Comparative Analysis of the Evolution of Public Debt in the European Union

In the context of the difficult economic situation experienced over the past decade, most EU Member States are calling for increased tax rates to cover budget deficits, but also resort to loans. The effect of the loans was the emergence and accentuation of public debt. In this article we aim to analyze the evolution of public debt at the level of the European Union during 2007-2017, both in terms of its structure and its dynamics. The conclusion we reach is that very few Member States have met the conditions imposed by the Maastricht Treaty on public debt

Linking financial development to environmental performance index—the case of Romania

To make steps in society towards a more sustainable future, countries must meet the targets established by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Thus, factors that could impact the environmental indicators should be analysed. Therefore, this study aims to identify the correlations between financial development and environmental performance in Romania, during the period 1995–2018. Using composite indexes to assess financial development and the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) to express environmental performance, important results are obtained through the Canonical Cointegrating Regression (CCR) method. The explanatory variables used in the study are specific to the evaluation of the financial development of a country: access, depth and efficiency. The results show that, in the case of financial institutions, the access index and the depth index have a negative influence on the environmental performance index, while in the case of financial markets, the negative impact of the access index of financial markets can be observed. The efficiency index, both in the case of financial institutions and financial markets, generates a positive influence on environmental performance in Romania. Financial markets also address positive influences on the evolution of the environmental performance index

Testing the macroeconomic impact of the budget deficit in EU Member States using linear regression with fixed effects

The article aims to research impact of budget balance, whether surplus or deficit, on the main indicator characterizing the economic growth of a country, namely GDP and the inflation rate in the 27 European Union Member States and the United Kingdom. For this analysis was used panel data, taking into account the period from 2001 to 2015. The method used for the analysis is the linear regression with fixed effects and with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors. The dependent variables are the growth rate of real GDP and the inflation rate, and the independent variable is the budget balance (surplus or deficit). The results obtained after using econometric software Stata shows a positive impact of budget balance on growth in the European Union for the analyzed period

Financing the Agri-Environmental Policy: Consequences on the Economic Growth and Environmental Quality in Romania

The aim of this research is to point out the impact that the application of the agri-environmental policy has on the economic growth and on the quality of the environment, these being the main aspects targeted by the practice of a sustainable agriculture. The research is conducted based on the agri-environment indicators for Romania for the period of time between 1997 and 2019. In order to answer the objectives of this whole research, we performed stationarity tests, a cointegration test and used the Fully Modified Least Squares (FMOLS) method to estimate the relationships between the variables included in the three proposed models. The obtained results highlighted the positive influence exerted by the area that was arranged for irrigation and the agricultural area that was arranged with drainage works on the GDP, but also the negative influence of the amount of natural fertilizers used in agriculture. The use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides generates an increase in environmental degradation, meaning CO2 emissions, while an increase in the agricultural area arranged with erosion control and land improvement works, leads to reducing environmental degradations. The limitations of this research lie in the fact that the agri-environmental indicators are specific to each country in the European Union and, therefore, it is difficult to make comparisons with other member states or to apply the measures recommended for Romania to other states with similar agricultural and economic systems

Combining the Broadband Coverage and Speed to Improve Fiscal System Efficiency in the Eastern European Union Countries

Current challenges triggered by the limited interactions between people and institutions during the pandemic crisis have emphasized the need to strengthen the digitization process of all public services. In this sense, we considered it opportune to carry out research in order to establish the impact of the technological infrastructure, in terms of coverage and download speed, on the efficiency of the fiscal policy expressed by the volume of income from taxes and fees. Therefore, we propose a robust regression model tested with S-estimator that allows for outliers in the dataset. The results indicate that an improvement in download speed has a significant positive effect on the level of tax collection and that a better broadband coverage improves the amount of revenues from taxes and contributions. In the analyzed countries, the technological infrastructure is developing, and the decision-makers should make efforts to reach the targets proposed in the Digital Agenda for Europe in terms of broadband coverage and speed

Fiscal Policy, Growth, Financial Development and Renewable Energy in Romania: An Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model with Evidence for Growth Hypothesis

This research aims to identify the influence of fiscal policy, financial development and economic growth on the increase of renewable consumption in Romania. To achieve our objective, we employ bivariate regressions through the Autoregressive Distributed Lag method, over the 2000–2020 period, to examine these influences. We find clear evidence that the variables observed (implicit tax rate on energy, external debt stocks, real GDP per capita, environmental tax revenues from energy taxes, and market capitalisation of listed domestic companies) have significant effects on the use of renewable energy. Four unidirectional causal relationships were identified in the long run: two from independent variables towards the dependent variable and two from the dependent variables towards two other independent variables. The importance of this study is that its results can contribute to the finding of the most suitable solutions to improve renewable energy consumption in Romania and mitigate the impact of climate change. Consequently, the results of this study reveal significant conclusions and policy recommendations for Romania moving towards sustainable and green economic growth, through a balanced set of policies and measures smartly applied, accompanied by a solid rate of absorption of green funds

Connecting Blue Economy and Economic Growth to Climate Change: Evidence from European Union Countries

Blue Economy represents a new and interesting concept on a global level, both from the economic potential but also by the fact that it can be used to reduce environmental degradation. The main goal of this research is to identify the causality relations between the greenhouse gas emissions, the Blue Economy and economic growth based on a panel of annual data from the 28 countries that are members of the European Union (EU) over the 2009–2018 period. After applying stationarity and cointegration tests, the long term cointegration coefficients shall be determined with the help of the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) estimator. Granger causality estimation based on the vector error correction model (VECM) was applied to identify the causality relationship between the variables and to detect the direction of causality. Based on the identified causality relations, the Blue Economy has a significant influence on greenhouse gas emissions in the long run. Unidirectional causality relations were identified from the economic growth of greenhouse gas emissions in the long term, as well as from the greenhouse gas emissions on economic growth in the short term