THE EFFICIENCY OF RESOURCE USAGE IN THE SOCIAL HEALTH INSURANCE SYSTEM

The public health expenses seem to properly mirror the development level of acountry. The purpose of this paper is to study the evolution of the public health expenses inthe world and in our country. The efficiency of the public health care activity is furtherappreciated through a series of indicators.social health insurance, the national unique social health insurance fund, public healthexpenses

Outward FDI and the Investment Development Path in Romania

Our study characterizes the outward FDI phenomenon in Romania in the light of Dunning’s Investment Development Path theory, based on the relationship between a country’s development level and its net international investment position, that has previously been applied to most CEE countries except for ours. A series of indicators are used, concluding that, nowadays, Romania is situated in the second stage of IDP. More, we found that the IDP paradigm is generally applicable to Romania; the specific feature consists in bigger growth rates of FDI inflows than of GDP in the first stages of IDP. Some policy implications are drawn.multinationals, outward FDI; international investment position; IDP theory; descriptive analyses

ESTIMATING TECHNICAL PROGRESS IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE. WHAT ROLE FOR FDI?

Technical progress is a key factor in economic growth, mainly due to its productivity enhancement. It is a fact that most innovation and new technologies are created in developed countries. International trade and FDI are the main channels for technology transfer. Our objective is to determine the role of FDI in technical progress. In this paper, we start with two questions: is there evidence of significant contribution of technical progress to economic growth? And if there is, what is the role of FDI in technical progress? Using a production function approach, we estimate the TFP and we regress it on the stock of FDI, in a panel framework. We find evidence of positive correlation.technical progress, Solow residual, FDI

ECONOMETRIC MODELING OF ROMANIA’S PUBLIC HEALTHCARE EXPENSES – COUNTY PANEL STUDY

The purpose of our paper is to analyze the per capita public healthcare expenditure ofRomania in relation to different exogenous explanatory variables, through a panel study upon theforty one regions plus the capital city. The results of the four year panel study have been interpretedand commented. Our regional public healthcare expenditure is explicated to a great extent by theregional GDP. Other strong correlation variables were not found statistically significant.public healthcare expenditure, panel data, correlation, fixed effects model.

THE ROMANIAN INSURANCE MARKET AND THE POTENTIAL EFFECTS OF THE CRISIS UPON IT

The global financial and economic crisis is felt in almost all the companies that operate on the European financial and insurance markets. The European insurance and re-insurance industry would register a significant decrease of the investments and a redulife insurance market, non-life insurances, financial-economic crisis

THE IMPACT OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS ON CREDIT INSURANCE

The insurance domain is one of the most complex and extensive areas of the market. However this field is very risk exposed especially in this period of economic instability. One of the most non-performant insurance products at this time is the credit insurance. Due to inability to pay and increasing bad loans, insurance companies have decided to remove these products from their portfolio. We believe that the signs that led to this situation have been very visible for a long time, but the insurance market players refused to give too much importance to them because they based their operations on the artificial strength of the whole system. In this paper we want to show how things have evolved on the credit insurance market as compared to the general insurance market, and if the present situation could have been anticipated and avoided.crisis, inflation, hazard, credits, performance, panel data

ASPECTS REGARDING THE COUTRY RISK AND ITS RATING

Is Romania affected by the country risk? Country risk, especially the score given by the rating companies is meant to lead to economic growth or recession. Is it possible for only one grade to have that much impact upon the economy? The truth is that suchcountry risk, country rating, business environment rating

Opportunities and constraints in financing SMEs

The enterprise is the most important component of the economy and of the society as well. The paper studies the weights of SME sector in different countries, focusing on topical operational issues for financing SMEs. In Romania, these are mainly shareholders’ credits; own resources, loans, European Union or EBRD funds, etc. Some analysts consider that the growth of SMEs is impeded by an insufficient supply of capital. In Romania as in other states, the public authorities have interceded to fill this equity gap by increasing the supply of funds. Furthermore, managerial opinions concerning the obstacles faced by their firms reveal some potential growth factors for SMEs: the size of loans, the amount of reinvested profit, well-educated human resources and technical assistance, all critical to the success of SME’s in exploiting, indeed surviving, the rapid globalization of markets.peer-reviewe