Institutul National de Cercetari Economice "Costin C. Kiritescu"

Implementing public policies linked to sustainable development is a global challenge for most countries that focused their efforts on identifying and improving the factors that led to environment degradation. The current paper analyzes the influence of primary indicators of public finances (public debt and budget deficit) on renewable-energy consumption (REN), for the emerging economies within the European Union. The main objective of this research is to understand the implications of fiscal measures on the sustainable development of a country and thus provide directions for stimulating renewable-energy consumption. The research starts with cross-sectional dependence analysis by using the Breusch–Pagan Lagrange multiplier (LM) test that is followed by cointegration relationships among variables by applying two appropriate panel-cointegration tests (Pedroni and Johansen). The research methodology is based on the fully modified ordinary-least-squares (FMOLS) method in order to test the long-run relationships, and on the pairwise Granger causality test in order to identify the direction of causality among variables. Results show unilateral influences from public debt and budget deficit on the analyzed variables, especially on renewable-energy consumption, and a bidirectional causality relationship between budget deficit and trade openness.

Generation Z spends much time on mobile Internet and less time accessing Internet services using desktop computers. These traits make them an important niche that can be targeted by retailers. The objective of the present study is to analyze the impact of online advertising, social influence, and usage motivation on the behavioral intention related to m-commerce use among Romanian young adults. The research methodology is based on applying partial least square equation modelling (PLS-SEM), using data collected through a questionnaire. The proposed structural model includes four constructs that are first order reflective. The results reveal that among the influencing factors that determine Generation Z to use m-commerce, the usage motivation factor is the most important one, followed by social influence and online advertising. The research is useful for marketing professionals and retailers in establishing marketing strategies in accordance with the factors that influence the buying decision of young adults, representing Generation Z.

Grassland habitat degradation intensified in the last century worldwide and in Europe. In Romania, substantial areas of biodiverse grassland habitats that persisted due to small-scale farming are now threatened by recent land-use intensification. However, data regarding the deviation from grazing optimum, essential for management plans encompassing both socioeconomic sustainability and environment conservation, are not yet available. To fill this gap, detailed statistics of the stocking rate and its deviation from optimum were generated by spatial modeling techniques. A toolbox was developed to assess such deviations inside or outside the Natura 2000 Network of protected areas. The analysis covered an area of 33529.42 km2, corresponding to all the Romanian permanent grasslands within the land parcel identification system. The results indicate that over half of this area is degraded, mostly from overgrazing. Less than 10% is not impacted by inadequate livestock density. Of the national grassland area, 17.34% is included within the Natura 2000 protected sites, indicating the substantial overlapping of agricultural and protection activities. For this category, the degraded area is slightly lower than at the national level (50.34% vs. 52.45%). These results can be applied for environmental conflict anticipation and optimal management of grassland habitats to achieve both socioeconomic and conservation objectives.

In the long evolutionary course of human civilisation, the past two centuries have been characterised by the theory of industrialisation. After 1990, a new reality gave birth to the opposite term: deindustrialisation. The primordial foundation underlying the development of industry in the 20th century, and particularly in its mid-third, was the manufacturing of metal, and especially steel. Following the two shock-waves in 1973 and 1978, when rocketing prices shook the oil industry, the production of steel reversed its trend in the majority of the developed countries, and mostly in the European Union member states, where, after 1990, steel production had a much lower, or, sometimes, a negative, rate of growth. This was paralleled by a growing volume of the trade in scrap iron. Encouraged by the generous principle of free circulation of products, such a trade seems, however, to be in contradiction with the principles of sustainable development, reduction of carbon emissions, and energy saving, promoted by the EU.

Abstract The development of ICT usage in households, by individuals or in enterprises is submitted to the requirements of security. This paper aims a statistical analysis of ICT security aspects from several perspectives: ICT policies, staff awareness of ICT security related issues, ICT security related activities. The methodology used for testing the hypotheses is based on descriptive statistics, chart case study, correlation and factor analysis. The results emphasize the importance of investing resources in cyber security, moreover, in the current pandemic situation generated by COVID-19.

The aim of the present study is to find solutions for better management of online education, starting from students’ perspectives regarding the challenges they encountered in the last two years when online courses were imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research methodology we used was partial least squares structural equation modelling based on data collected by applying a survey among students in Romanian universities. The novelty of our study consists in the proposed model, which has five variables: communication problems specific to online education, professors’ skill in conducting online classes, the quality of online education, the stress felt by students during online education, and the technical requirements of online education. The results revealed that despite challenges during online classes students benefited from a high-quality education because they had the support of their professors, all the educational resources that they needed, a device to connect from, and a very good internet connection. These findings are helpful for managers in the higher education system to create better educational strategies meant to satisfy the educational needs of students in the digital age.

