Search

Despite existing policies of regional development and cohesion at the national and the EU level, economic regional inequalities or disparities stay relatively high or decrease too slowly. In this context, policies to reduce economic regional disparities in the European Union are a constant concern both for policy-makers and for theoretical and empirical research because of the strong impact on sustainable development in general. In this study we combine elements of theoretical and policy discussions with the empirical assessment of economic regional development in the European Union in order to identify the state of regional disparities, what factors are favouring unbalanced growth in different regions of the EU and to find an appropriate theoretical setting to understand, explain and reduce with regional inequality in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics and implications of internationalization vary quite considerably among different regions and countries, depending on the history and structure of their Higher Education systems. With a target to become the most competitive and dynamic economy in the world, Europe has scaled academic mobility, partnerships between the European Research Area and the world's top universities. The aim of this paper is to present some considerations regarding the internationalization of academic space in emerging European countries; more specifically it is an analytical review of the opinions on the phenomenon of internationalization in diachronic perspective of its development, in order to distinguish the structural problems at the level of interference, of the internationalization strategies before the economic crisis in the academic phenomenon. It can be a point of view in order to prove (argued by some causal relationship) that the academic Emergent Europe manifest itself in a differentiated manner, even if the strategies are common. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing corruption is one of the world's many challenges. The fight against corruption is often discouraging. Yet, Europe continues to advance its anti-corruption initiatives. While the fight against has seen some victories, significant gains are few, especially in the Central and South European countries, where corruption is deeply rooted in the ordinary life of their citizens. Indeed, the latest reports from private organizations and public bodies show that no European country is sheltered from corruption. This article discusses some of the latest European developments in the fight against corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within Europe, processes of economic convergence and divergence operate at various geographical scales, resulting in a very uneven geographical landscape. As mentioned in the international literature, the European economic space is characterized by a core-periphery structure. From this point of view, tourism has important significance since it is a noteworthy activity in the European Union and contributes to employment, income generation, overall development and economic rejuvenation of rural, peripheral or underdeveloped areas. There has been a shift in the nature of tourism demand driven by changes in consumption patterns, namely an increasing emphasis on more personalized or on specialized forms of tourist packages. This aspect required smaller and more flexible provision that created niche markets capable of providing peripheral areas the opportunity to capitalize on their comparative advantages associated with their natural environments, cultural heritage, and the role of local food in reinforcing personal identity and authenticity. The purpose of this study is to analyze EU's Eastern periphery (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) niche tourism markets potential and identify a few guiding principles that may lead to sustainable economic development. [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]