Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

The main purpose of this contribution is to evaluate the key macroeconomic factors that may affect inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in Romania, Slovakia, and Greece in the context of European integration. Economic complexity, which depicts the level of economic development, is also examined as a factor that may influence inward FDI. Moreover, the research concentrates on how each country’s trade balance is affected by FDI and how the process of European integration affects external trade. In conclusion, the process of European integration seems to be connected with a general downgrading of all countries as receivers of FDI. Moreover, the effect of FDI on their trade balances is rather vague.

Nowadays migration is one of the key issues in the international as well as in the European political and public debate. It represents a key challenge for modern societies and, together with the adaptation of welfare, has been extensively investigated in social sciences. One of the most compelling challenges consists in the adaptation of health systems to migration’s new needs. The European Union (EU) presents among its member states (MS) highly differentiated situations in terms of healthcare provision models, contribution systems, and integration policies adopted towards foreigners. Compared to other countries with a longer migratory tradition, the differences in access and use of health systems by intra-EU migrants and migrants from third countries are still considerable within EU MS, and further diversified based on migrants’ legal status. Starting from the traditional types of healthcare systems, a more specific purpose will be to establish and measure a systematic relationship between the costs and performance of health systems, migratory care demand, and the migrants’ contribution to the European systems.

This contribution discusses the potential consequences of education gaps in Romania in the frame of change in the last 25 years, a frame that includes European integration and the strategic goals set for Europe 2020. The theoretical background is mainly functional, conceiving that the education system is one of the core systems that provide the basis for a nation’s development. Using quantitative data from institutional sources, such as Eurostat and the UNESCO data bank, the present research identifies education gaps at several levels: between urban and rural areas, regions of development, social categories. The consequences of these gaps in the future will be dramatic because education outcomes have an impact on multiple sectors, such as employability, work force quality, quality of life in the long term, and the welfare of the entire society.

Using data collected through a national omnibus survey conducted in September 2017, this contribution studies the Romanian public’s attitude towards the European Union. Our goal is to observe and explain patterns of EU support in Romania, a country that continues to keep its pro-European orientation despite little economic progress after European integration and the low salience of European issues in the Romanian public space. In this sense, we challenge one of the most frequent approaches towards EU support: the utilitarian theory, according to which citizens’ perceptions of CEE countries’ European integration are shaped by the economic benefits brought by integration. The study first analyses hard data on the economic effects of European integration and then it aims to assess Romanian citizens’ perceptions of the EU. The aim of the investigation is to identify shifts (if any) in Romanians’ attitudes towards the EU and factors that can explain citizens’ apparent unreserved trust in the EU. Our assumption is that the pro-European attitudes in a country where Europeanization is still “in the making” are shaped by the perceived desirability of European values and the disenchantment with the national governments’ performance.