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International trade was one of the most affected following the Covid-19 crisis and it is also envisaged to be shaped by important alterations. Romania, being part of global value chains, is prone to such mutations. Therefore, our aim is to draw a picture of actual evolutions and to identify risks and opportunities in international trade’s development. We notice that the containment measures have already had an uneven impact on international trade, generating the largest drop in both trade of goods and services in the last years. We deepen our investigation on the evolution of Romania’s international trade using monthly data in order to evidence the changes induced during the spread of the pandemic. We discover that the Covid-19 crisis had a larger impact on Romania’s international trade than the one felt during the economic crisis during 2008–2009. In addition, we use a VECM model and Granger analysis for examining the nature of the relationship between Romanian exports of goods and services and EU international trade for the period 2000–2019, based on quarterly data. Our aim is to examine if Romanian exports bring their contribution to the total EU imports as well as to the total EU exports, highlighting the long-run equilibrium relationship. We find that that a 1% increase in Romanian exports contributes to an increase in the EU exports and imports to about 0.55% over the next four quarters.

The aim of this paper is to assess the similarities and the differences in the theoretical frameworks that deal with international competitiveness and location attractiveness for FDI. We provide some insights in the evolution of definitions regarding the international competitiveness and emphasize its newest characteristics stated by scholars that resemble with the ones proposed for increasing the attractiveness of a location for FDI. We then assess whether the particularities and impact of FDI inflows in the host country could overlap the performance required for that a country to be considered internationally competitive. We investigate both the literature and the empirical evidence as regards the impact of FDI on host countries and we debate the role FDI could play in increasing the international competitiveness of economies. Finally, we provide some public policies measures that could be taken in order to enhance a country’s attractiveness for FDI and increase its international competitiveness.

The aim of this paper is to identify if the drivers of inward foreign direct investments’ stocks in Central and Eastern European countries changed in the last 20 years, given two substantial economic evolutions encountered in this period: the transition process and the adhesion at the European Union. We are interested if foreign investors are attracted by the quality of institutions, the labour market or by the telecommunications infrastructure, expressed by 10 variables, in the 11 newest EU member states. Therefore, we use a fixed effects panel data approach during 1994-2013 which we apply in two stages. In the first stage, we find the variables that strongly influence FDI in each of the three groups of determinants. In the second stage, the panel data analysis is applied only for the variables previously find as significant for FDI, to which we add traditional FDI determinants, such as trade openness and GDP per capita. Also, the mentioned years are divided into two sub periods, the first representing the transition period (from 1994 until 2003) and the second one the years comprising the EU adhesion process (from 2004 until 2013). The results confirm that there are changes in FDI determinants in these countries. During 1994 to 2003, investors were mostly interested in the quality of institutions, the openness of the economies and the environments capable of growth, where the products can be sold. For the period starting with 2004, the analyzed countries are attractive mainly through their capacity of providing labour force with low costs and created resources, such as the development of the mobile networks. The results obtained are of particular importance for the public policy decision makers, as the changes in FDI determinants require the adaptation of public policies in the CEE countries in order to remain attractive for foreign investors.

The target of this paper is to determine whether taxation affects the attractiveness of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries for foreign investors. In this scope, the paper analyzes the impact of taxation for the location decision of foreign direct investment (FDI) in CEE countries both in 2007 and 2010. A taxation index investing the effect of multiple host country taxes is developed in order to draw the attractiveness matrix for the countries taken into account. The taxation level comprises the corporate income tax rate, representing direct taxation, the value-added tax (VAT) and the social security contributions expressing indirect taxation and finally the ease of paying taxes, as provided in Doing Business report. The results indicate that relieving the burden of paying taxes by tackling the taxation issue is a mean for improving the FDI attractiveness of a country. Still, there are other factors that have higher influence on FDI inflows. The main finding is that there is no perfect correspondence between the shifts in taxation rankings and the FDI inflows performance.

Credit risk is one of the most important aspects that need to be considered by financial institutions involved in credit-granting. It is defined as the risk of loss that arises from a borrower who does not make payments as promised. For modelling credit risk there are two main approaches: the structural models and the reduced form models. The purpose of this paper is to review the evolution of reduced form models from the pioneering days of Jarrow and Turnbull to present

The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of competitiveness on the location decision for foreign direct investments (FDI) in seven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. We compose a competitiveness index based on three indicators of the European Commission scoreboard for macroeconomic imbalances and the GDP per capita. We report a positive relationship between the competitiveness indicator and FDI. Therefore, we develop an attractiveness matrix that ranks the CEE countries according to their competitiveness in 2000, 2007 and 2010. We find that after the crisis, the FDI are moving towards the most competitive destinations.

The paper builds on the burning issue of the attractiveness of the location for foreign direct investments (FDI), assuming its positive and substantial economic impact on the development of the host country. The location decision for FDI in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries is investigated based on the attractiveness framework designed by policy makers: infrastructure endowment, institutionsâ€(tm) quality, labour market conditions and level of taxation. The analysis assesses the FDI inflows in a country in three years: 2004, 2007 and 2010. Thus the FDI evolution relative to public policies attractiveness is seized starting with the European Union (EU) integration and after the crisis started. The paper follows the literature on the determinants of the FDI related to the L (location) factor described in the eclectic paradigm of Dunning (the OLI model), but focuses on the role of public policies in attracting FDI and captures two of the recent major turning points faced by the CEE countries, scarcely tackled in the literature: the EU integration and the recent economic crisis. We compute a public policy index, constructed as a composite measure, based on the four pillars mentioned above, in order to test the public policies attractiveness in the CEE countries. Moreover, we develop an attractiveness matrix starting from the public policy index, and we rank the most attractive countries for FDI in the three years. We analyze the matrix based on the FDI inflows per capita. We found a positive relation between the increase in the public policies attractiveness and the inward FDI. The increase of the FDI per capita since the EU accession year is, at least partially, due to the increasing attractiveness of the public policies. The crises worsened the CEE countriesâ€(tm) attractiveness. Still, the winners in the race for FDI remained those countries that improved the infrastructure, the institutionsâ€(tm) quality and the labor market conditions. Therefore, short and medium term policy directions can be emphasized. Infrastructure and institutionsâ€(tm) quality can be improved for further attracting FDI during rough budgetary constraints. The literature is enriched with the empirical analysis of the FDI determinants in the recent years. Our paper takes into account the major events faced by the CEE countries in the last years and checks for potential methods of attracting FDI even during difficult economic conditions.