Budgetary Policy and Seignorage

At once with the development of money as medium of exchange, the feudal lords found out an easy way to obtain more monetary resources by monopolizing the coins’ mint. As result, they used to ask a certain percent from the gold quantity that people wanted to transform in coins (call brassage). Despite the fact that we are living modern times, this still happens. The governments didn’t give up to this important source of revenues; they only developed more sophisticated methods in order to increase their budget revenues. The aim of this paper (article) is to analyze these specific methods, to see how they work and to analyze the effects as well

Environmental Kuznets curve. Evidence from Romania

The definition of the environmental Kuznets curve is a hypothesized relationship between certain indicators of environmental degradation and income per capita. It has an inverse U shape which shows that pollution increases initially as a country develops its industry and thereafter declines after reaching a certain level of economic development. This paper tries to offer a critical description of the Environmental Kuznets Curve, to identify what kind of good is the environmental quality and to see if the data available from Romania verify the relationship between environmental quality and income per capita

Analysis of UNESCO ESD Priority Areas’ Implementation in Romanian HEIs

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are adopting sustainable development (SD) in their strategies for the future. The roadmap by UNESCO is the path to follow to reach success. The approach is different for every HEI, thus the objective of this paper is to analyze the current state of education for sustainable development activities provided by HEIs through the eyes of the academic community (responders category: professors, researchers, associate professors). The method to conduct the study was an interview that had 40 enclosed questions and a free part at the end where the responders could bring additional information to the study if they considered it necessary. All the interviews were transcribed and given a code (e.g., RHEI1, RHEI 29) in order to perform the analysis using descriptive statistics with the help of the program MS Office EXCEL. The results showed some areas where the activities provided by HEIs need improvement and also revealed promising aspects through partnerships. Making the values of SD known to the academic and local community will help fulfill the true potential for change and future development. Moreover, the analysis showed the need to educate educators and improve their digital skills and teaching methods/techniques in order to achieve sustainable development. Another result revealed the need for improvements in HEI curricula that will contribute to gaining those skills/abilities that emerging jobs should have

Physico-Chemical Parameters and Health Risk Analysis of Groundwater Quality

Groundwater pollution is a very common problem worldwide, as it poses a serious threat to both the environment and the economic and social development and consequently generates several types of costs. The analysis of pollution control involves a permanent comparison between pollution costs and the costs associated with various methods of pollution reduction. An environmental policy based on economic instruments is more effective than an environmental policy focused on command and control tools. In this respect, the present paper provides a case study showing how anthropogenic factors such as wastewater, industrial, agricultural, and natural factors are able to change the physical and chemical parameters of groundwater in the study area, thus endangering their quality. In order to monitor the groundwater quality in the region of Dobrudja, an analysis of physico-chemical parameters was performed. The content of heavy metals was analyzed and the health risk index was taken into account and analyzed, in order to set a better correctness of the metal content from the underground waters. Studies on groundwater quality control have shown that, in many parts of the world, water has different degrees of quality depending on the natural and anthropogenic factors acting on the pertaining environment. This is why more attention should be paid to the prevention of groundwater pollution and the immediate remediation of accidents