The role of small and medium enterprises in improving employment and in the post-crisis resumption of economic growth in Romania

In the European Union, the Europe 2020 strategy seeks to obtain a smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth that ensures high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion. On the other hand, Europe 2020 strategy also supports the overcoming of the current economic crisis, which has caused and continues to cause effects in various sectors of the economy. In this context, the system of companies represents the "heart" of this strategy of growth of the European economy. Encouraging the SME sector is an important concern at European Union level, considering that SMEs are key drivers for economic recovery. The paper focuses on SMEs because at European Union level they accounted for 99.8% of total non-financial businesses. The crisis has highlighted the vulnerability of these enterprises, and of all the problems facing this system, we will focus on the one that targets the impact of the crisis on the active population of SMEs in Romania, compared with the European Union

Digital divide, skills and perceptions on digitalisation in the European Union - Towards a smart labour market

The new technologies, the digitalisation of processes and automation of work will change the manner of doing business, working and living. The effects of digitalisation on the economy, society and quality of life imply significant challenges of the labour market. All the participants will be concerned: authorities, companies and ordinary people. The objective of this research is to analyse the perceptions of the EU citizens about digitalisation and to highlight the differences among specific socio-demographic groups. The analysis is grounded on a composite methodology, comprising several statistical and econometric methods that provide scientific support to achieved conclusions: statistical analysis (with the primary goal to shed light on the EU citizens' perceptions about their digital technology skills), TwoStep Cluster Analysis (TSCA) (with the purpose to identify the ‘digital vulnerable groups’ and then the ‘digital vulnerable countries’ in terms of the exposure to digital divide) and logistic regression (with the main aim to quantify the impact of the relevant factors on citizens’ perceptions about digitalisation). We identified a group of respondents evaluating themselves as having meagre digital skills, very afraid that robots could steal their jobs and with low usage of the internet. They are elderly, with a low level of education, manual workers or not working, with a relatively low level of income and little Internet use. The originality of our approach is given by the fact that we focused on investigating if digital divide leads to the creation of vulnerable groups (citizens and/or countries) and if there are specific patterns in terms of the perception on being skilled in the use of digital technologies in daily life or at work and of the understanding that robots replace human on the labour market. We aim to find relevant factors for the labour market to assume targeted measures that should be taken for a better match of supply and demand on the labour market and for creating a smart labour market. It is highly needed to increase the people's confidence in their skills level and to make the most of digitalisation of the societies. The results show consistent patterns in term of socio-demographic characteristics and perception towards digitalisation. The latter will have a meaningful impact on the economy and the society in the European Union in the next period. That is why a positive attitude towards digitalisation is essential for transforming this relatively new challenge into an excellent opportunity for the future

The rural sustainable development through renewable energy. The case of Romania

The study aims to analyze the importance of renewable energy and to assess the progress made by Romania comparing to European Union and to targets set by Community institutions. We consider that both economic issues such as job creation or reduction of import dependency, but also ecological issues including reducing greenhouse gas emissions are important in discussions about renewable energy in rural areas in Romania. By using linear regression it has been identified a strong correlation in Romania, for period 2004–2014, between share of renewable resources in gross final energy consumption and import dependency. Taking into account that energetic independence is a problem of great importance for each country, the paper aims to identify unused renewable energy potential in rural areas and also opportunities for developing renewable energy sector based on the resources that can be exploited with high efficiency, action that will generate economic and social positive effects. Our results reveal that Romania has a high development potential of rural areas using renewable energy because Romania has a high volume of renewable resources (sun, wind, water). Under these circumstances it is necessary to adopt the policies in order to support projects referring to these types of energy

Unemployment and sectoral competitiveness in Southern European Union countries. Facts and policy implications

This article addresses the problem of the main factors driving sectoral unemployment in the Mediterranean countries most affected by this phenomenon. The choice of the four countries (Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal) relies on the fact that they are dealing with the highest unemployment rates in the European Union and a certain typology of the economic structure. The originality of our research is offered by its direction, less tackled until now, namely the focus on the particularities of the economic sectors, trying to capture differences between them. The importance and the impact of the results are supported by the methods used to produce them, indicators and econometric models that are on trend and bring extra information to available studies. Descriptive statistics and mismatch indexes are used to outline the economic and labour market structure, while the econometric models built on panel data capture the impact of factors such as GVA growth, specialization and labour market mismatches on the unemployment rate at six economic sectors level. Our paper makes three contributions to the literature. First, we have demonstrated that agriculture is the sector of activity less sensitive to output fluctuations in terms of unemployment and can become a buffer for the jobless in times of recessions. Second, we have proved that industry, as a whole, is highly responsive to economic developments and bad specialization could worsen unemployment situation in this sector. Third, we showed that educational mismatches have a significant impact on unemployment in those sectors of activity that employ low educated workforce

Employment Policies for a Green Economy at the European Union Level

Sustainable economic development requires ensuring economic growth and development in terms of environmental protection by providing a bridge between sustainable economic growth, improvement in human health, social justice, employment and environmental protection. Our paper aims to study the situation of green jobs at the European Union level and the relationship between environment and employment, by analysing the link between employment and environmental policies. It highlights the main trends recorded at the European Union level in the field of employment policy to promote green jobs for sustainable economic development. Although there is little effect from environmental policies on employment, the effects are positive, which shows that the relationship between environmental and employment policy should be continued and improved by measures taken at both the macro- and microeconomic levels

Work: Social Status and the Role of Work along History – Since Ancient Times to Modern Times

Work has always had the fundamental role in the human existence and the social communities. The Statute of work has evolved over time, this being determined and influenced by the socio-economic level and social and creative maturity of those who performed work. Reality has shown that work remains the fundamental value which through scientific creativity, efficiency and morality characterizes life and human evolution in various stages of development. This paper presents the significant contributions concerning work’s role in the history since the ancient times until the modern era

A Historical Approach of the Population Role in the Economic Development (Ancient period – the nineteenth century)

The population is the general premise of existence, of dynamics and of structure working factor. In this paper, the population is considered, first, as a support of primary production and creative factor – work which is the recipient and consumer of the results of any economic activity, and on the other hand, the basic relationship between the ultimate goal of production and the means used to achieve it. There are presented interrelationship between demographic and socioeconomic processes, since antiquity until the nineteenth century

The Swedish Model in Employment. Post-Crisis Solutions

The Swedish model in the field of employment is part of the Nordic countries model focused on labour market flexibility in terms of a generous welfare system. This paper presents the characteristics of this model and its application effects in Sweden before and after the current crisis. According to specialized studies and registered indicators, Sweden has very good results in terms of general well-being, quality of life, employment of labour resources, being among the top countries. Thus, since the experience of the developed countries should be a benchmark for the developing countries, the purpose of the paper is to identify some measures that can be applied in Romania to improve employment, economic and social policies

The Role of Lifelong Learning in the Growth of Employment and Labour Efficiency. The Case of Romania

AbstractThe paper presents the role of lifelong learning in improving employment and labour efficiency in general and then captures the relationship between education - lifelong learning and the labour market in Romania. The study results focus on identifying certain actions to encourage lifelong learning in Romania and to improve educational and employment policies, to improve the quality of life