Along with the emergence of globalisation, cities, in particular, have been confronted with two vital problems that can be approached only in interdependence: How to reduce, even prevent, social and spatial disparities as well as the related societal and spatial fragmentation? How to stabilize or to ensure local economic growth, international and interregional competitiveness as well as the labour market insertion? Confronted with these challenges, the traditional sectoral approaches prove to be onerous and ineffective and, consequently, new forms of governance acquire importance. Among them, integrated urban governance − a new concept − implies a change in the administrative situation and the way of thinking of decision-makers in formulating and implementing territorial development policies. Integrated urban governance, having both a vertical dimension and a horizontal dimension beyond the administrative borders of the cities, requires that the identification of the actors should be based on these dimensions. And the solution is not to plan and to implement projects involving possible stakeholders. It requires selecting and analysing the actors who could provide a real support. As integrated urban governance is, in fact, a managerial approach to interdisciplinary problems during the formulation of policies beyond the limits of the established political areas.

To mitigate the negative effects of climate change on the environment, the Member States of the European Union implement fiscal measures and commit budgetary expenditures to ensure sustainable economic development. Romania, in line with the Union’s objectives, resorted to the application of a system of environmental taxes and provided in the budgetary policy government expenditures for environmental protection. The aim of the research is to highlight the effects of these measures on the environment by analysing the short-run and long-run causal relationships between greenhouse gas emissions, green taxes and government expenditures on environmental protection. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method and Granger causality tests were used to demonstrate the existence of these relationships and the intensity with which they manifest. Following the analysis, we identified a significant long-run influence of government spending on environmental protection on greenhouse gas emissions but also numerous short-run and long-run causal relationships between greenhouse gas emissions and green taxes, applied in Romania. The results of the research consider the impact of public expenses for environment protection, a variable not yet applied for Romania, on greenhouse gas emissions’ decrease, in correlation with environmental taxes per source of origin.

The main objective of the research is to analyze the factors which influence the intention to start an intergenerational family business in a developing economy, highlighting the measures that can be implemented by decision-makers to stimulate these initiatives. PLS-SEM was used to analyze the data issued from 200 valid questionnaires. The survey was applied to 950 individuals from Romania. We focused on four variables: the closeness to family members, the financial support expected from family, the independence of individuals regarding the intention to start their own business and the intention to form partnerships with family members. All the hypotheses were validated, according to the final results. Thus, closeness to family members has a direct and positive impact on both the financial support expected from the family and the intention to form intergenerational family businesses. There is also a direct correlation between the financial support received from family and the intention to have partnerships with family members. Individuals who are closer to their families are not interested in developing independent businesses. There are several studies on family businesses in Romania, but there is no research analyzing the impact of closeness to family on the intention to develop an intergenerational family business. The study is useful for the decision-makers who can create national strategies in order to stimulate families to develop their own businesses.

The design flood concept (DF) provides for an essential tool in designing the hydraulic works, in defining the reservoir operation programs and for a reliable flood hazard identification. Under a simplified approach, the maximum discharge and the floods volume are statistically processed to reasonably define the DF. Yet, the integral hydrograph provides additional key temporal and quantitative details of important significance for flood management and particularly for the res-ervoirs operation and associated risks of failures. The procedure presented in this paper (as applied on a set of compatibly shaped hydrographs) involves the following key stages: (i) normalize the floods, (ii) define similar flood shape classes and (iii) evaluate the average dimensionless flood (ADF) for each class. The ADFs are finally transformed into a set of (DF)s. Many statistical distributions approximate acceptably the frequent values of the maximum discharges or the flood volumes, yet displaying a significant spread for medium or rare probabilities of exceedance (PE). This scattering, which can be explained by the epistemic uncertainty, defines an area of uncertainty both for measured and extrapolated values. In considering upper and lower values of the uncertainty in-tervals as limits for maximum discharges and flood volumes, then by combining them compatibly, a set of DFs - as completely defined hydrographs, with different shapes - results for each PE. The herein proposed procedure defines both one peak DF and multi-peaks DF. Subsequently, such DFs do assist water managers in examining and establishing tailored approaches for a variety of input hydrographs. Among the DFs that would correspond to a same PE, the most compact floods arise a special interest, for they are basic in defining the set of safe operation rules for hydraulic structures.

