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Research and development (R&D) is an important driver of productivity, competitiveness and economic growth, both nationally and regionally. In Romania all national development strategies acknowledged R&D as a priority sector, but the territorial component of the national innovation system is still underdeveloped. Moreover, research and development activity might be among the factors accountable for the increasing regional economic disparities, as the territorial distribution of its potential and performance is extremely unbalanced, the capital region (Bucharest-Ilfov) concentrating over half of R&D endowment. Romania is still lacking a strong regional R&D policy to address such disparities and the recent economic crisis brought about new hardships on the Romanian innovation system. Following a significant rise in research and development funding prior to the crisis, R&D intensity declined from 0.58 % in 2008 la 0.38 % in 2014, placing Romania at the bottom of European Union hierarchy. The convergence of the regional R&D and innovation system is as an essential component of successful regional development because, on the one hand, it provides a key asset to improve local economic competitiveness and, on the other hand, facilitates cohesion in the social sector. In this context our paper explored the convergence patterns of R&D in Romania over 1995-2014 and several subperiods, with a focus on the recent economic crisis, applying the 'sigma' and "beta" convergence methods, as introduced by Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1995). We used county level (NUTS3) data provided by the National Institute of Statistics. The diagnostics for spatial dependence have been performed, but Moran's I test for errors could not reject spatial randomness (on all time spans considered), therefore classic OLS model has been applied as the best fit for our data. We found a discontinuous sigma convergence trend, with some temporary periods of divergence that disrupted the convergence process, and conditional beta convergence over 1995-2014. When exploring the relevant subperiods of this time span, the results indicated absolute (unconditional) beta convergence until 2008, but no evidence of either convergence or divergence afterwards. The annual average speed of convergence declined from 6.97% over 1995-2000 to 2.65% over 2000-2008. Sigma convergence has been also reversed during the crisis, but seems to have resumed in the last couple of years. Our findings clearly show the disruptive impact of the economic crisis on the convergence path, from the perspective of both sigma and beta technique. The persistence of high R&D regional inequalities and low convergence calls for adequate policies, able to stimulate the regional innovation potential and underpin faster development of the Romanian regional research and innovation system.

In the R&D policy making framework, synthetic innovation indicators were proved to be useful tools in identifying performance issues and general trends. This paper aims at providing empirical evidence on the recent trends in Romanian innovation capacity in an international context, based on the currently available composite innovation indices used in international statistics.

The foreign investment acts as a supplement to domestic savings and provides access to newer and improved technology, thus increasing the growth prospects of the receiving economy. This study addresses the understudied issue of regional effects of FDI location in Romania. From the econometric perspective the novelty to earlier research consists in the use of a panel data model instead of the usual cross-sectional or time-series approaches. This technique allowed us to control for region-specific differences in the factors of influence included in the economic growth model.

This paper proposes a multiple regression model for country risk assessment using the main economic-financial and political variables starting from the existing major risk rating systems. It is based on data provided by international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Eurostat, etc. as well as by previous research papers of a large interest among the experts in this field. The model offers a complementary instrument for quickly, promptly assessing the country ratings based on the most relevant characteristics employed by prestigious agencies such as Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s, the Institutional Investor, etc. The model results are consistent with the ratings provided by these agencies, confirming its usefulness for country risk research.

This study addresses the past trends of Romanian migrants’ remittances and the extent to which remittances inflows were affected by the economic crisis. Specificaly, we examine the sign examine the significance of selected macro-economic factors associated with remittance inflows in Romania by means of an econometric model. Among the main findings is that the evolution of the Gross Domestic Product is positively related to the growth of the remittances and that the total amount of remittances positively impacts upon the living standard of house-holds left behind.

