POSSIBILITIES FOR IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF PUBLIC SPENDING IN ROMANIA

The economical efficiency of public expenditure is a current issue, especially in economic and financial Romanian context. At the State’s level in Romania, the reform of public spending that focuses primarily on supporting the economical convergence and improving the capacity to absorb EU funds, through restructuring budgetary expenditures, has started. I have identified in this paper four measures which may contribute to the improvement of the public spending efficiency. These measures regard decentralization, public acquisitions, the state control function, the budgeting procedure.efficiency, public sector, decentralization, program based budget, performance based budget

Green goods: are they good or bad news for the environment? Evidence from a laboratory experiment on impure public goods

An impure public good is a commodity that combines public and private characteristics in fixed proportions. Green goods such as dolphin-friendly tuna or green electricity programs provide increasings popular examples of impure goods. We design an experiment to test how the presence of impure public goods affects pro-social behaviour. We set parameters, such that from a theoretical point of view the presence of the impure public good is behaviorally irrelevant. In a baseline setting, where the impure public good provides only small contributions to the public good. We observe that on aggregate pro-social behaviour, defined as total contributions to the public good, is lower in the presence of the impure good. Some individuals do not alter their decisions, but roughly two fifths of subjects make a lower contribution to the public good in the presence of the impure public good. On the contrary, in the case where the impure public good favours the public good component at the expense of private earnings, individuals are unaffected in their behaviour. We conclude that the presence of green goods which have only a small environmental component may reduce pro-environmental behaviour.green goods; impure public goods; pro-social behaviour; social norms; experimental economics

Green goods: are they good or bad news for the environment? Evidence from a laboratory experiment on impure public goods

An impure public good is a commodity that combines public and private characteristics in fixed proportions. Green goods such as dolphin-friendly tuna or green electricity programmes provide increasingly popular examples of impure public goods. We design an experiment to test how the presence of impure public goods affects pro-social behaviour. We set parameters, such that from a theoretical point of view the presence of the impure public good is behaviourally irrelevant. In a baseline setting, where the impure public good provides only small contributions to the public good, we observe that on aggregate pro-social behaviour, defined as total contributions to the public good, is lower in the presence of the impure good. Some individuals do not alter their decisions, but roughly two fifths of subjects make a lower contribution to the public good in the presence of the impure public good. On the contrary, in the case where the impure public good favours the public good component at the expense of private earnings, individuals are unaffected in their behaviour. We conclude that the presence of green goods which have only a small environmental component may reduce pro-environmental behaviour.green goods, impure public goods, pro-social behaviour, social norms, experimental economics

CORRELATION BETWEEN THE PUBLIC SECTOR’S PERFORMANCE AND THE SOVEREIGN DEBT, IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CRISIS

The current economical situation determined by the effects of the crisis is causing the governments of the countries worldwide to streamline their processes in terms of collecting revenue from the state budget and then redistributing them on the principle of performance and economical efficiency. In this respect, we have studied the public sector performance through a scoring function, and especially the correlation that exists between the EU Member States public sector performance and budgetary outcome, the budgetary surplus or deficit.public expenditure, efficiency, input, output, outcomes

THE ECONOMIC GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT AND THE NATURAL ENVIROMENT

The problems of the environment are complex and closely related to a country’s social-economic status, to its progress in general. The economic growth must not deteriorate the environment; in fact it has to guarantee a constant protection correlated with the improvement of the life quality. The contradiction between the economic growth and the natural environment has suffered transformations during time, the adaptation of the economic growth to the natural resources’ volume and quality at a certain moment becoming a necessity as well as the rational utilization of both natural resources and environmental conditions. We do not have to stop the economic growth and development in order to prevent or eliminate pollution; we have, in fact, to obviate the causes that make the economic growth and development to be accompanied by pollution.economic growth, economic development, sustainable development

