Local Action Groups - a possible solution to the rural problem of Romania

Romania has the highest share of EU rural areas (44.9% ), which generates and maintains a long series of regional disparities. Because of these disparities, the economy faces a number of elements that undermine the quality of human and social capital and reduces the potential for growth: precarious social and economic infrastructure, reduced access to markets and thus to goods, a low level of both economic cohesion and living standards, and a difficult access to education and training. During the communist era, a forcefully reduction of the rural share was undertaken through various means, most often destructive . Even the transition to a market economy has failed to improve the situation because, in recent years, the urban-rural migration flows have surpassed the rural-urban flows making the too large rural share problem to block the structural changes needed on one hand to modernize the economy, and on the other hand for the European integration. When analyzing the use structure of work resources we observe even greater differences, especially on account of population employed in agriculture. From this perspective, the authors consider that the program impact of sustaining local action groups, LEADER+, extends beyond the horizon of the National Plan of Rural Development , tending to a medium or even long run, when the rural problem of Romania can be solved. Thus the local action groups can contribute to urban areas revitalization and development, through the promotion of economic activities in adjacent rural areas in a manner similar to Lösch's theory. The authors effectuate a diagnosis of the Romanian rural problem and its negative effects. In this framework the implementation progress of local action groups in Romania will be reviewed by testing the main factors that contributed to the organization of local action groups in certain regions of the country. Key words: local action groups, regional disparities, economic cohesion, structural changes. JEL classification: O18, R11.

A regional approach for optimization of the municipal waste management system using fuzzy sets

In the context of complexity in permanent growing of the problems and standards, the area of municipal waste management is in an accelerated evolution process. As the number of municipal waste management alternatives increase, the selection of the best waste management system- that is to decide on the combination of collection, processing and disposal techniques that will best serve the present and future needs of a community- become a more difficult task for local authorities. Consequently, mathematical modelling techniques have been introduced to waste management in order to help the decision makers from this area. This paper presents a fuzzy optimization model for the development of an integrated waste management system at the regional level. Based on the options investigated in the model the end-users will be able to select and develop investments projects at local and county level in the aim of achieving the targets of the region.municipal waste, fuzzy optimization model, regional approach

LOCAL ACTION GROUPS - THE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION CATALYST FOR THE ROMANIAN RURAL AREA

Romania has the highest share of European Union rural areas (44.9% in 2009), which generates and maintains a long series of regional disparities. Because of these disparities, the economy faces a number of elements that undermine the quality of human and social capital and reduces the potential for growth: precarious social and economic infrastructure, reduced access to markets and thus to goods, a low level of both economic cohesion and living standards, and a difficult access to education and training (leading to the underutilization of labor in rural areas, while major shortages in the labor market and increased migration phenomenon manifests).\\r\\n In these circumstances the European Union LEADER initiative is an important chance for the development and tightening of the rural - urban continuum in Romania. A fundamental element of this initiative are the local action groups. These local action groups are conceived rather as an ad hoc framework for exchanging ideas, for debate on matters of local interest, on initiatives to boost economic activities. Thus, these local partnership structures can be self-organized by very real problems and directions: to promote a brand of product made in a certain area, the image of a tourist attraction, of traditional occupations, crafts of products, etc.\\r\\n In this paper, the authors aim to highlight the difficulties of European integration for rural areas in the new Member States, considering that the LEADER initiative would be a good opportunity to accelerate this process. To emphasize this, a review of the progress in implementing the LAGs program in Central and Eastern Europe was undertake. Also, we identified the success factors of this program based on the experience of the European Union developed countries. Finally, we provide arguments in favor of local action groups as the solution to the rural problem of Romania.local action groups, regional disparities, regional development policies

Economic and Social Cohesion in the South-East of Romania

In the midst of struggling with the global economic crisis the European Union is working to maintain its integrity while applying the motto “United in diversity”. Even while turning a deaf ear to the euro-enthusiasts and the euro-sceptics one wanders just how cohesive this diverse unity is. To analyse this is to dwell into the cohesion principle that underpins the whole European construct, going beyond the models presented by politicians – a Europe of the Regions or The United States of Europe. Our aim is to identify the disparities that might exist so far as economic and social cohesion in Romania goes. Thus, continuing a previous study concerning economic and social cohesion in Romania in the year 2010, based on a methodology developed by professor Shalom H. Schwartz from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, we set out to research the cohesion elements in the Southern and Eastern regions in our country and compare the findings of the two scientific inquiries. The existence of significant disparities among the South-Eastern part of Romania and the whole country would add to the concerns expressed by the authors of the previous study regarding the low level of economic and social cohesion in our country

