COMPULSORY EDUCATION IN ROMANIA BETWEEN EQUITY AND EFFICIENCY

The paper aims at investigating the two main characteristics of a modern system of compulsory education with a focus on Romania. It assumes that the equity of the education sector and the efficiency of resource use are strongly correlated, both supportingequality of opportunities, public education, efficiency indicators, equity indicators, compulsory education

INSTITUTIONS AND VALUES OF ROMANIANS – COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL REGIONS

Starting from the results of a national survey, a questionnaire on the values of Romanians was applied in April 2008 which was used for a comparative analysis of historical regions of Romania: Moldova, Bucharest, Dobrogea, Transilvania and Muntenia.instrumental values, formal institutions, informal institutions, culture, regions

The Institution of Marriage in Old Romanian Law

The institution of marriage is considered one the most important institutions of the family. In this thesis we propose to make a short presentation of this institution, its evolution in Romania, until the advent of the Civil Code and the imposition of civil status records, during the reig n of Alexandru Ioan Cuza. The presentation of Roman legal regulations concerning marriage are intended to make the transition towards the existing institution of marriage in the Geto-Dacian space; there are many similarities between the two forms of regulation of this type of marriage. Until the advent of written standards, the marriage was concluded in accordance with the depositions of Country Rules. The form of concluding a marriage was the religious blessing, without an official written document. The emergence of Christianity has brought profound changes regarding the institution of marriage because the Christian church considered marriage as a Holy Communion where the religious moment coincided with the law. The written standards which will regulate the institution of marriage were inspired from the nomocoanons and collections of Roman-byzantine law, after some modification and adaptation to the internal relations and requirements

COMPULSORY EDUCATION IN ROMANIA BETWEEN EQUITY AND EFFICIENCY

The paper aims at investigating the two main characteristics of a modern system of compulsory education with a focus on Romania. It assumes that the equity of the education sector and the efficiency of resource use are strongly correlated, both supportin

The inflation and economic growth: evidence from Romania

The main purpose of this study is to establish the existence (or not) of a relationship between inflation and economic growth in Romania, the study lasting between 1970-2013. The methodology used in this study is the one specific to time series: structural break test using Zivot-Andrews test, the stationarity test using Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), and then Granger causality testing. Test results showed that for the analyzed period, there was a cointegrating relationship between inflation and economic growth for Romania. Finally, to establish the econometric model of the two variables, it has been developed an ARDL model with two different periods of lag

The Nexus between Economic Growth and Public Spending in Eastern European Countries

This study analyses the relationship between governmental expenditure and economic growth rate for 8 Eastern-European countries with data for 1995–2014 using the ARDL model. The main goal of the present study is to test the presence of a non-linear - Armey Curve type - relationship between the government size and economic growth and also to find an optimal level of public spending which maximizes economic growth. Our results reveal the occurrence of a significant cointegration of public spending and economic growth for all considered countries and show that the current share of public spending within the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) exceeds the optimal level calculated for the three countries for which the Armey-type phenomenon occurs. Also, the results suggest that the optimal percentage of governmental spending varies between 37 % and 41 % and the present level is higher than the optimal level for Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. The outstripping of the optimal level may conclude to the idea that the weight of public sector should be slightly decreased in these countries since the public sector is not able to efficiently cope with its resources. Based on the study results, the weight of public expenditure should be reduced while the efficiency of public spending programs should be increased

Exchange rate and trade: J-curve in European Union

The EU economy is experiencing a severe recession amid the global crisis, and although in other regions began to appear mild signs of recovery, in EU countries are recorded a continuously worsening. In many European states, the economic contraction is a consequence of the decrease in net exports component of GDP. The aim of the article is to analyze the situation in which the EU chooses to devalue its currency to increase exports. We found that, the depreciation of the Euro, has no influence on exports and that in EU, it is not expressed a J-curve effects

A Cram of E-Learning Advantages and Disadvantages

In today’s society, following the exponential development of ICT, the classical method of learning has undergone numerous changes. The emergence of the Internet has accelerated these changes due to its capacity to offer multiple possibilities of access to information, instruction, all based on dynamic technologies, transparency and open dialogue. It can be well said that the Internet is turning into an arbiter for the access to education and culture, while eLearning is a new form of education that suggests itself as an alternative with a view to the needs of continuing training and knowledge. The most widely known results of this change are obvious in two learning models mediated by ICT: eLearning and Computer-assisted learning. As well as the classical models, these models imply an efficient learning process based on well-grounded cooperation and communication activities. Moreover, these models require appropriate technology and equipment. It is also important for the eLearners to have knowledge of the new technologies. The great advantage of eLearning is the abolition of formal barriers by eliminating distances, by introducing temporal flexibility and the creation of a new type of student-teacher relationship. The authors have asked the question whether the greatest advantages of this new way of learning and refreshing will still hold for those of a higher educational and financial status, thus deepening unequal opportunity of chances. A team of members of the teaching staff of "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi (UAIC) and the Academy of Economic Studies of Bucharest (ASE) have carried out a survey among the students of the two institutions regarding the students' perceptions, expectations and attitudes related to eLearning and the identifi-cation of the profile of the student with access to this form of education. The paper presents some of the most important findings of this research.e-learning, Internet, survey, educational process

A Data Envelopment Analysis for Evaluating Romania's Health System

AbstractHealth Systems’ efficiency is one of the most sensitive topics in Health Economics. Therefore, the importance of how resources are used to provide the maximum satisfaction attainable is crucial. This paper aims to assess the European Health Systems in terms of efficiency. In achieving the goal of the research, a set of relevant variables was selected from Eurostat database. A Data Envelopment Analysis has been applied to evaluate the efficiency of the Health Systems. There were used immunization rate and health expenditures as input variables, and survival rate for adults and tuberculosis rate as output variables. The study emphasizes that Romania has an inefficient Health System and even though the Romanian Health System has known different types of reforms and improvements in the last two decades, certain areas still fall below the European average and the system is still failing to provide proper services to its citizens

Assessment of the Efficiency of Public Hospitals in Romania

Considering the high pressure on the healthcare limited resources, mainly on hospitals, determined by the population ageing, and the increased incidence of chronic and infectious diseases, it is essential to both decrease expenditures and provide good quality healthcare. In this paper we focus on the efficiency of Romanian public hospitals. Our research goals are to identify and examine the inefficient public hospitals in Romania; to determine sources of inefficiency in Romanian public hospitals; to describe a potential reduction in all inputs on average to rationalize hospital resources; and recommend that hospital management be improved. We propose an approach that contains preliminary data analyses to obtain homogeneous distributions, then we use Data Envelopment Analysis to estimate the technical efficiency scores for the hospitals in the sample. The results showed that more than half of the examined small hospitals were technically inefficient and that they could have produced a larger number of discharges and consequently an increased number of inpatient days. Possible reductions in inputs were also indicated. These results suggest ways of improving hospital management and restructuring and reorganizing decisions that can be implemented in the hospital network