Análise SWOT global da exploração dos suínos da raça Bísara

A procura mundial de produtos de origem animal aumentará cerca de 70% em 2050. Estima-se que mil milhões de pobres dependam dos animais para a sua alimentação e criação de riqueza (FAO, 2014). A raça Bísara, são suínos autóctones portugueses do tronco Celta em risco de extinção. Apesar do seu reduzido efetivo representa para as populações locais um elevado peso económico e social. Este trabalho tem como objetivo, fazer uma caracterização atual da suinicultura, com base nos suínos da raça Bísara, enumerar alguns pontos fortes, pontos fracos, oportunidades, constrangimentos e elaborar algumas propostas de ação de melhoria. Para o efeito utilizamos a bibliografia publicada. Concluímos que a suinicultura com base nos suínos da raça Bísara tem como: • Pontos fortes: o reconhecimento por parte dos consumidores da qualidade da sua carne e seus produtos; • Pontos fracos: a concorrência desleal dos seus produtos, controlo de doenças e idade avançada dos seus criadores; • Constrangimentos: êxodo rural, poucas explorações, pequena dimensão da exploração e cumprimentos de regulamentos rigorosos sobre o bem- -estar animal e meio ambiente. • Oportunidades: apoio do estado Português e comunitários para a manutenção de sistemas agrícolas extensivos; a criação de empresas de produção, indústrias de salsicharia e a existência de vários produtos com certificações DOP e IGP. Algumas das propostas ação de melhoria deverão basear-se na implementação de um programa de melhoramento da raça, aumento dos efetivos e implementação de novas técnicas de comercialização e marketing dos seus produtos.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE ROLES OF INSTITUTIONS

The internationally accepted definition of sustainable development is referring at the obtaining the satisfaction the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development is a means tglobalization, crisis, development, institutions.

Nutrition and production systems of the "Bísaro" pig in the north-east region of Portugal

The main objective of this paper is to add to the store of knowledge about the alimentation and production systems of the “Bísaro” race of pig in the North-east Transmontano region of Portugal. The statistical sample taken covered 30% of the pig breeders of the Bísaro race: a total of 169 animals, divided up into the following categories: 22 boars, 41 pregnant sows, one sow in lactation, 19 pigs for fattening, 44 weaned piglets and 42 suckling piglets. This study was undertaken during the months from January to May of 1997. After the conclusion of this study we discovered that the average number of breeding sows per pig breeder is 2.7 and the average number of boars is 1.4, giving a perspective of growth in effective reproduction in 67% of the pig breeders. We found that 40% of the pig production is for the purpose of consumption by the breeder, 20% is sold as live animals, 5% is for sale as whole carcass and the other 35% of the production goes into the making of the typical smoked sausage of the region, for later sale. With regard to the reproductive aspects we found that the age with which the boar begins its breeding function is located between 7 and 8 months old for 74% of the pig breeders and that the boar is slaughtered from 1 year old up to 1.5 years old for 48% of the breeders, at 2 years old for 30% of the breeders and for the other 22% at 2.5 years old. The females are covered for the first time between 6 and 8 months of age in 95% of cases and are slaughtered either with the age of 1 to 1.5 years old (in 47% of the cases studied) or between 2 and 2.5 years old (the other cases). We found that 28% of the breeders get one litter per year, 64% two litters per year and 8% three litters in two years. The average number of piglets born per litter was as follows: less than 10 for 30% of the population, 10 for 26% of the population and more than 10 for 44% of the population. The weaning age varied between 30 and 75 days, the majority being weaned at 60 days (52% of the population). As far as the housing of the pigs is concerned, we found that all the animals are kept in a system of permanent stabling. There are two kinds of habitation: the traditional “stalls” found under the house of the farmer (13%) or “stalls” built as an annex to the house (60%) and secondly, modern pigsties which comply with current legislation (27%). The first two have poor ventilation, little light and beds of straw or vegetation. The more recent pigsties are to be found far from the villages, have cement floors, good lighting, good ventilation and allow for good hygiene in the installations for the animals. The alimentation of the pigs is very varied, depending on the season of the year. Their diet may contain the following: grain and flour of corn, wheat, rye and oats, potatoes, chestnuts, pumpkin, cabbages, beetroot, turnips, leftovers from meals and by-products of the kitchen such as potato, fruit and vegetable peels