Regional distribution of discrimination forms in the labor market in Romania

A highly segmented labor market usually favors a mismatch between supply and demand, significantly limiting the functional flexibility and the resilience of this market to macroeconomic shocks. From this perspective, such a market hampers the transition of an EU member to the euro zone, adversely affecting the quality of integration. The causes of labor market segmentation are related to: imperfect competition between firms, information asymmetry, how workers signal on the labor market, limited mobility of workers across different sectors, etc. Labor market segmentation can be done according to several criteria: type of employment, length of employment, salary level, gender, ethnicity, age, etc. When the labor market segmentation is based on discriminatory attitudes, the propagated effects may adversely affect the economic, social and territorial cohesion status of a country. Being in the process of modernizing the labor market, of adapting the economic and social institutions to the requirements of the acquis communautaire, Romania has significant gaps to recover in relation to more developed countries in EU. Although virulent discrimination does not occur on the Romanian labor market, this phenomenon may delay the process of modernization and effective integration in the single European market. In this article, the authors analyze the main forms of discrimination at the regional level based on the following indicators: the Duncan Index at local level; rate discrimination by sex, nationality, and age; wage gap and occupational segregation by gender. They will also assess the effects of various forms of discrimination on the Romanian labor market flexibility. Keywords: discrimination; wage ; labor market. JEL classification: J01, J15, 16.

Local Action Groups - a possible solution to the rural problem of Romania

Romania has the highest share of EU rural areas (44.9% ), which generates and maintains a long series of regional disparities. Because of these disparities, the economy faces a number of elements that undermine the quality of human and social capital and reduces the potential for growth: precarious social and economic infrastructure, reduced access to markets and thus to goods, a low level of both economic cohesion and living standards, and a difficult access to education and training. During the communist era, a forcefully reduction of the rural share was undertaken through various means, most often destructive . Even the transition to a market economy has failed to improve the situation because, in recent years, the urban-rural migration flows have surpassed the rural-urban flows making the too large rural share problem to block the structural changes needed on one hand to modernize the economy, and on the other hand for the European integration. When analyzing the use structure of work resources we observe even greater differences, especially on account of population employed in agriculture. From this perspective, the authors consider that the program impact of sustaining local action groups, LEADER+, extends beyond the horizon of the National Plan of Rural Development , tending to a medium or even long run, when the rural problem of Romania can be solved. Thus the local action groups can contribute to urban areas revitalization and development, through the promotion of economic activities in adjacent rural areas in a manner similar to Lösch's theory. The authors effectuate a diagnosis of the Romanian rural problem and its negative effects. In this framework the implementation progress of local action groups in Romania will be reviewed by testing the main factors that contributed to the organization of local action groups in certain regions of the country

Regional distribution of discrimination forms in the labor market in Romania

A highly segmented labor market usually favors a mismatch between supply and demand, significantly limiting the functional flexibility and the resilience of this market to macroeconomic shocks. From this perspective, such a market hampers the transition of an EU member to the euro zone, adversely affecting the quality of integration. The causes of labor market segmentation are related to: imperfect competition between firms, information asymmetry, how workers signal on the labor market, limited mobility of workers across different sectors, etc. Labor market segmentation can be done according to several criteria: type of employment, length of employment, salary level, gender, ethnicity, age, etc. When the labor market segmentation is based on discriminatory attitudes, the propagated effects may adversely affect the economic, social and territorial cohesion status of a country. Being in the process of modernizing the labor market, of adapting the economic and social institutions to the requirements of the acquis communautaire, Romania has significant gaps to recover in relation to more developed countries in EU. Although virulent discrimination does not occur on the Romanian labor market, this phenomenon may delay the process of modernization and effective integration in the single European market. In this article, the authors analyze the main forms of discrimination at the regional level based on the following indicators: the Duncan Index at local level; rate discrimination by sex, nationality, and age; wage gap and occupational segregation by gender. They will also assess the effects of various forms of discrimination on the Romanian labor market flexibility

The impact of behavioural structure of Romanian population on economic and social cohesion.

