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Today's energy challenges are multifaceted. Over the past 30–40 years, energy issues have been discussed and published on an extensive scale. The green transition involves concrete actions related to increasing energy efficiency, replacing fossil fuels with alternative fuels, producing energy using renewable resources, creating various means of transport that use electric motors, identifying technical solutions that generate an increased energy yield in the case of buildings, and waste reduction, reuse and recycling. In order to attain a climate-neutral environment, it is mandatory to impose regulations, measures and actions to help decarbonize the energy sector. The analysis of published articles on these issues is the subject of this large and information-dense review. Concretely, the transition to climate neutrality will generate obvious advantages at an economic, social and technological level, for example, the opportunity for economic growth, new business models and new markets, and the generation of new jobs or technological development. At the same time, this paper underscores the need for a multifaceted approach, integrating technological innovation, policy intervention and global cooperation for an effective energy transformation. The review suggests future issues and research directions, focusing on viable strategies for energy transition and its socio-economic environmental impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and economic development have both an increasing impact on human health and on the quality of life. The reverse assumption is also true, since, for improving economic and social development and well-being, the human activity is affecting the environment. This paper presents some of the alarm signals of various international institutions and entities regarding several challenges the current modern society is facing: climate change, disruptive weather events, food safety implications, health related issues, economic losses. Based on previous studies which demonstrated a direct connection between climate changes and weather conditions and the outbreak of infectious diseases and threats for the food safety chain, the main research objective is to determine whether this hypothesis is also valid in the case of Romania. Thus, the conducted analysis takes into consideration variations of temperature and precipitation in relation to new cases of food-borne diseases in order to determine if this connection is statistically significant as it was in other regions of Europe and of the world previously examined by scholars.

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe, from the non-euro area, have completed the process of economic transition before joining the European Union. Achieving a certain level of economic development and membership in the European Union have generated their involvement in a new transition process, namely the energy transition. Concerns about promoting the low carbon economy have become increasingly complex for those countries that are interested in the environmental impact of economic activity. This study aims to analyze the process of energy transition in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe on the basis of the causality relationship among specific variables for the period 1990–2018. The study is based on cross-sectional panel data and the panel vector error correction model (PVECM). The efforts made by these countries by joining the European Union have generated economic development, with positive effects being recorded on the protection of the environment, a fact due to the strict regulations adopted and rigorous implementation at the national level. Foreign capital had a positive impact on the transition to a low carbon economy because most of the FDI flows attracted by the non-euro countries in the CEE come from Western Europe, i.e., from EU member countries, located either among the founders or among the countries that joined during the first waves of union expansion. Membership in the European Union facilitates the energy transition process for the non-euro countries of Central and Eastern Europe, but the new geopolitical events generate the reconfiguration of the European strategy of considering the need to ensure energy security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which was triggered in 2019 with oscillating evolution in 2020 and 2021, was a factor that has had dramatic effects on the economic growth of countries worldwide. In the context of the pandemic crisis, population health has deteriorated; education and economic activity in all the countries around the world have been affected. The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the special situations that humanity is experiencing as a result of the unprecedented effects that the COVID-19 crisis is having on the socioeconomic evolution. Specific statistical econometric methods (such as analysis of linear correlations, multiple linear regression, analysis based on dynamics indicators, and spectral analysis, comparability based on indices) were applied to highlight the evolution and future prospects of the COVID-19 virus worldwide. The COVID-19 crisis has generated another major issue for mankind, along with global warming and the energy transition, namely, population health. For this reason, in this study, we focused on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on population health in a broader context; the sustained growth of populations in developing countries and aging populations in developed economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural activities are affected by the decisions that farmers make every day. The factors that are decisive in making decisions cannot be foreseen with great accuracy. The purpose of this study is to explore the psychosocial and contextual factors that are related to agricultural entrepreneurs. Respondents were given the opportunity to be as honest as possible about what they believe is preventing them from achieving high performance in managing their