Search

Romania is in a rather dishonorable position from the financial literacy perspective in the European Union, ranking last among countries. To increase the level of financial education of the Romanian population, public and private institutions, organizations, and companies have recently taken the initiative in this field, mostly after 2015. Our contribution builds on these recent developments and aims at testing the level of basic financial literacy of Romanian university students, enrolled in business and economics studies, using the OECD Financial literacy test. Data was collected through an online survey on a voluntary basis, and the responses were analyzed using statistical indicators. Results indicate a rather high level of financial literacy among students, but also significant differences among respondents that may be explained by several demographic characteristics and specific attributes. The most important characteristics that influence the degree of financial literacy of students are age, students’ cycle of studies, the way the students live, property ownership and students’ involvement in financial market transactions and contracts. We stress towards the need to act through concrete measures to improve young people financial literacy, as a necessary condition to navigate in an increasingly complex environment, where finance plays an essential role.

The economic crisis, followed by the sovereign debt crisis, resulted in high unemployment, unsustainable public finances and deepening disparities between Euro Area member states, and underlined the necessity of strengthening economic coordination. In order to lessen the effects of the crises, to prevent further deepening of the economic context and the appearance of new similar situations, the European framework was improved by the provisions of the new economic governance. The aim of this paper is to assess the effects regarding macroeconomic stability within Euro Area member states, achieved under the new economic governance framework. In this respect, the first part of the paper consists in an overview of the provisions imposed through the European Semester, the reformed Stability and Growth Pact and the other elements of the new European governance. In order to assess the achievement of economic stability we analyzed data for Southern Euro Area member states, during 2009-2013, as this group of countries registered most issues during 2013. We took into consideration five important indicators, essential in any economy that form the macroeconomic stability pentagon: economic growth rate, unemployment rate, inflation rate, budgetary balance and current account balance. By comparing the area obtained through the macroeconomic stability pentagon, we conclude on meeting one of the main objectives of the new European governance: economic stability.