Deciphering the fluctuations of high frequency birth rates

Here the term "high frequency" refers to daily, weekly or monthly birth data. The fluctuations of daily birth numbers show a succession of spikes and dips which, at least at first sight, looks almost as random as white noise. However in recent times several studies were published, including by the present authors, which have given better insight into how birth is affected by exogenous factors. One of them concerns the way adverse conditions (e.g. famines, diseases, earthquakes, heat waves) temporarily affect the conception capacity of populations, thus producing birth rate troughs 9 months after mortality waves. In addition, religious interdicts (e.g. during the Lent period) lead to reduced conceptions. These as well as other effects raise the hope that we will soon be able to "read" and interpret birth rate patterns just as the Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion managed to decipher many (though not all) hieroglyphs.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Decomposition of the Inequality of Income Distribution by Income Types - Application for Romania

This paper identifies the salient factors that characterize the inequality income distribution for Romania. Data analysis is rigorously carried out using sophisticated techniques borrowed from classical statistics (Theil). Decomposition of the inequalities measured by the Theil index is also performed. This study relies on an exhaustive (11.1 million records for 2014) data-set for total personal gross income of Romanian citizens.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, 49 reference

INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL COMPONENTS AS CAUSES OF REGIONAL DISPARITIES. A CASE STUDY IN ROMANIA

Starting from a Logit model developed in the past we try to provide empirical support for counties disparities regarding intellectual capital factor influence. The study presents some correlation between economic performance, structure of activity in the county and intellectual components: human capital, organizational capital and customer capital. Because of various differences between counties we may consider that specific models are more indicated to analyze local behaviour. Also the results can give important information about association of counties by factor development and can also show the gaps between administrative organization forms with main purpose: a future more efficient investment and developmentintellectual capital, logit model, human capital, SME, structural capital, counties disparities

Regional Development Disparities and the Provision of Services of General Interest. A Case Study on the Health Care Services Availability in the North-East Region of Romania

This paper proposes an inquiry into the issue of availability of services of general interest, offering as case study the health care services in the North-East region of Romania. The interregional and intraregional (within North-East region) disparities in terms of health care services provision are examined in relation to the overall regional development disparities, confirming that the concern with providing a minimum level of social SGI to all citizens has conducted to health care service disparities lower than those in terms of GDP per inhabitant. The paper also provides relevant evidence on the impact of demography, especially in terms of population density on the availability of health care services

The Contribution of Labour and Capital to Romania's and Moldova's Economic Growth

In the present research we have used the Cobb-Douglas production function in its classical form for analyzing Romania’s and Moldova’s economic growth in relation to the intensity of using the capital and labour, as determinants of the production and GDP level and structure

The Services Of General Interest In Romania: Legal And Institutional Aspects At National And Territorial Level

Before 1990, the services of general interest (SeGI) in Romania were entirely provided by the public authorities. Afterwards, the market was gradually liberalized and the SeGI captured the attention of private operators. Nowadays, the business sector is involved next to the public authorities in offering services of general interest so as to respond citizens' expectations. The cooperation between the public authorities and the business sector is more developed in the area of SeGI that prove to be profitable, such as waste service and public transport, rather than services that need high investments in infrastructure, such as electricity, gas and water supply service. Starting from these overall considerations this paper addresses the legal and institutional issues generated by the organising and the provision of SeGI, with a particular emphasis on the territorial distribution of competences and the derived responsibilities. It takes into consideration the classification of competences associated to local authorities as a result of the decentralisation process, which are divided into exclusive, shared and delegated ones. Two territorial levels are considered, namely the counties - LAU1 (the same as NUTS3) and the localities (municipalities, towns and communes) – LAU 2. The development regions (NUTS2) are not considered as they are not administrative units and, consequently, do not have competences in the administration of the services of general interest. A series of drawbacks, inconsistencies are revealed followed by reflections on the solutions adopted by the authorities in favour of economic liberalisation and sustainable development of the local communities. They are derived from the Law of communitarian services of public utilities no. 51/2006, which is the main pillar of the policy framework for the public services in Romania. Thus, the public services in Romania could be provided by direct and indirect management. The latter might represent the solution that would directly support the cooperation between the local public administration authorities and the business sector and would indirectly generate the liberalization of services of general interest. The paper is based on the research conducted under the auspices of the on-going ESPON project "Indicators and perspectives for services of general interest in territorial cohesion and development – SeGI" (PS 1-16, No.094/2011), in which Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies is one of the partners involved