The Failure to Restructure and Improve Efficiency on the Romanian Labor Market

Romania started the transition process by adopting a gradualist strategy for implementing its economic reforms, most of which being carried out independently and not through a concrete and cohesive policy package. The dynamics of restructuring on the labor market is analyzed by the Index of Employment Restructuring, the Rate of Unemployment Absorption and the Net Rate of Private Sector Expansion. These indices show that the capacity of Romanian economy to absorb the unemployment is very modest because the private activities are insufficiently developed due to a major delay in market reforms aimed to effectively stimulate the private initiative. With respect to efficiency, the Index of Labor Efficiency shows that the private sector loses continuously its efficiency because the privatization of public enterprises induced the phenomenon of sharing the inefficiency (the speed of restructuring the privatized firms is lower than the speed of privatization). The Index of Employment Adjustment indicates that this process is far from being completed in the Romanian economy, while the Index of Output Adjustment confirms that the private sector – despite its increasing share in overall activity – remains insufficiently developed in terms of productivity and economic efficiency.labor force, employment size, employment structure, employment determination, labor demand, economic growth, aggregate productivity

Financial Crisis in Moldova - Causes and Consequences

The introduction of Moldovan leu has been accompanied by a monetary stabilization policy that until 1998 proved to be one of the most successful among FSU countries. The leu showed a remarkable stability and the rate of inflation was brought down to around 10% in 1997. However, fiscal policy was driven by inertia and pressure groups, reflecting the slow path of structural reforms and the general weakness of the state. Loose fiscal policy in turn reduced the determination in reforming state structures. Arrears and nettingout operations led to the development of the non-payment culture. At macroeconomic level, expansionary fiscal policy led to high absorption in the economy that was not met by the supply side response due to the impeded restructuring process, which fuelled imports and deteriorated trade balance. The ultimate result of the policy mix was the rapid accumulation of external debt and expenditure arrears. The unsustainability of both internal and external position of the state led to the inevitable financial crisis. The turmoil that followed in 1998 the crisis in Russia was a catalyst that speeded up the collapse of monetary stabilization. The capital account losses (capital flight) immediately brought the country to the verge of default. The abrupt and probably persistent loss of major export markets will affect the real economic activity over a longer period. More over, the crisis may create a window opportunity for accelerating Moldovan reforms. A critical situation makes the public and policy makers more likely to accept the painful measures that are necessary to revert the negative tendencies accumulated in recent years, while the large external debt makes the country fully dependent on the co-operation with international organizations, especially the IMF. Indeed, the new cabinet of young and liberal reformers voted in March 1999 initiated a more energetic program of reforms. Likewise, the decline of exports to Russia forced Moldovan enterprises to search new export possibilities for many producers trying to enter non-traditional western markets. The remainder of this paper is organised in the following way. The first chapter describes the introduction of the national currency and monetary stabilisation observed in Moldova in years 1993­1997. The second chapter discusses the impact of erroneous fiscal policy on the Moldovan economy in the same period. The third chapter depicts the developments of the crises of 1998 and draws conclusions about possible scenarios for next years. Background information about Moldova is reported in the appendix.Financial Crisis, Moldova

A decade of EU membership : evolution of competitiveness in Romania

We analyse in this paper the main achievements of Romania in terms of competitiveness during the period of ten years since joining the European Union. The analysis is based on a proposed Competitiveness Index, which is constructed on the basis of five indicators that express the progress of reforms in the following areas: business environment, labour market, state institutions, taxation, and human capital. The analysis is carried out in a comparative perspective, at three levels: with Bulgaria, which joined the EU the same year; with three countries from Western Europe; and a group of countries from Central and Eastern Europe that integrated the EU earlier, in 2004. We find a strong convergence in terms of competitiveness between Romania and the other neighbouring countries, as well as a slower but increasing convergence towards the “old” EU member states.peer-reviewe

Agglomeration in Europe in the context of socio-ecological transition

This paper analyses the spatial distribution of economic activity in the European Union at NUTS2 level over the 2001-2010 period. The aim of the study is twofold: (i) to provide descriptive evidence of the agglomeration distribution in Europe and its evolution over time across countries; (ii) to identify the nature of agglomeration and the factors that determine its level, with particular attention paid to the socio-ecological transformation occurring in Europe. The study concludes that: a) the changes in agglomeration are sensitive to demographic transformations taking place; b) the ecological transformation has a mixed effect, depending on each country; c) significant differences are observed between new and old Member States; the crisis has had a significant influence on agglomeration but only in Western Europe

Romanian pensions system at a glance: some equity comments

The main objective of this study is to analyse the equity issues of the Romanian pension system. The analysis is carried out at two levels: at the nationwide level, aimed at identifying the welfare implications of recent reforms adopted by the Romanian government on the unitary system of pensions, and at the regional level, where we try to identify differences and similarities across counties with respect to nominal and real average benefits received by pensioners. The conclusions of the analysis show that the new pension law ended up with an increase of the average benefit for high pensions, while low benefits remained practically the same as they were before the reform. At regional levels, in most of the counties the average real pension (indexed by the cost of living) is above the nominal one

How much has benefited Romania from ten years of EU membership?

