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The purpose of this study is to present the main coordinates of the life and activity of a great personality of Romanian Orthodoxy, Ioan Teculescu. Trained as an intellectual at the Orthodox Gymnasium in Brasov and the Andreian Seminary in Sibiu, Teculescu became archpriest of Alba Iulia, quality in which he distinguished himself as one of the main organizers of the Great Union from December 1, 1918. He was a priest dedicated to his vocation, building, renovating and consecrating numerous churches. Teculescu supported the Romanian school in Transylvania and was one of the voices of the Romanian national movement. In the interwar period he became bishop, after he became a monk, pastoring the Army bishopric and later the diocese of Cetatea Albă-Ismail in Bessarabia. Due to the pastoral office he held, he participated in numerous public events with great national impact and was a close relative of the Romanian royal family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport infrastructure has a strategic importance in the social and economic development of countries. From Antiquity to the present day, transport infrastructure has aimed to facilitate freedom of movement, and access to goods, services, and information. Investments in the development of transport infrastructure led to economic growth, the development of trade, the increase of national and regional competitiveness, as well as the increase of the well-being of the population. The purpose of this article is to analyze the contribution that transport infrastructure manifests to the economic growth of European Union countries. Through this article we aim to explore the correlation between public expenditures on transport infrastructure and economic growth, using the data available in the Eurostat database. The obtained results confirm the hypothesis that, indeed, public spending on transport infrastructure contributes significantly to the economic growth of EU states. The main conclusion of the study carried out in this article supports the need for investments in the modernization and maintenance of the transport infrastructure to enhance sustainable economic growth and the well-being of the population.

he rising income inequality around the world and its persistence represent a social phenomenon raising concerns at all levels (global, regional and country) for governments and pose huge challenges to master it and to identify effective solutions. The aim of the paper is to provide a comparative insight at the European Union (EU) level involving 25 Member States regarding the interplay between income inequality, economic growth, and institutional quality. Gini Index sourced from World Income Inequality Database, GDP per capita series extracted from the World Bank database, and institutional indicators collected from the World Governance Indicators database represent the examined variables over the period 1990-2022. Their dynamic is comparatively analysed and discussed. The clustering method is applied to identify similarities and differences between European Union countries in terms of the interplay between income inequality, economic growth and institutional factors and to draw relevant conclusions for future effective policy measures meant to reduce inequality and to boost economic growth. The clustering analysis based on the average growth rate of income inequality and per capita GDP revealed that European Union countries are differently facing the challenge of income inequality rising. Six groups of countries with similar paths regarding the income inequality and economic growth were identified. High-income countries face low levels of income inequality but with an upward trend. Economic growth is accompanied with high levels and increasing levels of income inequality. The institutional quality level may strength the capacity of a country to address the problem of rising income inequality, but it remains unclear the interplay of institutional quality dynamic in reducing income inequality. The implications of the paper’s findings are framed in the context of the European policies.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the physical, economical, and strategic evolution of the Romanian railway infrastructure based on data extracted from EUROSTAT. The timeframe chosen for this study is between years 1990 and 2019, from the fall of the communist regime, through 2007 when Romania became a member of the European Union, until the beginning of the Covid - 19 pandemic. The Romanian railway infrastructure is analysed and compared with those from other European countries. One of the first observations is that the Romanian railway has one of the largest networks in Europe, being placed 2nd in terms of length in year 1990, after Poland. Unfortunately, in contrast to having one of the largest networks, economically it situated at the end of the hierarchy, being one of the most inefficient. Having constant decreasing amounts of transported goods over time, the sector doesn’t have enough cash flow to secure the necessary funds for maintenance and mandatory technological upgrades. The sector is badly managed and cannot sustain itself anymore. The high number of victims each year makes it one of Europe’s most unsafe railway networks and this hinders the level of trust and willingness for collaboration from private entrepreneurs. The private sector should be encouraged to increase the volume of goods transported as well as participate in investments. The Government could even consider a Public Private Partnership strategy to attract a cash infusion into the sector. There is great potential for a positive impact on the country’s economy if the Authorities would implement a strategic investment and development master plan to bring the railway infrastructure to a level of reliability that would attract businesses and stimulate the movement of goods. The geographical location of Romania could accelerate such development since it could be an important logistics hub linking the Black Sea to the Central European market. Empirical results show that the length of railway network is negatively correlated with income and negatively associated with the volume of transported goods in Romania over the period of 2004-2019. It is apparent that for this sector the size of the current network should be sufficient, but quality should be improved, since this is the element that enhances operation safety and operation characteristics such as speed and volumes of goods transported. The paper includes recommendations for public policies regarding the transport infrastructure sector.

