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Economic development is a subject that generates much controversy, mainly because of the widening gaps between poor and rich nations. In the present paper, we intend to identify and explain the differences that exist both between and within the European Union states, from an economic development point of view. In order to reach this objective, we have collected, analysed and interpreted information included in various statistical data bases, reports and year books. The results show that the development differences between EU economies are not so large, compared to the situation of the rest of the world. However, there are significant development gaps inside some EU states, especially from the South-East part of Europe and the Baltic countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aging population is a global phenomenon, which has affected almost all the EU states. The consequences are very important since it affects the socio-economic environment usually on the long run. Some of them could consist in increasing the public expenditure on pensions, social security and health services, which will raise the overall burden on the working population. Sometimes, a significant reduction of the labour force will even diminish the growth rate of an economy. Considering these aspects, the present paper intends to analyse the demographic situation from the EU states, the factors that have generated it and to identify the possible future trends. To determine the evolution of the ageing population phenomenon, we have analysed some demographic indicators included in various statistical reports and databases, such as the fertility rate, the median age, the percentage of population over a certain age and the age dependency ratio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FDI had a strong impact in the last three decades on economic growth, foreign trade and production structures in almost all countries. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the main factors that contribute to attracting foreign direct investment flows and also the competitiveness of the business environment in Romania and its implications on investment decisions and economic growth. Research results show that the presence of FDI goes to those areas that can provide efficiencies investment factors: skilled and qualified labor, educational and research institutions etc.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite of being affected by the economic crisis, the Netherlands managed to minimize its effects. This situation is highlighted in a comparison with Romania and the European Union, between the levels of the most important economic indicators. Moreover, when other countries registered negative trends in their economic growth, the Dutch economy succeeded in this matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic environment must be parsed because of the multitude of phenomena that determine developments which generate effects and show sinuous ridges that can be interpreted differed depending on the context. Tourism is an important sector of the economy, and the evolution must be analyzed through the signification of a set of specific indicators. However, there are common indicators for all the areas of activity which are relevant both for industry and for the country's economic level. Thus, the analysis of the achieved turnover by the most successful travel agencies in conjunction with the evolution of gross domestic product per capita is important and highlights significant elements for the future forecasts, and analysis of the business environment in this area. The time period under analysis should be long enough so that the valuable judgments are issued from the normal not random trend of the indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romanian exports represented, lately, a major engine of economic growth. However, only a deep analysis of these can reveal the factors that contributed to their competitiveness. Indicators that capture the changes in market shares provide the most accurate picture of the concept of competitiveness of exports. They are found in the literature as a method of constant market share analysis, method developed by H. Tyszyinski in 1951. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing the global economy, one can easily notice that states that record economic growth are competitive, and that the competitive ones collect revenues of billions of dollars from trade, outsourcing and meeting the needs of their citizens. The role of private sector in creating and sustaining competitiveness it is well known. But what actions are undertaken by the international organizations and the public sector in this direction? The scope of this article is to offer a brief description of the role played by these actors taking into account that they must create the fundamental condition for competitiveness: macroeconomic stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of the Western world has drawn on theoretical structures of classical and neoclassical liberalism for its explanatory support and sources of inspiration for centuries. Against this ideological background, institutionalists aim at showing that growth is a process of transformation, a double change: an economic and an institutional one. In this analysis, our purpose is to highlight the importance of informal institutional arrangements and their quality in explaining the disparities of revenues and developments between countries. In our approach, we will consider several indicators meant to highlight various aspects of research. The approach proposed is a transversal-comparative one and static methods pertain to uni- and multivariate analysis. The results obtained suggest the existence of major differences within the Central and East European area as far as informal institutions are concerned; moreover, the analysis conducted confirms the existence of a significant relation between the level of development and the structure of informal arrangements such as: trust level, bribe culture and corruption control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]