Revista de Economie Mondiala/ Journal of Global Economics

1-34

Authors: Sarmiza Pencea

Clusters are complex economic structures in which similar companies, their up-stream and down-stream business partners, universities, research institutes, educational units, various service providers, diverse private and public institutions concentrate geografically, striving to get economies of agglomeration and scale, to capitalize on the resulting spill over effects, to cut costs, to better harness resources, to exchange information and experience, to improve quality, innovation, skills and productivity. By somehow unexpectedly combining competition and cooperation, they form a new, sophisticated stage in the evolution of production structures in quest of higher efficiency. This paper forays into the world of clusters and clusterization, which seem to increasingly capture the interest of businesses, scholars and policy makers. It looks at what clusters are, how they arise, what are their specific features, what benefits and challenges they can generate for companies and for the regions in which they locate and if and how they should be fostered by industrial policy interventions. The conclusion is that clusters can be very important development triggers and therefore they should be encouraged and nurtured by adequate policy measures. They should not only be used as a regular policy tool, but be placed at the very center of the development strategies of emerging economies.

46-47

Authors: Virginia Câmpeanu, Iulia Monica Oehler-Șincai, Andreea Drăgoi

The present paper has as main objective the analysis of the opportunities and development perspectives of the trade relationship between Romania and the Russian Federation, linked to the latest evolutions of the European and global economic context. Keeping in mind this objective, our paper is structured around three main sections, as follows. The first part, “Economic Context of Romania-Russian Federation Trade Development” is centered upon the global crisis and its effects on the EU, Romania and Russia as well as the EU-Russia increasing bilateral merchandise trade flows. We examine how the global economic crisis interrupted increasing merchandise trade between EU-27 and the Russian Federation and present the main exporter countries from the EU-27 to Russia and the major EU importers from Russia and analyze in a comparative manner the very concentrated trade pattern between EU-27 and Russia. In the next section, “Romania-Russia Trade Development”, we underline that the Russian Federation is the second extra-EU trading partner of our country. We explore Romania’s trade relationship with Russia during pre and post accession to the European Union and also the actual trends of the bilateral trade, which pattern is extremely concentrated. In the last section, “Opportunities and Prospects for the Trade Development between Romania and Russian Federation”, we conclude, on the basis of the comparative and prospective analysis, that: Romania could be well positioned on Russian markets; there are many similarities in competitiveness characteristics of our countries; Romania and Russia have some problematic factors in doing business; strong points of the Romanian manufacturing industry could lead to the diversification of trade pattern and, finally, Romania has the possibility to develop a strong economic partnership with the Russian Federation under the framework of the EU-Russia relationship.

1-10

Authors: Simona Moagăr-Poladian

The financial crisis that ongoing in 2008 had relocated the power centers from the developed countries to the emerging ones. China, Brazil, India and Russia would become recognized powers of the world in only one decade from now on. In the last 3 years, the governments of the most important world countries have given the test of crisis management. The modifications that have been positioned on the world level had enhanced the economic powers map. Over 3 decades of continuous growth, China has surpassed the Japan GDP volume and is the second biggest power after USA on the world level. IMF confirmed that the financial system is the Achilles heel for the world economic development. IMF analysts recommend to all states to maintain their support for financial sector. At the world level, the rate of economic growth substantially differs from one region to another, showing an unequal distribution. The rate of growth in the developed countries reached between 1 and 3.5 per cent and in the same time the emerging countries recorded a more advanced rate of growth up to 6 per cent to 9.5 per cent in Latin America and some countries from South East Asia.