The way in which public procurement is carried out affects the whole economy and, indirectly, the quality of people’s live, as a result of public servcies, goods and works acquired. Free competition between tendering economic agents, equity and fairness of procurement tenders must to be guaranteed within the framework of digitalized businessoriented public services. These have to stimulate the development of the business environment by offering contract for supply of public goods, services and works in a framework of transparent, objective and fair competition. Digitalisation of public services offers an advantage in this respect. This present paper proposes an unitary architectural model of the public procurement process within local administrations, one that could serve as a basis for the design of adequate computer software aimed at providing digital formatting to this entire process. The model is unitary within each Romanian local public administration and is also applicable to any of its structures (city councils, regional councils or their subordinated public institutions, other entities financed from public funds) and has been drafted in compliance with the applicable public procurement legislation. Proposing this model is justified not only because it provides a unitary public procurement digitalization process of the contracting authority which, at the moment relies solely on the use of the SICAP national platform, but also because its implementation guarantees the compliance with the principles of free competition between tendering economic agents as well as impartiality and fairness during the tender selection process. Digitalisation provides this advantage to both the public and private sectors, enabling their interaction, an advantage that needs to be properly exploited to generate digitalised services with added value, customized for the business environment, the added value consisting in actually ensuring these principles.

The aim the paper is to analyse the relationship between the labour share in the households’ income and inequality expressed by Gini coefficient in Romania during 1997- 2020. Based on data from National Institute of Statistics of Romania, we provide evidence that high shares of labour income in total households’ income are associated with high values of estimated Gini coefficient and labour and wages share could explain households’ income inequality. We also highlighted the link of income inequality and income labour share to economic growth. Economic growth is associated with reducing levels of income inequality only in short periods of time. Policy makers should give attention to the evolution of labour share in the total income of households. Appropriate public policy measures regarding the improvement of labour market outcomes are required in order to prevent the rise of wage inequality

This study is dedicated to a special category within the archaeological material preserved in the collections of the National History Museum of Romania, terra sigillata from Feldioara. The analysis was made upon a set of 44 pieces that had been discovered during the archaeological campaigns carried out between 1987 and 1990. Following a stylistic analysis (for copies having decoration), in conjunction with typological analysis and the clay from which are manufactured items analyzed we found that imports come from two main centers producing terra sigillata: Lezoux and Rheinzabern. Therefore, the center from Lezoux represents the origin place of the largest part of terra sigillatta that was discovered at Feldioara. Workshops of Rheinzabern are also one of the main sources of terra sigillata at Feldioara.

Life after People: Zombie Apocalypse and the Structures of the Post-Human Global Imaginary. The paper examines post-humanist representations in Anglo-American film productions from a perspective informed by global and hypermodern cultural theory. It is an enquiry into aspects of dystopian sensibility featuring in global cinema, which are seen as manifest in the prolific zombie genre of the post-apocalyptic strand. It is premised on the assumption that global society is endemically marred by a catastrophic horizon of expectation, whose most congenial form of expression is dystopia, a genre on the rise worldwide, especially productive in Anglo-American cinematic practice. Drawing on global cultural theory, I seek to narrow down the enquiry into dystopian modes and bring the zombie dominant to bear on what I construe as the post-apocalyptic imagination of globality. REZUMAT. Viața după dispariția omului : apocalipsa zombie și structurile imaginarului postuman în era globală. Lucrarea analizează reprezentări postumaniste în producții cinematografice anglo-americane din perspectiva teoriei culturale globale și a hipermodernității. Demersul își propune să trateze aspecte ale sensibilității distopice manifestate în cinematografia globală, aspecte considerate reprezentative pentru filmele zombie din cadrul genului postapocaliptic. Premisa lucrării este dată de teza conform căreia societatea globală este caracterizată de un orizont de așteptare catastrofic, al cărei forme predilecte de expresie este distopia, un gen care înregistrează, în general, o creștere spectaculoasă pe glob și, în special, în cinematografia anglo-americană. Demersul este fundamentat de o grilă teoretică ancorată în teoria globală și vizează fenomenul zombie perceput ca o dominantă a imaginarului postapocaliptic. Cuvinte cheie: postumanism; distopie; spirit apocaliptic; cinema; dezordine globală; vampir; zombie; teorie globală; hipermodernitate; disjuncție.

From the birth of the human capital theory, economists were interested to find evidences showing the impact of the human capital on the economic output, discussing and debating more or less the effect of economic growth on the accumulation of human capital in the economy and the association between education and health. The paper aims to test several econometric models to explain the relationship between human capital and economic output. Using World Bank data, 17 countries with the fastest economic growth rate during 1960-2010 were selected. Four econometric models are tested to explain the accumulation of human capital as input and as effect of economic output. Correlation coefficients were calculated to highlight the association between education and life expectancy. The paper demonstrates that human capital, in his two components (education and health), in countries with a fast growth rate, are positively and strongly related to the economic output, in both senses, human capital being input and output of the economic growth. On the one hand, the economic growth adds to the resources available in the economy for improvements in health and education and, on the other hand, human capital is influencing significantly the economic output. Education and health are interrelated, being positively and strongly associated.

