Agricultural Land Fragmentation and Land Consolidation Rationality

Adopted about one year after the 1989 Revolution, Land Law (Law 18/1991) represented the starting point of land reform in Romania. As a result of this law implementation, at the beginning of the year 2000 the private sector owned 84% of total agricultural land: 82% of arable land, 74% of land under vineyards, 67% of land under orchards and 87% of land under meadows and pastures. Besides the benefic social and economic effects, the mutations produced represent a distortion source in the rural area, determining the following, among others: a) crisis of ownership relations - a main aspect of this being the confusion concerning the ownership rights. The prolongation of clearing up these rights represents a major obstacle to a good operation of land market, to agricultural land consolidation implicitly; b) managerial crisis, manifested by the lack of competitive behaviour, which gives an increased importance to the production function, to the detriment of commercial function; this results in the increased share of small-sized subsistence farms (households), lack of strategic orientations, etc; c) land market crisis - occurred in the context of the lack of legal and institutional framework concerning the land market operation (credits in advantageous conditions for buying land through the banking system or by establishing specialised banks, solving up the problems in connection to using land as collateral for obtaining credits, mortgage credit stimulation); d) crisis of agricultural economic efficiency - mainly generated by land property excessive fragmentation, large area (about 55%) owned by old persons or by persons not having their domicile in the rural area, lack of main production factors combination, limited circulation of land capital, lack of an adequate legal and institutional framework, etc. An analysis of the concrete, social and economic situation of land fragmentation and of agricultural land consolidation opportunity was conducted in the commune Balaciu; this commune is located in the plain area, with a population of 3540 inhabitants and a total area of 8462 ha. In order to identify the rural social actors which can favour land consolidation by their structure, behaviour and functionality, the following typology of rural households has been used as methodology: agricultural households (consisting of persons working only in agriculture); pluriactive households (consisting of persons involved in both agricultural and non-agricultural activities); non-active households (consisting of non-active persons); non-agricultural households (only persons working in other non-agricultural activities). The survey revealed that the main entities which can become the social actors of rural/agricultural modernisation, of land consolidation implicitly are the pluriactive and non-agricultural households. In order to consolidate the agricultural land, there is an obvious and imperative need to conceive a well articulated and coherent framework of support measures, understood and treated as a complex of economic, social, legal and technical measures, aiming at rural community development.Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,

Agricultural Policy Influence Upon the Economic Behaviour of Rural Households

The deep transformations brought about by the progressive and steady commitment of Romanian economy to the market economy have determined, among others, the modification of the role and status of rural household in the economic activity. Rural household changed from a simple participant, constrained to act in a certain way under a centralised, equalising and levelling system during the communist period, to a participant that carries out its activity in a competing environment in which initiative, creativity and efficiency are defining elements. Based on field surveys conducted at national level, the present paper intends to identify the evolution of economic behaviours specific to rural households under the influence of agricultural policy measures in the period 1997-2000. The conclusions of this study reveal that in this period, most of rural households operated under a subsistence system, according to an economic rationality in which market economy mechanism are lacking. However, the economic picture is far from being a homogeneous one: the emergence of a nucleus of agricultural entrepreneurs, i.e. those who assume the risk of shifting from subsistence to competitive agriculture, those who are trying to turn the peasant household into a farm managed on the capitalist principles, has induced new economic behaviours in the rural communities.rural household, economic behaviour, agricultural policy, Romania, Consumer/Household Economics,

The global financial crisis and its implications on the convergence of Romania with the economic and monetary union

The international financial crisis has affected the new member States of the European Union as well, for which the convergence criteria represent the economic test of evaluation of a degree of economic preparation, in order to participate in the third stage of the Economic and Monetary Union. This paper analyses the main evolutions recorded by Romania under the conditions of the global financial crisis, regarding the stability of the prices, the long term interests, the budget deficit, the level of the public debt in the Gross Domestic Product, the stability of the change and the degree of the preparation of the National Central Bank for the adherence to the Eurosystem. We are trying to identify a series of challenges and risks which are brought by the international financial crisis during the chosen period by the Romanian authorities for the adoption of the unique European currency, respectively 2014-2015.institutional convergence, the real convergence, the nominal convergence, the convergence criteria

Entrepreneurial Developments and Challenges in the Sud Muntenia Region of Romania

Entrepreneurship is crucial for the economic development of a region. Using entropy, cluster and shift-share analysis techniques, the authors present a detailed picture of the entrepreneurial milieu of the Sud Muntenia region of Romania, pointing both towards the presence of an overall development process, and also to inter-county and intra-county sectoral imbalances, evolutionary discrepancies and lack of adequate use of territorial resources. Policy recommendations are proposed to address the future challenges for the balanced development of the Sud Muntenia region of Romania. Keywords: entrepreneurship, territorial development, regional business demography, sectoral structure, regional policy JEL Classification: O18, R11, R12, R30

ACCOUNTANTS ABOUT ACCOUNTING POLICIES. AN EMIPRICAL INVESTIGATION OF SMES FROM BIHOR COUNTY

This paper examines the setting up of accounting procedures and policies in sampled SMEs from Bihor, county selected after criteria of size at the end of 2008. In order to conduct our research we have set up a questionnaire of 25 questions which has been applied to 100 SMEs. The obtained results showed that out of the 83 respondents, only 92,68% agree with the provisions of Article 10 of Order 3055/2009, according to which entities must develop their own accounting policies approved by the managers, only 75,60% of the respondents agree that the existence of written accounting policies at the enterprise level improves the quality of financial reporting and managers’ decision making process and a significant number of respondents (21,95%) do not know the fact that during a financial year, a firm’s accounting policies cannot be changed. The most relevant result of our investigative research consist in identifying the need to train the human resources involved in the process of writing and applying accounting policies and procedures in SMEs and the necessity to set up a manual of accounting department.accounting policies, financial reporting, disclosure, SMEs

The impact of poverty on mental health and well-being and the necessity for integrated social policies in Romania

On almost every account people with mental health problems are among the most excluded groups in society and they consistently identify stigmatisation, discrimination and exclusion as major barriers to health, welfare and quality of life. The links between poverty and ill health are well known. Poverty and illness together make people much more vulnerable and needy at all stages of their lives, and even more so in old age. Mental health is often both a cause and a consequence of poverty, compromised education, vulnerability, difficulty accessing housing, health care and employment, and lack of access to welfare, social security, and community public services. Inequalities between social classes in the incidence of chronic illness and mental illness and in life expectancy are also well documented. The working class poor with health problems are a particularly vulnerable group. Moreover people with mental health problems are more likely to experience physical health problems, which can further compromise the efforts of the individual in an already disadvantaged situation. When the experience of mental illness is the cause or a factor in the experience of exclusion, the effects can be still more damaging. This mutual interaction linking mental health and development can work positively with good mental health facilitating the active and successful involvement of individuals and communities in development, and negatively with poor mental health increasing the risk of descending into a vicious cycle of poverty and adverse social and health outcomes. Designing social policies and interventions - both within and outside the health sector - which strengthen social inclusion, represent a key action recommended by the European Pact for Mental Health and Wellbeing. This paper explores the situation of persons affected by severe mental illness on regional level in Romania. The need for policy development and improvement strategies are also highlighted.