Even if it has not a legal status yet, the Bucharest Metropolitan Area (BMA) project is in an advanced preparation phase, already producing effects in the real economy. Conventionally, BMA imbeds the entire Ilfov county (which surrounds it and form together the Bucharest-Ilfov region (NUTS 2)) as well as localities from other four counties of the South - Muntenia region (also NUTS 2). As Bucharest-Ilfov region appears as an enclave within South-Muntenia region, in a broader view it is considered that BMA influences all seven surrounding counties belonging to the South-Muntenia region. This region as a whole (apart from the localities of the four counties that are to be incorporated in the metropolitan area) plus Bucharest MA are viewed as the Bucharest metropolitan region, in other words the South-Muntenia region is the BMA external hinterland. In technical terms, the metropolitan area is a zone of direct city impact in which the relationships are strong and permanent (functional urban area, internal hinterland zone) whereas the metropolitan region is a zone in which the relationships are weaker, but the area is under the core city influence (macroregion, external hinterland zone). One of the main debates around BMA and metropolitan region refers to the effects of the BMA on its external hinterland, South-Muntenia region, by far less developed: are they / will they be spread or rather backwash effects? Our paper addresses this question focusing on a series of issues such as: examples of links between BMA and surrounding region, examples of positive and negative influences of the metropolis on its surrounding region, changes in regional settlement system and its drivers, changes in regional production system and main drivers, labour commuting patterns and drivers, policies with significant impact on metropolis ? region relationship, how external interventions address the needs of the metropolitan area and its external hinterland, to what extent the metropolitan area can contribute to the external hinterland regeneration, etc. The paper is the result of the research undertaken within the GRINCOH FP7 project.

The current research has concentrated on the following questions: What are the trends in restructuring Suceava's economy and which regional development factors were the most important (exogenous, endogenous, structural, socio-political ones, etc.)? Which is the relationship between social disparities and economic growth? Which regional/local policies proved to be the most successful for economic regeneration? How important was the external intervention for county's development? In order to respond these questions in-depth interviews were carried out with representatives of county and city office, national and regional authorities, Regional Development Agency, chambers of commerce, business associations, higher education institutions, and implementing authorities. Also, statistical socio-economic data were gathered and processed and strategic documents on development strategy, as well as various reports on evaluations of public policies have been studied. The study has been conducted within the GRINCOH FP7 project.

Romania's communist regime used forced industrialization and urbanization policies as a solution for speeding-up the pace of development in the lagging areas, which resulted in reducing regional disparities. However, after 1989 there areas were the first that suffered the hardships of economic restructuring, the economic and social discrepancies at territorial level recording an important increase. The accession to the EU has created good opportunities for the economic regeneration of the lagging regions provided the European funds allocated to them be absorbed and employed in an effective and efficient manner. Based on these overall considerations this paper proposes a case study in the North-East region of Romania. This region, with the lowest GDP/capita in the country has an absorption rate higher than the Regional Operational Programme's national average and a commendable expertise in the implementation of the regional development projects. The research has investigated to what extent these promising results reflect the objectives of the strategy outlined in the programme documents of the 2007-2013 financial exercise, aiming at a balanced territorial development. The significance of the case study is twofold: on the one hand it offers a spotlight on a very sensitive area of Romania in terms of regional development level; on the other hand it discusses the added value, strategic quality and administrative capacity which have made it possible to record results above the average in the implementation process. In line with the regional problem and the identified needs and strengths, the enterprise support has been chosen as the policy heading for this study. There is a clear continuity between the priority axes and key areas of intervention focusing on enterprise support in the ROP 2007-2013 and the enhancement of the SME competitiveness in the Cohesion Policy for 2014-2020, as one of the key areas for economic growth and job creation. The desk research ? with inquiries into the most important programming documents and result reports relating to the ROP in Romania and, in particular in the North-East region, plus the large volume of data analysis ? have been accompanied by interviews with the persons involved in the implementation process ? from local authorities to experts and beneficiaries at national, regional and county level. The research has been undertaken under the auspices of the EU ? FP7 GRINCOH project.