COMPETITIVENESS THROUGH KNOWLEDGE – ASSESSMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES BASED ON THE KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY (KAM) DEVELOPED BY THE WORLD BANK

The present study attempts to make a diagnosis of the progress of European Union member states in the transition towards the knowledge economy. We used the World Bank KAM Methodology developed in the programme Knowledge for Development and the database available on the web page of the World Bank. KAM Methodology was described and the European progress towards the knowledge economy was assessed according to this methodology, with the focus on the Romanian situation, from a comparative perspective.knowledge economy; competitiveness through knowledge

Education and Wage Inequalities under a Counterfactual Scenario of Minimum Wage

The main purpose of this paper consists in quantifying the impact of a minimum wage adjustment upon wage inequality in Romania. In general, rigorous minimum wage impact assessment upon wage distribution is quite difficult to be conducted mainly because of data access limitations to longitudinal information available at individuals’ level. In this paper an innovative approach is proposed for building a counterfactual scenario through the use of quarterly survey micro-data provided by the National Institute of Statistics. The period analysed in this paper regards the time-interval Q2 2014-Q3 2014. There are several reasons for this choice. First, there were data availability restrictions and second, it was necessary to identify two consecutive periods corresponding to a window-frame right before a minimum wage adjustment and immediately after it took place. In order to check the impact on gender wage inequalities, a 1:1 matching procedure was applied in order to build two distinct gender groups of individuals that are similar in observable characteristics. Both socio-demographic and economic factors are considered. When comparing the changes registered right after the minimum wage adjustment, we noticed a reduction in gender wage inequalities, as males’ chances to earn more in comparison to females drop

Development of the green economy and increase of its impact on employment

The world economic recession caused the loss of jobs for 34 million people between the years 2008 and 2009, thus finding viable alternatives for job creation is a global priority. In this context, our work’s objective is to study the effects of green economy development on job creation at global level for the next decades. Based on a detailed documentary analysis, our paper will analyze the estimations regarding the number of jobs that will be created in one sector of the green economy, namely the renewable energy sector. Data prove that the renewable energy sector has a remarkable potential for job creation, the estimations showing that by carrying out smart policies for its support, massive investments would immediately follow and the number of jobs created in renewable energy sector could double in the next ten years and even triple in the next twenty years. 

The profile of Romanian consumer and how the economic crisis impacts the consumer mentality

The paper deals with the Romanian consumer’s profile, analyzed in terms of household expenditure structure, by main destinations for food,      non-food, services and taxes components, and household’s consumption, in terms of size and structure of food consumption.Synthetic images of quantitative parameters were made using national and international statistical data, between 1991 and 2009. We took into account the total expenditure of households, total consumption expenditure, the structure of monetary consumption expenditure, the average consumption of main food products, in structure and dynamics.Diagnostic analyses were performed by multi-annual approach of these indicators, important warning signals in the evolution of the household consumption. The multi-country and multi-annual benchmarking contributes to the highlighting of the national consumer profile, compared to those of the other 30-40 countries. These issues underline the extent of the economic crisis seen by the national households like an influence in shaping the consumer’s mentality

Competitiveness through knowledge – assessment of the European Union member states based on the knowledge assessment methodology (KAM) developed by the World Bank

AbstractThe present study attempts to make a diagnosis of the progress of European Union member states in the transition towards the knowledge economy. We used the World Bank KAM Methodology developed in the programme Knowledge for Development and the database available on the web page of the World Bank. KAM Methodology was described and the European progress towards the knowledge economy was assessed according to this methodology, with the focus on the Romanian situation, from a comparative perspective. 

Public Opinion on European Health Policy, Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Often, global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, bring to light crucial weaknesses in political, economic, social and health systems. First, there are governments who formulate and implement policies and, second, there are the citizens who support them, thus contributing a great deal to their success. Our paper investigates the European citizens' opinion on health policy, focusing on their preference for European health policy during the coronavirus pandemic. The paper uses bibliometric analysis, descriptive statistics, and logistic regression to discuss the public opinion on health policy, the factors of influence, the change in perspectives between 2020 and 2021, and the socio-demographic profile of those favorable for the development of a European health policy in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Our findings show that citizens from southern and central European countries are more likely to prioritize the development of a European health policy, as compared to Nordic countries. Between 2020 and 2021, pro-European health policy citizens profile changes and becomes clearer, from pensioners to young working age males with medium education. In general, people prioritizing a European health policy value health as the most important issue at a national level are generally satisfied with the European Union and do not trust their national government

Education and Wage Inequalities under a Counterfactual Scenario of Minimum Wage

The main purpose of this paper consists in quantifying the impact of a minimum wage adjustment upon wage inequality in Romania. In general, rigorous minimum wage impact assessment upon wage distribution is quite difficult to conduct mainly because of data access limitations to longitudinal information available at individuals‘ level. In this paper an innovative approach is proposed for building a counterfactual scenario through the use of quarterly survey micro-data provided by the National Institute of Statistics. The period analysed in this paper regards the timeinterval Q2 2014-Q3 2014. There are several reasons for this choice. First, it concerns data availability restrictions and second, the need to identify two consecutive periods corresponding to a window-frame right before a minimum wage adjustment and immediately after it took place. In order to check the impact on gender wage inequalities, a 1:1 matching procedure was applied for the construction of two distinct gender groups of individuals that were similar in observable characteristics. Both socio-demographic and economic factors are considered. When comparing the changes registered right after the minimum wage adjustment, we noticed a reduction in gender wage inequalities, as males‘ chances to earn more in comparison to females drop

Analysis of the effects of social and fiscal policy on incomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania

The increase in income inequalities from one period to another for certain vulnerable groups are realities faced by most countries of the world, and these aspects have been accentuated by the effects of the measures imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These situations first oblige governments to take concentrated and integrated actions in order to improve the effects of these phenomena on people’s well-being and social inequalities. The main mechanism by which the state ensures a more equitable distribution of income is the system of social benefits, along with the system of direct and indirect taxation. In this study, we evaluated the capacity of the social benefits system, respectively of the direct and indirect taxation systems, to contribute to the reduction of inequalities and the increase of the population’s well-being in Romania. For this purpose, income microsimulation techniques were applied on microdata from the Household Budget Survey for Romania and indicators to evaluate income redistribution and progressivity of the tax-benefit system were calculated. The results were discussed for detailed tax and benefit instruments and compared in the light of progressivity and effectiveness in inequality reduction. Following the analysis, no significant changes in the estimated redistributive effects were observed in 2020 compared to previous years, although the year 2020 was affected by the COVID-19 crisis

Interactions Between Policy Effects, Population Characteristics and the Tax-Benefit System: An Illustration Using Child Poverty and Child Related Policies in Romania and the Czech Republic

We investigate the impact of the Romanian and Czech family policy systems on the poverty risk of families with children. We focus on separating out the effects of policy design itself and size of benefits from the interaction between policies and population characteristics. We find that interactions between population characteristics, the wider tax benefit system and child related policies are pervasive and large. Both population characteristics and the wider tax-benefit environment can dramatically alter the antipoverty effect of a given set of policies