Evolution of Regional Disparities in Romania – A Shift-share Analysis

The paper aims to assess the evolution of the development disparities (output, employment, overall and by sectors) in the regions and counties of Romania. Using classic and spatial shift-share analysis tools, we investigate the extent to which the existing interregional and, especially, intra-regional and inter-county inequalities can be attributed to different factors, such as industry mix, regional specific factors, and interregional interactions. The results reveal a diverse milieu and offer useful insights both for general and specifically targeted policies in the area of regional development. Keywords: Romanian regions, regional disparities, shift-share analysis, regional development JEL Classification: O18, R11, R12, R15

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

ROMANIAN FOREIGN TRADE WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION-DINAMICS AND TRENDS

The paper presents briefly the evolutions in world trade and Romanian foreign trade, especially with the EU. A significant increase in exports, but also in imports was recorded over the interval 2000-2011, accompanied by major structural changes: decline in the shares of low value added and labor intensive products and advance of the more technologically advanced products. However, Romania's trade balance with the EU and most countries in this region remained negative, similar to other new Member States, which generally import more from than export to the EU. Years 2009-2011 marked a sharp drop and a relative stabilization of the trade deficit with the EU, due to significant reduction in exports, but especially in imports, and to the adjustments induced by the crisis after 2008

Some Perpetually Old and New Development Issues in the EU Regions: Competitiveness, Resilience, and Convergence: Where Do the New Member States Stand?

Competitiveness, resilience, and convergence were topics that for decades were listed among the hot issues that have animated the scientific and political debates in the area of economic growth and economic development. For the new member states (NMS) of the European Union, which have accessed the Union since 2004, competitiveness and cohesion became from the first days of their EU membership key topics on their national policy agendas, both as directives of the EU policies to be transposed and implemented nationally and as genuine domestic concerns to be addressed by each of the NMS, while resilience revealed its importance a little bit later, on the occasion of the global economic crisis of 2008–2010 and subsequent recession. Considering their importance for the current and future socioeconomic development of the new member states, the authors present and briefly analyze the topics of competitiveness, resilience, and cohesion in a joint framework, at regional level, based on their common roots within the economic growth and development theories, with the help of a minimal, but powerful, set of relevant indicators, over three significant recent periods: ante-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis. The findings point toward both different and similar competitiveness, resilience, and convergence developments within the new member states and across countries, regions, and periods, also revealing growth and adaptation patterns similar to those found in the more developed regions and countries of the EU, especially in the wake of the global economic crisis

European Performances regarding Flexicurity in the New Member States and Their Regions

In 2005, the revised Lisbon Strategy decided upon an integrated program of policy reforms envisaging the labor market in the context of globalization, demographic changes and fast technological progress, transposed into integrated guidelines. Such reforms aimed at increasing the employment rates, at improving work quality and labor productivity and social and territorial cohesion; in other words, at updating and upgrading the European labor markets. In order to reach such aims, the flexicurity concept was considered and employed as a key strategic framework. Flexicurity itself may be defined as an integrated strategy aiming to improve both the labor market flexibility and job security, implying successful switching between educational system and labor market, between jobs, between unemployment and inactivity and employment, and between job and retirement. We propose a possible assessment of the performances of the flexicurity policies by using certain composite indicators that allow for a multidimensional appraisal of flexicurity in the EU countries, providing also elements for comparison between the EU countries and regions (especially the New Member States and their regions).labor market, flexicurity, composite indices, New Member Stateslabor market, flexicurity, composite indices, New Member States

THE ECONOMIC STRUCTURES IN THE ROMANIAN REGIONS AND COUNTIES AND THE EU MEMBER STATES. COMPARATIVE ANALYSES.

Bridging the gap between countries, and thus decresing poverty, is the greatest challenge of European countries in the context of the European social cohesion. The risk of future economic difficulties caused by the size of budget deficits is beared by the funds to be allocated to social inclusion in the EU and the EU member countries. They will be concerned in the post-crisis period with aligning the requirements of progress, of poverty reduction, but also of ensuring the sustainability of public finances. For Romania, cohesion is particularly important as most regions show significant differences as compared to the EU average and the national average. This group also includes the South Muntenia Region, which has many advantages for faster progress and to be able to exploit the opportunities offered by the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy

Elemente de definire şi măsurare a competitivităţii regionale. Cazul României

The approach of regional competitiveness starts from the presentation of general notions and concepts in order to identify and correctly capture the specific features of regional competitiveness and its determinants.�competitiveness, regional competitiveness, territorial dimension, system of indicators, GDP per capita

CHANGES IN THE FOREIGN TRADE OF ROMANIAN REGIONS – A SHIFT-SHARE ANALYSIS

The paper aims to assess the evolution of exports (overall and by sectors) in the regions of Romania. Considering the fact that the export base of a region acts more as an absolute advantage for the regional development, we use shift-share analysis tools to investigate the extent of the interregional trends and disparities in exports. The results reveal a diverse sectoral milieu and a trend towards higher diversification, better use of regional resources and technological upgrading, also providing useful insights for the general and specifically-targeted policy areas concerning regional development and business environment

DETERMINANTS OF REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS IN ROMANIA - A PANEL DATA APPROACH

In this study, a few panel data models were estimated to analyze the regional competitiveness in the 42 counties (including Bucharest) of Romania. The dynamic panel with Arellano "Bover/Blundell" Bond estimators and robust standard errors showed that during 2000-2012 the GDP in the current period depends on the average number of employees and on the GDP value of the previous period. For a fixed effect model, 34.41% (Rho) of the total variation is due to the differences within the counties. The Moran's I index in 2000 is negative and close to zero (0.035) suggesting a negative but non-significant spatial autocorrelation. In 2012, the Moran I's suggests a positive and non-significant spatial auto-correlation

Green Transition and the Business Sector in the European Union and Romania

Increasingly obvious over the last two decades, human society and the economies of all the countries in the world faced and continue to face increasingly accelerated, amplified, diverse and divergent economic, social, political and technological trends and developments, among which three so-called megatrends stand out for intensity and persistence: digitization and automation of production, greening of economies and global economic power shifts. Considering such issues, the paper focuses on a brief analysis of how the green transition affects the business sector (enterprises) in the EU countries, with a focus on Romania - an EU member state that registers a relatively low level of penetration of the circular economy. Indicators of the green economy and eco-innovation and referring to the economic dimension of the circular economy, were used for the analysis. The results show that the EU27 economies generally are leaders in most of the aspects concerning the greening of economies and their business sectors, but Romania reveal certain relative delays of the local business sector in moving towards production and business development methods characteristic of the ecological economy