There is a general consensus that human capital is a major determinant of economic growth. Reflections on how human capital is related to growth can be extended by viewing on the market value of the human capital. The concept of the market value of human capital reflects the efficiency of allocation and utilisation of the human capital in the economy. To measure this efficiency the concept of the market value of human capital is explained and developed in the present paper. The aim of the paper is to introduce the concept of market value of human capital and the specific objectives are targeted to define his content, to propose a method for estimating it and to provide calculations of it for OECD countries. The concept of human capital is complex and multifaceted one, consisting of: native human capital (biological), educational capital, health capital and social skills (Neagu, 2010). Clearly, human capital is intangible, a stock that is not directly observable as physical capital. Therefore, the estimation of human capital must be constructed indirectly. The stock of human capital in economy creates economic value, expressed through the economic output per capita. In order to estimate this economic value we have to find an appropriate proxy for the human capital stock producing that value. In the purpose of our paper, we consider that the economic value of human capital can be estimated by calculating the aggregate value created by the active human capital in the economy. In this view, GDP per person employed is a relevant estimation of value created by the employed labour force. The aggregate value is created by the employed persons with different educational level. The market value of human capital is calculated by dividing the GDP per person employed to the human capital stocks active in the economy. The human capital stock depends on educational costs ( on primary, seconadry, tertiary education) as a the share of GDP per capita weighted by the employment rates. For OECD countries, the market value of their human capital was calculated for 1999-2008, showing their efficiency on utilisation of the human capital stock. The most efficient OECD countries are Australia Austria and USA and the less efficient are Mexico, Czech Republic and Hungary.The market value of human capital has a ascending trend in all OECD countries, reflecting the results of their efforts to valorise their human capital in employment. The originality of the paper consists on introduction the concept of the market value of the human capital, defining his content and providing estimates for OECD countries.As a concept, the market value of human capital of a country shows the ability of the economy to use the existent human capital to produce economic output. The market value of human capital reflects an aspect of the economic efficiency, by relating the economic output per person employed to the human capital per capita employed in the economy. It expresses the economic output per one unit of human capital, reflecting the aggregate perfomance of that economy.

It was marked out that the investors should be prepared for permanent changes of the forms in which the risk can manifest itself from the evolution of market economy grounded in the industrialized countries: operational, financial, strategic risks are also added to the traditional exposition to chance, caused by a series of factors, as legislation modifications, certain standards and European codes, the risks imposed by the evolution of the new economy, pressures that emerge in the personnel policy domain, the new needs for technical equipment, the costs efficiency, the spontaneous (unexpected, unplanned) economical events. It is interesting to analyze in what measure one can talk about the risk management in the strategies to attract the foreign investors in this context. This supposes an additional effort of the authorities to identify and subsequently eradicate the risk that could emerge in the case of some direct foreign investments in Romania.

The role of the human capital in the economy is highlighted in several studies of human capital, endonegneous growth and macroeconomic literature. A special part of this literature is dedicated to the mechanism and the various channels through wich human capital influences economic growth. As expression of the macroeconomic performance, the labour productivity depends on the accumulation of human capital in the economy. To analyze and discuss this dependency is essential for appropriate human capital policies aiming to stimulate the human capital accumulation in the economy and the enhancement of the labour productivity. The paper explores the link between labour productivity and the estimates of the human capital stock in the EU countries. Human capital theory explains the labour productivity level by the workers' level of educational attainment level. Four different effects of human capital on labour productivity can be found in economic literature: worker, allocative, difusion and research. Other researchers used a production function to estimate the productivity impact of changes in educational attainment. Research on the impact of human capital on productivity at the country level encountered many difficulties over the years. The main methodological issue is how to measure skills and human capital investment and to model possible channels of skills of influence the economic performance. The UNESCO attainment levels and enrollment series and other data sets, constructed by researchers, have been used in a large number of empirical studies of the link between education and productivity. What is innovative in the present study is the estimation of human capital stock based on educational costs by level(primary, secondary, tertiary) weighted by the proportion of labour force with corresponding educational attainment and the testing of linear regression model for the dependency of labour productivity on human capital stock. The assumption of the study is that the labour productivity is strongly and positively correlated with the human capital stock in the european economies. In order to confirm this, the following steps were completed: First, the appropriate method to estimate the human capital stock in the economy was identified and then, the estimations were calculated for the EU's countries, based on EUROSTAT data. Second, the correlations between statistical indicators of labour productivity and estimates of human capital stock, for each european countries were identified and discussed. Third, a regression linear model was tested for each of 22 european countries included in the study. A strong correlation between labour productivity and human capital stock, statistically tested through regression equations with data from EUROSTAT, was found. The variation of labour productivity can be explained in proportion of 85-95% by the variation of human capital stock, considering all other factors as constant. The added value of the paper consists of: (i) the estimation of human capital stock using the educational costs method for the european countries; (ii) the use of these estimates to show the correlation with the labour productivity levels and (iii) testing econometrical models of the dependency between labour productivity and human capital stock in 22 european countries. An interesting and useful task for future research is to explore the details of the institutional and incentive structure that best allocates a fixed amount of educational expenditures.

The paper debates the topics of intercultural competences and intercultural dialogue. The main research whose results are being disseminated through this paper are part of a national research project, Equality of chances and intercultural dialogue, project granted by competition and which benefits from the expertise of a dynamic team of University Professors and lecturers as well as enthusiastic PhD students. The authors present the results of their academic and research activities involving students (both Romanian and foreign) studying Economics in foreign languages (at the Faculty of Business Administration taught in foreign languages, English section within the Bucharest University of Economics).