Oradea Journal of Business and Economics

7-30

Authors: Wei-Bin Zhang

The study builds a model of dynamic interactions between the birth rate, the mortality rate, the population, wealth accumulation, time distribution between work, leisure and children caring, habit formation and preference change. The production technology and markets are built on the Solow growth model. We base our modeling the population dynamics on the Haavelmo population model and the Barro-Becker fertility choice model. This study takes account of habit formation and preference change. Although it is influenced by the Ramsey growth theory with time preference and habit formation, it uses Zhang’s approach to the household with habit formation and preference change. We synthesize different dynamic forces in a compact framework, using the utility function proposed by Zhang. Analytically, we focus on transitional processes as well as economic equilibrium. As the economic system is given by autonomous nonlinear differential equations, it is not easy to analyze its behavior. We simulate the model to demonstrate the existence of an equilibrium point and plot the motion of the dynamic system. We examine the effects of changes in weights given to the habit stock of children, the wife’s wage rate having negative impact on the propensity to have children, the wife weighing less the habit stock of leisure time, the wife’s habit stock of leisure time having negative impact on the husband’s propensity to use leisure time, the wife’s wage rate having negative impact on the husband’s propensity to use leisure time, woman’s human capital being improved, a rise in the total factor productivity, and the mother spending more time on each child fostering.

41-50

Authors: Ramona Marinela Simuț, Diana Claudia Perțicaș

The hereby work plans on analysing to what extent the life expectancy is subject to the influence by different markers, like: GDP, the percentage of GDP allocated for the health system, as well as the income level in Romania and Ukraine. We consider that a comparative analysis between the two countries is representative since, as it results from the data and the diagrams presented within the work, both the GDP evolution and the percentage allocated from GDP for the health system reveal a different evolution, ranging in both countries, unlike the life expectancy going through an ascending trend, slow for both cases. Partially considering the specialized literature in use, our attention was drawn towards the evolution of the income obtained by the people. More precisely, commencing from Keynes’ Basic Psychological Law stipulating that along with the income growth the expenditure on health, education and training the human resource will increase, we have chosen to econometrically test these theories for Romania and Ukraine. Therefore, we would like to research, using a simple linear regression model, whether the income growth, which represents the independent variable, obtained by the people, has a significant contribution in life expectancy (the dependent variable) increase in Romania, as well as in Ukraine.

62-71

Authors: Radu Alin Moruţan, Daniel Bădulescu

The political and economic changes taking place at the end of the 20th century have provided Western European banks the opportunity to enter into Central and Eastern European (CEE) markets. Their entry was made either by greenfield investment or by acquisition of existing domestic banks. The motivations for the entry decision were various, e.g. managerial decisions, tightening profit margins in home markets, challengers imitation, profit-maximizations, looking for new customers in new markets, or keeping and extending relations with existing customers on the new markets where they are implanted. The expansion was amplified by the deregulation, the global capital expansion and the emergence of a single currency, throughout a period of prosperity and economic growth lasting for almost two decades (1990-2008). Until the crisis, changes in the CEE banking markets mainly concerned the increasing share of foreign capital (in market share, assets, number of branches and employees) along with the diminishing importance of state-owned banks. After 2008, the process displays new features: the restructuring of banks, mergers or strategic acquisitions, reducing operations in certain countries or even exits, adjusting the number of units and employees, improving efficiency and profitability indicators etc. Domestic banks, both private and state-owned, have bridged the gap (at least in terms of efficiency) separating them from the leaders, i.e. mostly the subsidiaries of large international banks. Apparently, greenfield banks are losing the importance they had in the preceding period (1990-2008). This paper aims at investigating the relation between foreign banks’ mode of entry into the emerging markets of CEE (i.e. acquisition vs greenfield) and the strategies’ results on those markets, before and after the crisis. Although foreign banks have implemented common strategies at group level, often dependent on the entry mode, these strategies were influenced by the specific features of the host markets and, quite frequently, by transformations occurred within home markets. We found that the entry is relevant for the development of the banks, but less than in the previous period, i.e. when banks entered the emerging markets of CEE.