DID EUROPEAN COUNTRIES SUFFER FROM DIFFERENT CALCULATION OF HDI?

The Human development index (HDI) was introduced for the first time in the summer of 1990. The objective was to provide a more complex indicator that captures a country`s development level better than the gross national product. UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) justified this approach by the need to attempt to provide an informative value that exceeds the strict quantitative aspects. This article analyzes the impact of different calculation of HDI, by comparing the values of the index calculated relying on the Human Development Report from 2005 with the values of the index calculated based on the Human Development Report from 2010 for 10 European countries (five emerging countries and five developed countries). When using the new methodology in calculating the Human Development Index, there is a small and insignificant difference. The HDI values obtained based on the new methodology from the Human Development Report from 2010 are smaller, but these values do not change their rank

STOCHASTIC DOMINANCE ON FTSE INDEX

Stochastic dominance is a method that refers to a set of relations, which may hold between a specific pair of distributions. However, the concept can be applied in many domains, but in particular in financial economic areas, where the considered distributions are usually those of random returns to different financial assets. The aim of this paper is to provide an implementation of a stochastic dominance algorithm that establish which of more risky indices is preferred more by investors who have an aversive risk profile. The study is performed on FTSE indices. The focus is to emphasis the imbalance between FTSE regional indices and FTSE sectorial indices. The analyzed period for regional indices is April 3, 2000 –September 12, 2014. As regards the sector indices, the analyzed period is January 3, 1994 – September 12, 2014.Its relevance consist in that, it offers a different perspective for investors when choosing between different financial assets. This approach together with Meyer algorithm has been proved that it is a useful tool in risk aversion analysis. JEL Classification: C73, D9, D53

THE IMPACT OF FINANCIAL LIBERALIZATION ON ROMANIAN BANKING SYSTEM EFFICIENCY

In the last three decades, many emerging countries have moved away from a system of restrictive monetary and financial controls to a more liberalized financial sector. The restrictive imposed policies were expected to contribute to industrialization of the economy and to the stability of the banking sector. However, financial liberalization had big costs on the banking system's competitiveness and efficiency. Financial liberalization has a different impact on banking markets. Thus, there is no size that fits all policies concerning banking liberalization process. For highly efficient banks, competition is improving their efficiency standard, while less efficient banks can`t compete with foreign banks and further are decreasing in efficiency or are driven out of the market. Overall, the average efficiency of domestic banking markets should be an important variable in deciding to open up their banking market. Banks that are operating close to the frontier, in general are improving their efficiency following financial liberalization process. Banks that are operating in a further distance can`t manage to compete with foreign market entrants, so, they are losing from liberalization process. In this article we propose to measure the impact of financial liberalization process on Romanian banking system. We used the panel regression to study the informational efficiency of three Romanian banks during 2004 - 2012. The dependent variable of the model was the price of stock bank, and the independent variables were the financial indicators (return on equity, return on assets, net profit margin). In the second regression we introduce a dummy variable for crisis period. Our results show that the financial indicators choose do not affect the efficiency of Romanian bank, but the crisis had a negative impact on them. International context, credit risk, the implementation of Basel III and reducing exposures in the absence of investment alternatives remains key challenges to the Romanian banking system in future

THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF FINANCIAL LIBERALIZATION PROCESS

Financial liberalization process and its implications on financial emerging markets have been multidisciplinary research since 1970. Reform of financial liberalization is a complex and long phenomena. This implies that the impact of this reform on financial markets should not be immediate, but rather gradually during a long time period. It is also important to note that liberalization does not occur in the same way on all financial markets. Each country, according to his specification regarding the economic climate and the specificity of financial markets, has differently set its progress of liberalization process. It is generally accepted that the process of financial liberalization is not composed of a single event, but a series of events. The idea is that market reform is a gradual process where the data identified above only refers to the most significant events. Regarding the effect of liberalization reform on emerging markets has been shown; on the one hand, that liberalization helps to reduce the cost of capital, helps to integrate the emerging markets in the global market, enhances economic growth and allows emerging markets to become more mature. On the other hand, financial liberalization process has a very ambiguous and inconclusive impact on informational efficiency and volatility in emerging markets. Launching liberalization reforms provided an analytical framework for studies that attempt to investigate the effectiveness of emerging markets and empirical links between liberalization and efficiency. The first reason is that with liberalization, the authors believe that emerging markets have become more speculative and more competitive. So there is a chance to see if the weak form market efficiency is verified. The second reason is that the authors explore the relationship between liberalization and efficiency. Researchers and regulators seek an answer to the fundamental question: financial liberalization helps the stock market become more efficient? Financial liberalization is not a riskless process