We analyse in this paper the main achievements of Romania during the period of ten years since joining the European Union. The analysis is based on a proposed Index of Structural Changes constructed that express the overall progress in five areas: business environment, labour market, state institutions, taxation, and human capital. The analysis is carried out in a comparative perspective, at three levels: with Bulgaria, which joined the EU the same year; with three countries from Western Europe; and with a group of countries from Central and Eastern Europe that integrated the EU earlier, in 2004. We find a strong convergence between Romania and the other neighbouring countries, as well as a slower but increasing convergence towards the “old” EU member states

PID Controller Tuning Optimization with Genetic Algorithms for a Quadcopter

This paper is focused on the dynamic of mathematical modeling, stability, nonlinear gain control by using Genetic algorithm, utilizing MATLAB tool of a quadcopter. Previously many researchers have been work on several linear controllers such as LQ method; sliding mode and classical PID are used to stabilize the Linear Model. Quadcopter has a nonlinear dynamics and unstable system. In order to maintain their stability, we use nonlinear gain controllers; classical PID controller provides linear gain controller rather than nonlinear gain controller; here we are using modified PID control to improve stability and accuracy. The stability is the state of being resistant to any change. The task is to maintain the quadcopter stability by improving the performance of a PID controller in term of time domain specification. The goal of PID controller design is to determine a set of gains: Kp, Ki, and Kd, so as to improve the transient response and steady state response of a system as: by reducing the overshoot; by shortening the settling time; by decrease the rise time of the system. Modified PID is the combination of classical PID in addition to Genetic Algorithm. Genetic algorithm consists of three steps: selection, crossover, and mutation. By using Genetic algorithm we correct the behavior of quadcopter

Past, present, and future of global health financing : a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 195 countries, 1995-2050

Background Comprehensive and comparable estimates of health spending in each country are a key input for health policy and planning, and are necessary to support the achievement of national and international health goals. Previous studies have tracked past and projected future health spending until 2040 and shown that, with economic development, countries tend to spend more on health per capita, with a decreasing share of spending from development assistance and out-of-pocket sources. We aimed to characterise the past, present, and predicted future of global health spending, with an emphasis on equity in spending across countries. Methods We estimated domestic health spending for 195 countries and territories from 1995 to 2016, split into three categories-government, out-of-pocket, and prepaid private health spending-and estimated development assistance for health (DAH) from 1990 to 2018. We estimated future scenarios of health spending using an ensemble of linear mixed-effects models with time series specifications to project domestic health spending from 2017 through 2050 and DAH from 2019 through 2050. Data were extracted from a broad set of sources tracking health spending and revenue, and were standardised and converted to inflation-adjusted 2018 US dollars. Incomplete or low-quality data were modelled and uncertainty was estimated, leading to a complete data series of total, government, prepaid private, and out-of-pocket health spending, and DAH. Estimates are reported in 2018 US dollars, 2018 purchasing-power parity-adjusted dollars, and as a percentage of gross domestic product. We used demographic decomposition methods to assess a set of factors associated with changes in government health spending between 1995 and 2016 and to examine evidence to support the theory of the health financing transition. We projected two alternative future scenarios based on higher government health spending to assess the potential ability of governments to generate more resources for health. Findings Between 1995 and 2016, health spending grew at a rate of 4.00% (95% uncertainty interval 3.89-4.12) annually, although it grew slower in per capita terms (2.72% [2.61-2.84]) and increased by less than $1 per capita over this period in 22 of 195 countries. The highest annual growth rates in per capita health spending were observed in upper-middle-income countries (5.55$ 8.0 trillion (7.8-8.1) in 2016 (comprising 8.6% [8.4-8.7] of the global economy and $10.3 trillion [10.1-10.6] in purchasing-power parity-adjusted dollars), with a per capita spending of US$ 5252 (5184-5319) in high-income countries, $491 (461-524) in upper-middle-income countries,$ 81 (74-89) in lower-middle-income countries, and $40 (38-43) in low-income countries. In 2016, 0.4$ 9.5 billion, 24.3% of total DAH), although spending on other infectious diseases (excluding tuberculosis and malaria) grew fastest from 2010 to 2018 (6.27% per year). The leading sources of DAH were the USA and private philanthropy (excluding corporate donations and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). For the first time, we included estimates of China's contribution to DAH ($644.7 million in 2018). Globally, health spending is projected to increase to$ 15.0 trillion (14.0-16.0) by 2050 (reaching 9.4% [7.6-11.3] of the global economy and $ 21.3 trillion [19.8-23.1] in purchasing-power parity-adjusted dollars), but at a lower growth rate of 1.84% (1.68-2.02) annually, and with continuing disparities in spending between countries. In 2050, we estimate that 0.6% (0.6-0.7) of health spending will occur in currently low-income countries, despite these countries comprising an estimated 15.7% of the global population by 2050. The ratio between per capita health spending in high-income and low-income countries was 130.2 (122.9-136.9) in 2016 and is projected to remain at similar levels in 2050 (125.9 [113.7-138.1]). The decomposition analysis identified governments' increased prioritisation of the health sector and economic development as the strongest factors associated with increases in government health spending globally. Future government health spending scenarios suggest that, with greater prioritisation of the health sector and increased government spending, health spending per capita could more than double, with greater impacts in countries that currently have the lowest levels of government health spending. Interpretation Financing for global health has increased steadily over the past two decades and is projected to continue increasing in the future, although at a slower pace of growth and with persistent disparities in per-capita health spending between countries. Out-of-pocket spending is projected to remain substantial outside of high-income countries. Many low-income countries are expected to remain dependent on development assistance, although with greater government spending, larger investments in health are feasible. In the absence of sustained new investments in health, increasing efficiency in health spending is essential to meet global health targets.Peer reviewe