THE CONCEPTS OF SPECIALISATION AND SPATIAL CONCENTRATION AND THE PROCESS OF ECONOMIC INTEGRATION: THEORETICAL RELEVANCE AND STATISTICAL MEASURES. THE CASE OF ROMANIA’S REGIONS

The issues of specialisation and spatial concentration are important to economic policy and to the competitiveness of the European Union for several reasons. The literature on trade theory concerning economic integration provides different perspectives on the evolution of specialisation and spatial concentration. Both issues have been analysed in the theoretical literature as related economic concepts, but additional empirical research is needed for a better understanding of these phenomena. The purpose of the paper is both methodological and descriptive. First, we display the theoretical literature on trade, which emphasises the role played by economic integration at national level. Second, we try to see which of the trade theories best explains the regional structure of employment in terms of specialisation and spatial concentration. We apply our methodology to a specific case: Romania's development regions and their employment structure. Therefore, regional specialisation and geographical concentration are defined in relation to production structures.specialisation, spatial concentration, trade theories, economic integration, Romania’s development regions.

Building social capital in French “Poles d’Excellence Ruraleâ€Â: the “rural excellency†as a modus vivendi for rural development

ABSTRACT. Our paper emphasizes the role of social capital in French “Poles d’Excellence Rurale (PER). Social capital is considered as highly valuable when considering the development of these particular rural areas. More precisely the French “Poles d’Excellence Rurale†are the perfect example of application of norms and networks that enable collective action and thus create social capital. These PER are functioning on traditional activities and social forms of organization which enables them to be competitive on a specific territory. We propose to develop and interrogate the role of two concepts already described as the major functional mechanism of a PER: a) the “rural excellency†and the “territorial engineering†(Lardon, Pin, 2007) which form one and a single concept related to the spatial diffusion of economic, social and organizational innovation through territorial competition and, b) the concept of « private-public partnership », a management project developed by several actors able to develop and use various kinds of social networks. In the first case, the “rural excellency†characterizes the functional core of a PER and is related to the “diffusing effect†of specific comparative advantages of economic and social nature. We mention here the governance as one type of “rural excellency†which allows governments to “outsource†some of its welfare functions to local rural communities (Bifarello, 2002). Thus this process is supposed to initiate a competition between different rural territories followed by a selection among the “best territorial engineered territories†within the process of “territorial engineeringâ€Â. In the second case, the “private-public partnership†of a PER implies a bottom-up policy involving local communities and actors with a certain democratic legitimacy (Trouvé, 2009) and thus supporting partnerships between local actors somehow in opposition with government “top-down†policies. Our methodology is based on the report entitled “Facteurs de localisation et gouvernance dans les Poles d’Excellence Rurale†developed by CAESAR-AgroSup Dijon, (2009) which emphasize the type of partnership between different actors depending on different “request for proposals†and “expected rural spillovers†for each type of PER.

COMPETITION AMONG HOSPITALS AND ITS MEASUREMENT: THEORY AND A CASE STUDY

Our paper provides several insights on the characteristics of the concept of “Poles d’Excellence Rurale” (PER) through bilateral comparisons with that of Competitive Pole (CP) and cluster. The concept of PER is a French government’ initiative designed for the development of rural areas similar to that of the Competitive Pole. We emphasize important particularities of these concepts by analyzing some of their similarities and major differences.Pole d’Excellence Rurale, Competitive Pole, cluster, rural development

Policies insurance of property

In developed countries, insurance is a part of education, tradition and even of life, while in Romania, now, we can talk on education at the population level in this area. The extent of all risks that affect an increasing number of persons and legal entities, requires the strict necessity to increase the business of insurance. Share phenomena or events may cause material losses to impede economic activity, to endanger the life or physical integrity of people. Hazards and risks to which man is subject are generating losses and, therefore, he needs to know to shelter their effects and to act against them.risk and uncertainty, insurable risks, risks uninsured, Insurance

The Failure of Fiscal Consolidation Through “Budget Cuts”

AbstractOver the past three years, a significant part of the European Union Member States has recorded a real decline in the sustainability of their public finances. Despite previous experiences and economists’ advices, the EU leaders continued to rely on policies of budgetary cuts as the only way to reach fiscal consolidation. The sudden decrease in aggregate demand and in public investments in the mid-term has led to economic contraction, higher taxation and a diminished potential for growth in most European economies. On this background, this paper aims at showing that fiscal consolidation must not exacerbate the policies to reduce the government spending or the discretionary use of budget deficits. The paper also intends to show that financial stability requires a mix of macroeconomic policies aimed at limiting the discretionary actions of political actors in budget spending structures. By doing so, it should lead towards a sustainable management of the fiscal space over the economic cycle in order to increase the number of fiscal stimuli with the best possible effects on economic growth

Nominal convergence in post-accession Romania

This paper aims to analyze the achievement of nominal convergence criteria by the Romanian economy, as well as the macroeconomic effects caused by the strong targeting of these criteria. The global crisis caused a small contraction of governmental expenditure but a fast-growing public debt. The policies restricting budget deficit and public debt continue to produce strong theoretical debates on the right way to reach economic growth.  

Long-Run Implications of Public Debt on Economic Growth

Many European countries faced with large fiscal deficits have adopted great plans ofausterity to limit their public debt. In Romania, despite many measures to reduce public sector wagesand some social allowances, in the 2009 and 2010 has been recorded only a small contraction ofgovernmental expenditure but a fast growing public debt. However, the main effects of the austeritymeasures have materialized in a significant reduction in domestic demand and an important reductionof gross domestic product. Also, despite a substantial reduction of supply, the unemployment rate hasnot exceeded 8% in Romania. This paper aims to analyze how much the policies restricting budgetdeficit and public debt in Romania delayed the resumption of economic growth. Even the euroadoption perspective impose a stricter management of Romanian budgetary policies and othernominal convergence criteria, the hard core of economic policies must be the reinventing a new pathto sustainable growth. It is necessary to conclude a new financing agreement with IMF for the nexttwo years? We also intend to test the tolerance degree of the Romanian economy to public debtexpansion (according to Reinhart&Rogoff model, 2010) as reflected in the growth rate of real grossdomestic product

A new NBR politics related to the crediting activity

Romania will not be eschewed by the consequences of the economical recession that hit USA and arrived in the main states of the EU. In this context The National Bank of Romania has introduced a new set of monetary rules that mostly regards the banking system crediting. The first measures of the NBR (BNR) are increasing the stock of foreign currency and increasing the reference interest so that the credit institutions will be forced to make credits more expensive.The National Bank of Romania, credits, policy, the international financial crisis.