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The aim of the paper is to provide empirical evidence in support of the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries over the period 1995-2015 within a multivariate panel data analysis. Based on World Bank data, the panel cointegration analysis reveals that renewable energy consumption and economic growth are positively associated in the long run in CEE countries. The heterogeneous panel causality test indicates a bi-directional causality relationship in support of the feedback hypothesis between economic growth and renewable energy consumption in Central and Eastern European countries.

The paper documents the impact of global competitiveness on economic growth in the EU Member States. In a panel data approach, for a time span of 10 years (2008- 2017), a validated influence of Global Competitiveness Index on annual rate of GDP in the EU countries was found. The impact is higher in the group of Eastern and Central European countries (ECE) than in the Western European (well developed) countries, as well as at European economy level.

The aim of the paper is to explore the association between environmental performance and income level in the world economy in 2016. Data from Yale University and World Bank are used in a cross-country regression analysis comprising 166 countries. The gross Domestic Product per capita (based in purchased power parity, constant 2011 international dollars) in these countries is positively associated with the environmental performance index (EPI) calculated by Yale and Columbia University in 2016. Furthermore, the causality of this relationship is from GDP per capita to Environmental Performance and both Environmental Health (EH) and Ecosystem Vitality (EV) are positively associated with GDP per capita. Environmental Health (EH) is stronger related to GDP per capita, meaning that investments in public health, sanitation and infrastructure are increasing as countries develop.

It is obvious that human capital is critical for economic growth. The exploration of the impact of human capital on growth could bring valuable information for policy makers to substantiate their development strategies and to stimulate factors leading to economic growth. The paper aims to investigate the relationships between human capital and economic growth in the romanian economy by analyzing the correlations between statistical variables measuring human capital and economic growth. Using a regression model, it is analyzed the impact of the educational and health capital on the economic output. In the paper, a linear regression model of the relation of human capital to economic growth is subjet of an empirical analysis, firstly, taking into consideration only education as human capital and secondly, incorporating in the model the both components: health and education. A strong correlation between educational variables and GDP, for 1990-2010, was found. The quality of the educational capital has a determinant role in the economic growth, the highly educated people are influencing more the economic output than the secondary educated ones. GDP per capita is negatively correlated with the number of worked hours and positively influenced by the life expectancy. The most important contribution contained by this article refers to the incorporation of the two components of human capital in the same econometric model explaining the economic growth. The added value of paper consists in offering suggestions and orientation for national educational policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]