboards and indices, used every time a decision comes back.All servicesOverview

Service · For institutions and donors · Diagnose

Public expenditure & functional reviews

Where public money goes, what it achieves, and how the same budget could do more.

Context

What it answers

A ministry rarely lacks money as much as it lacks a clear view of where its money goes: how much reaches the service and how much stays in buildings and posts, which institutions deliver more for the same means, and whom the service misses. A review answers that for a sector or a level of government, so that a reform starts from the system as it is.

  • Where does the money go, by function, institution and input?
  • Which providers or regions give more and better service for the same means, and why?
  • How could the same budget reach more people or improve quality?

Evidence

How we work

We build one set of figures from the budget at every level, from general government and the social insurance funds to programmes, projects and municipal final accounts, and join it to staffing counted in full-time equivalents, service records such as insurance claims, and European and regional benchmarks. Spending is tested for efficiency, effectiveness, equity and sustainability: what each provider achieves for its means, who benefits from public money across income groups and regions, how execution compares with the plan, and whether the path is affordable. A functional review adds the institutions themselves: their mandates, where functions overlap or are missing, and whether staff and processes match what each institution is meant to do. Each figure is traced to its source, so that the ministry can rerun it.

Sector spending reviews · functional reviews of institutions · wage bill and staffing in full-time equivalents · local government finance · benefit incidence · budget tagging to goals and reform agendas

Direction

What you get

A review with benchmarks, the drivers of spending and options for reform costed year by year; the database and statistical annex behind it, documented so that the ministry’s staff can update them; and briefings for decision-makers.

What the tool looks like

Database

Spending by municipality and function

Final accounts, coded line by line

For institutions · Public expenditure & functional reviews

Illustration with invented figures.

Examples of our work

For institutionsWorld Bank and UNICEF2020–25

Health spending and performance review for Serbia

We built the quantitative evidence for the review, benchmarking Serbia against the EU, the newer member states and the Western Balkans and comparing its 25 districts. Health accounts, household budget surveys and insurance fund data were brought into one set of figures, which we updated with 2023 data in 2025.

For institutionsWorld Bank2017

Education spending review for Romania: teachers and EU funds

A county-level database of teachers, pupils, pay and income separates the wage bill into pupil numbers, staff per pupil and relative pay, and maps EU funds for education county by county.

For institutionsUNICEF2020

Local government spending database for the social sector review

Final accounts of thirty local governments, from the largest cities to the poorest municipalities, digitised and checked line by line and coded by function and economic classification, with plan set against execution.

All work

Earlier experience

Before Econominess, Nemanja Šormaz did work of this kind in the roles below.

2015–2017Special adviser

Rightsizing the public sector

Analysis of the functional and economic structure of public spending and of staff costs sector by sector against Europe, proposed wage bills for each budget user, and reviews of the functional analyses of health and education.

Talk to Nemanja Šormaz

The other side

Market entry, business plans, due diligence and valuation for companies and investors.Diagnostics, programme design, cost-benefit analysis and evaluation for institutions.

Read this as an investorRead this as an institution
Next servicePolicy & programme design

Contact

Tell us the decision in front of you, and when you need it.

nemanja@econominess.rs

Company profile, PDF · Belgrade, Serbia