agricultural activities. The risk and stress factors and, respectively, the methods of measuring their impact were taken into consideration, choosing various characteristics such as the typology of the factors, the duration of the manifestation, the intensity of the felt effect, the frequency of the contact of the people with the factors. The study found that there is concern and attractiveness for this economic sector, but entrepreneurs are faced with various phenomena that most often tend to decrease their performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium-sized enterprises in Romania have had serious difficulties in entering the international markets in terms of both the development of internal export organization capacity (exportable quantities, quality, managerial abilities, communication and branding) and the constraints and exigencies of external markets related to standards and certifications, market access conditions and regulations. Numerous studies indicate that Romanian firms face such constraints. There is a complex of barriers inside the firms, but also from the external environment that affects the interest towards export. Despite national export support programs through participation in trade fairs or economic missions or through the access to foreign trade knowledge by the foreign trade portal or the Europe Enterprise Network, many companies interested in export go to foreign markets totally unprepared to cope with the competition. So, there are several negative effects on the effectiveness of support programs. Some studies indicate that Romanian managers do not have the necessary knowledge to elaborate the export strategies on their own or do not have an outside expertise, although they appreciate the importance of developing this kind of strategies. To enter the foreign markets, Romanian managers need an integrated export service system that is accessible after developing a strategy on the market so that the road to it is smooth even from the participation in the international promotion events. Since 2017, the first export business center operates in Bacau, besides the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and it offers such integrated services being conditioned by the existence of a coherent export strategy towards the companies from the North-East, South-East, Center and Northwest regions. From the beginning of the center activity, a number of 40 companies from the furniture industry as well as from the organic products area are assisted in the elaboration of export strategies and in supporting promotional events. This paper examines the evolution of this center and its importance in terms of increasing the capacity of the Romanian capital to enter the foreign markets. The conclusions of the study indicate that, in addition to overcoming the constraints noted above, firms in the region need support in increasing cluster and cooperative association capacity as an essential condition for exporting. The present material concludes that the activity of such a center must be organically integrated into a regional innovative ecosystem with other actors: territorial chambers, technology transfer centers, innovative hubs so that the center's contribution will be directed especially towards innovative managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the general causes of terrorism and its impact on different sectors. During the past decades, the world has witnessed nearly twenty thousand terrorist incidents. Due to the increasing global scope of terrorism it has been raised important questions about its economic impact in countries around the world. While it was noted that terrorist incidents have a significant negative impact on tourism, investment, trade and capital formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug trafficking is not just a social phenomenon, a public health issue or an item of criminology, it is also an important sector of the world economy. It is therefore justified its economic analysis in the present work, despite the imprecision of the data, because it is a product whose processing, transportation and consumption is prohibited in most countries. The present paper analyzes the evolution of the major drug markets worldwide and in the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of economic development has been addressed in recent decades from more and more points of view in order to identify the factors with significant impact on this phenomenon. Identifying the factors and measuring their impact on economic development are essential starting points for adopting the necessary public policies. Similar types of research for the Western Balkan countries and comparative analyses between the Western Balkans and the European Union countries are limited in number. Hence, the main purpose of this paper is to empirically test the impact of corruption, economic freedom, and urbanization on the economic development for both the Western Balkan countries and the EU countries for the period 2009–2018 to provide a comparative analysis for these two groups. The corruption perception index, economic freedom index, and urban population growth are chosen as independent variables, whereas the dependent variable of the human development index (HDI) represents economic development. Using the Random Effects model, which falls under the Panel Generalized Least Square method, the empirical analysis suggests that corruption has a negative impact on economic development, while economic freedom and urbanization have a positive impact on the economic development for both groups of countries. However, the impact of corruption is more destructive in the Western Balkans, and they appear to benefit more from economic freedom and urbanization as compared to the EU countries. Whether the impact of the chosen independent variables is restricted to any component of the HDI in particular is left open for further studies in the future, though the results of this paper are highly significant and in accordance with the reviewed literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]