Vrancea County is a predominantly rural area in which natural components are harmoniously combined in three major relief steps, which require a specific functional zoning from the economy point of view. Given the fact that mineral resources are found in limited quantities, the solution to the economic development of local communities in rural areas is the rational use of land resources and agriculture and zootechnic sector development, to which it can be also added the tourist resources, so as to exceed the subsistence level and to add extra value to the local area. This chapter focuses on the analysis of qualitative and quantitative indicators that reflect the current state of the resources of the land and agricultural background, their evolution over time, but also try to explain as more realistic the current status of the Vrancea motherland in a county and regional context.

The Design Flood (DF) concept is an essential tool in designing hydraulic works, defining reservoir operation programs, and identifying reliable flood hazard maps. The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for deriving a Design Flood hydrograph considering the epistemic uncertainty. Several appropriately identified statistical distributions allow for the acceptable approximation of the frequent values of maximum discharges or flood volumes, and display a significant spread for their medium/low Probabilities of Exceedance (PE). The referred scattering, as a consequence of epistemic uncertainty, defines an area of uncertainty for both recorded data and extrapolated values. In considering the upper and lower values of the uncertainty intervals as limits for maximum discharges and flood volumes, and by further combining them compatibly, a set of DFs as completely defined hydrographs with different shapes result for each PE. The herein proposed procedure defines both uni-modal and multi-modal DFs. Subsequently, such DFs help water managers in examining and establishing tailored approaches for a variety of input hydrographs, which might be typically generated in river basins.

Perspective the use of space tourism in rural area, but not only in this area, must be based on the concept of ecological space based on the principle of equity, then an area needs to be provided in-house and in conditions of sustainable development. Sustainable human development can not be conceived outside the human settlements development of a viable economy and a diversified social life in a healthy environment, ensured respect cultural heritage - historical society. Numerous researches have shown that ecotourism can be a viable alternative for economic development of Romanian rural communities. This research aims to study ecotourism in the context of sustainable development of rural Romanian areas and conditions to protect its natural resources. This category of natural resources now put the following problems: exploitation beyond the regeneration, especially in soils and forests, pollution of the environment that minimizes the potential for regeneration. Having as main source of information national and international literature and data provided by the National Institute of Statistics of Romania, was created a pretty thorough fundamental research in specific field. The main research method was used were: bibliographical study, literature review and synthesis, collection and processing of statistical data, etc. Environmental protection has been considered as a basic problem in tourism since the beginning of this activity in our country. Ecological attitude towards natural resources exploitation involves giving unlimited and irrational generalization about the importance of scientific concept of biosphere preservation of natural resources for future generations. In the spirit of these principles requires development of ecological strategies of development (eco-development), capable of providing a healthy and rational use of resources specific to a particular ecosystem, to meet basic human needs. Protected areas are, in part, and highly attractive tourist destinations such as Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, National Parks and other natural reserves, except, of course, scientific reserves (strictly protected). Protection and conservation of rural tourism potential is emerging as a separate issue, which requires collaboration of specialists in various fields. Starting from the concept that "sustainable development of viable and sustainable ecological development that is considered to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" tourism, especially ecotourism, as an economic activity, it is this scientific approach and should cooperate with other industries and economic activities to ensure environmental quality, resource base and its survival. More so, it becomes necessary co-participation, to this end, the central and local authorities, local communities, along with tourism providers and related services.

This article dwells on a local specificity with apparently little interest for the European construction, but which we deem to be on at least an equal footing in importance with the issues of monetary, budget, and fiscal coordination: the effects of wage gaps between the EU member states. The data and information considered for the writing of this article indicate that, although the gap seems to be diminishing, the still wide differences between member countries have led (and continue to do so) to major consequences in terms of competition and competitive edge in their domestic markets, to imbalances in their budgets, fiscal, and labour policies, but also in the quality of their citizens’ lives.

The long disputed and analyzed, globalization has now become an objective phenomenon unprecedented in world history, as magnitude and evolution. Criticized by some, revered by others, it seems that follows its trajectory. For us relevant are some negative aspects of globalization, but more significant are those that maintain balance and well-being of mankind. Based on the research conducted we have concluded that both globalization and regionalization emerged and developed as a result of unprecedented increased competition in the level of trade of states or regions.

Abstract Part of the National Strategy of Sustainable Development from Romania, life expectancy and air pollution indicators have an important role in establishing long term public health management strategies. International scientific literature within the field underlines the strong connection between air pollution and life expectancy. This research study focuses on the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, particulate matter air pollutants, ozone air pollutants on the length of life at 65 years old and life expectancy at birth of the population from Romania. The methods used for research are correlation and linear regression. Our results will be a starting point for further development of public health policies in developing countries, which mostly focus on socio-economic aspects, neglecting the negative impact of air pollution.

