ECONOMIC GROWTH AND REGIONAL INEQUALITY IN ROMANIA

Abstract

After the collapse of communism, Romania, just like other Central and East European countries, has experienced profound social and economic mutations, reflected in all activity sectors (from the transition to a market economy and democratic freedom-based society to the decreasing number of active and working population, increasing unemployment, workforce’s growing risk of poverty, rising vulnerability of certain socio-professional groups). Starting from these findings and using an appropriate methodology to identify regional convergences and disparities, the present paper is meant to perform a statistical and territorial analysis of the economic gaps recorded at the level of the Romanian counties (NUTS 3 level) during the last two decades and a half. The conclusions converge towards the existence of an adjustment of the economic structures, both from the territorial and temporal perspective, while the issue of reducing regional gaps remains one of the main challenges of the future.

Keywords

• economic development
• regional disparities
• vulnerability
• multivariate analysis