29-51

Authors: Mariana Papatulica

The economic crisis did not altered the deep structural changes underway in global energy markets - growing energy demand in developing countries and growing concerns about limiting carbon emissions - and revealed how oil, coal and gas markets could help solving major energy challenges ahead. The current crisis has led to declining prices and slower economic growth. But this is nothing more than a break. Resource-rich countries continue to use their assets to promote their own interests, to expand areas of influence and to create alliances with partners similar to them. Similarly, transit countries and importing energy are trying to assert their positions. These forces are about to change the nature of international business. The future security of supply will depend on the new interconnections both within and outside the EU, the increased energy saving practices, promoting smart networking and measuring technologies. Affordable energy for industrial and private consumers, will continue to be a challenge, but addressing it at a common European level, will be more effective and will generate economies of scale for the benefit of consumers. [1] The Impact of the Financial and Economic Crisis on Global Energy Investments, IEA/OECD, 2009

1-26

Authors: Agnes Ghibuțiu

The increasing trend towards services offshoring during the last decade and its wide-ranging consequences for the international division of labour placed services globalisation and the associated topic of competitiveness into the forefront of debates on international trade. Despite focusing widely the interest of economists and politicians alike, knowledge about the complex issues related to services competitiveness is still scarce. Both theoretical and empirical research on this topic continues to be hampered by the great heterogeneity of services and the lack of adequate statistical data and instruments as well as measurement problems deriving from it. The absence of international consensus on what competitiveness in general and in services in particular really means is adding to these difficulties. While there is large agreement on the economic and social importance of competitiveness, it is less clear what this notion actually denotes, nor is there a common understanding of the main determinants of competitiveness or the most proper instruments for measuring it. Hence, the very notion of competitiveness remains rather vague and subject to different interpretations, and it becomes even more ambiguous when transposed to services. Drawing on current literature that deals with services competitiveness and its determinants, the present paper addresses some conceptual and methodological aspects related to this topic. It highlights the increasing importance of individual countries’ competitiveness in trade in services and tries to distinguish the main characteristics of the concept of competitiveness when applied to trade in services. It also sheds light on the complex nature of the relationship between services and competitiveness due to the peculiarities of services internationalisation and concludes by discussing the main determinants of services competitiveness.

59-66

Authors: Simona Moagăr-Poladian

In the last 40 years, the world crises have become more and more intensely and serious. The decoupling phenomenon between the financial flows and commodities flows has shown the political factors involvement in international monetary flows, reflected first of all by the increasing military expenses in the contemporary world economy. The petroleum shocks from ‘74-‘75 years had generated monetary flows of petrodollars that accentuated the international financial assumptions. The financial movements have overlapped to a less currency utilisation in the material trade owing to the fact that the consistent dropping of the world trade stimulated trade by swap. The unbalanced distribution of the international financial liquidities, the chronical disequilibrium of current account balance, approval of high rate of exchange rate volatility and multiple currency approvals explain somewhat the differing economic growth on the world level.

5-26

Authors: Marcel Moldoveanu

The paper presents the new dimensions of globalization during the first two decades of 21st century. These dimensions include new centers of economic power, new meanings for regionalization and new decision structures such as G- 20. Starting from the fact that the economic crisis that began in 2008 affected in a different way various countries of the world economy the authors show that a true multi-polar structure emerges and this requires a new development paradigm. This new paradigm has to depart from the quantitative dimension and propose a new set of values that will accommodate both the increase in the number of population and the limits of the existing resources. The authors conclude that a significant part of the new paradigm should be a new type of world governance involving all significant actors.

49-56

Authors: Ionela Bălțătescu

The purpose of the present article is to briefly review two of the most important policy responses of EU authorities to the Eurozone public debt crisis: (1) ECB bond buying; and (2) the setup of European Financial Stability Facility with the special task of issuing Eurobonds. The Securities Markets Programme approved by ECB marks an important change in the ECB policy. According to European treatises, ECB must remain an independent bank, but since the beginning of the debt crisis, in early 2010, the ECB has been pressured by the Eurozone governments that encountered financial problems to purchase Eurozone government bonds. By surrendering to these requests, ECB is being accused that it became a political bank, like its American counterpart, the FED. The Eurobonds represent as well a controversial measure because they allow the already highly indebted countries to access new funds on behalf of other Eurozone countries with a relative better financial and economic situation. Also, another important problem is that both measures curtail incentives for prudence and responsible fiscal policies for countries that already proved lack of prudence and fiscal discipline.