The transition to market economy has represented both for Romania and other Central and Eastern European countries an emphasis on economic and social inequalities. The authors consider it is necessary to identify a path pass from chaotic inequalities to a state of economic and social cohesion that would allow to Romania recovery fast the gaps beside the developed E.U. countries. To identify the behavioural structure of Romanian population we designed a national survey. Once identified this structure we can determine the contribution of behavioural types to the economic and social cohesion state and we can estimate the possibilities of change in the medium-term of behavioural structure according with economic and social changes caused by the transition to a market economy. For this, we will correlate the levels of satisfaction of human needs from Maslow's Pyramid with the degrees of participation in economic and social life by means of fuzzy implication functions. Thus, we can achieve a better highlighting of the economic and social cohesion factors at national and regional level, and on this basis we can obtain a profile of national and regional cohesion state. The authors consider that the success of Romania's E.U. integration depends primarily on the behavioural profile of the population. The question arises is: E.U. integrates a "cohesive zone" or integrates behavioural types in relation to the standards of the European citizen

Labour market deficits in Romania. A regional approach

The labour market is strongly segmented, being normally characterized by the coexistence of two forms of deficits: the labour demand deficit (i.e. unemployment) and the labour offer deficit (i.e. vacancy jobs). As these deficits are obvious in the case of some different occupations or of some different regions, then they will have a weak compensation. Between 2005-2008 these deficits are increasing at Romanian regions level. The most important of them are in Public administration, and Education. On regions the most importants deficits are in Bucharest-Ilfov (the richest) and North-East (the poorest). On Occupation group the biggest deficits is for specialists with intellectual and scientific occupations. There is also a trend of increasing for labour market defficits on regional level. The most important regonal deficits are in: North-East, West and Bucharest-Ilfov. On regions the most important deficits are for Farmers and skilled workers in agriculture, forestry and fishery in Bucharest-Ilfov (gravitational effect) and South-West: specialists with intellectual and scientific occupations: West,and Bucharest-Ilfov; workers for maintenance and adjustment: North-East. There is a negative relation between the two deficits, so that the rate of unemployment tends to get decreased below the level of the natural unemployment and the rate of the vacancy will get increased during the periods when a strong economic growth is recorded; the inverse relation has been represented within the "Beveridge curve". This study is to confirm the validity of the Beveridge curve for Romania during the period between January 2004 and June 2009, using the monthly data. The estimated model has been a VAR type one, in which the two variables have been represented as first differences with 3 time lags

Bucharest metropolitan area and its external hinterland: spread or backwash effects?

Even if it has not a legal status yet, the Bucharest Metropolitan Area (BMA) project is in an advanced preparation phase, already producing effects in the real economy. Conventionally, BMA imbeds the entire Ilfov county (which surrounds it and form together the Bucharest-Ilfov region (NUTS 2)) as well as localities from other four counties of the South - Muntenia region (also NUTS 2). As Bucharest-Ilfov region appears as an enclave within South-Muntenia region, in a broader view it is considered that BMA influences all seven surrounding counties belonging to the South-Muntenia region. This region as a whole (apart from the localities of the four counties that are to be incorporated in the metropolitan area) plus Bucharest MA are viewed as the Bucharest metropolitan region, in other words the South-Muntenia region is the BMA external hinterland. In technical terms, the metropolitan area is a zone of direct city impact in which the relationships are strong and permanent (functional urban area, internal hinterland zone) whereas the metropolitan region is a zone in which the relationships are weaker, but the area is under the core city influence (macroregion, external hinterland zone). One of the main debates around BMA and metropolitan region refers to the effects of the BMA on its external hinterland, South-Muntenia region, by far less developed: are they / will they be spread or rather backwash effects? Our paper addresses this question focusing on a series of issues such as: examples of links between BMA and surrounding region, examples of positive and negative influences of the metropolis on its surrounding region, changes in regional settlement system and its drivers, changes in regional production system and main drivers, labour commuting patterns and drivers, policies with significant impact on metropolis ? region relationship, how external interventions address the needs of the metropolitan area and its external hinterland, to what extent the metropolitan area can contribute to the external hinterland regeneration, etc. The paper is the result of the research undertaken within the GRINCOH FP7 project