<p>Quarry activity triggers landslides, especially in small, unplanned, and not maintained quarries. Given the size of these small quarries that are very frequent in the rural areas of north-eastern Romania, their study is difficult because of the lack of topographic data. We show the usage of remote sensing data for geomorphic change detection, which is able to reveal the topographic evolution of the quarrying and landsliding. Legacy LiDAR data from 2012 and field surveyed UAV from 2019 are used to assess the topographic changes, compared to the 1980 5k topographic maps. The quarry location is related to the presence of old landslide bodies (dated to the early medieval period using radiocarbon ages of soil organic matter fractions), from which the clay material is excavated for various construction projects. The unplanned excavation reactivated the body of an old landslide that will continue evolving. The usage of LiDAR data and the UAV SfM survey allowed us to derive 0.25 m DEMS that pinpoint the volumetric change of the quarried material and of the landslide reactivation. As a future prospect, the use of such remote sensing data can pinpoint areas where these unplanned quarries could affect the stability of the hillslopes and become a hazard.</p>

Tumor heterogeneity results in aggressive cancer phenotypes with acquired resistance. However, combining chemical treatment with adjuvant therapies that cause cellular structure and function perturbations may diminish the ability of cancer cells to resist at chemical treatment and lead to a less aggressive cancer phenotype. Applied treatments on prostate hyperplasia primary cell cultures exerted their antitumor activities through mechanisms including cell cycle blockage, oxidative stress, and cell death induction by flow cytometry methods. A 5.37 mM Chloramphenicol dose acts on prostate hyperplasia cells by increasing the pro-oxidant status, inducing apoptosis, autophagy, and DNA damage, but without ROS changes. Adding 6.30 mM vitamin C or 622 µM vitamin E as a supplement to 859.33 µM Chloramphenicol dose in prostate hyperplasia cells determines a significant increase of ROS level for a part of cells. However, other cells remain refractory to initial ROS, with significant changes in apoptosis, autophagy, and cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 or G2/M. When the dose of Chloramphenicol was increased to 5.37 mM for 6.30 mM of vitamin C, prostate hyperplasia cells reacted by ROS level drastically decreased, cell cycle arrest in G2/M, active apoptosis, and autophagy. The pro-oxidant action of 1.51 mM Erythromycin dose in prostate hyperplasia cell cultures induces changes in the apoptosis mechanisms and cell cycle arrest in G0/G1. Addition of 6.30 mM vitamin C to 1.51 mM Erythromycin dose in hyperplasia cell cultures, the pro-oxidant status determines diminished caspase 3/7 mechanism activation, but ROS level presents similar changes as Chloramphenicol dose and cell cycle arrest in G2/M. Flow cytometric analysis of cell death, oxidative stress, and cell cycle are recommended as laboratory techniques in therapeutic and diagnostic fields.

The authors review the challenges that the Romanian economy and society had to face in the European and global geoeconomic context. Starting from the perspectives advanced by the international economic fora, the risks the European economy will have to answer through counteracting and general resuscitation measures and means are analysed with the rigour due to academic research. In this context, a series of aspects of major interest for Romania are comprised, which we both under the pressure of its objectives registered in PNRR as well as the ones developed as risks in the proximity of the Russian-Ukrainian war, as part of NATO and the EU.

Wine industry is considered to be a traditional industry, where the potential for growth is still important for the existing wine producers and new entrants, based on strategies for increasing international awareness, technological innovation and financing program. The paper aims to explore the evolution of the determinants of wine and vineyards industry from a macroeconomic perspective, in order to assess the efficiency of the National Support Programmes, financed by the European Union. The exploration intends to cover the tendency of the following indicators: areas under vines, areas under vines for wines, wine producers, wine consumers, wine imports and wine exports, in order to explore new opportunities for growth and develop future orientation. Moreover, the analysis intends to address the importance of National Support Programmes 2009-2013; 2014-2018; 2019-2023, whose evolution is currently considered a key research question in the field. Romania is an important European country from the point of view of wine industry, the various wines it produces are known for their quality. With an area of around 180.000 ha cultivated with vines which, in 2016, represented 1,42% of its agricultural area and 2,28% of arable area, Romania ranks the 5th position in the European Union, after Spain, Italy, France and Portugal. However, the countries that took advantage of the financial funds allocated to the National Support Programmes, were: Italy, Spain and France, which together spent more than 70% of the total amount for each of these programmes.