Catalin Drob

This study investigates the long-run and short-run relationships between capital market development, foreign direct investment, trade openness, and real GDP per capita in Romania over 2003–2024, employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing approach, complemented by lag-augmented VAR Granger-causality analysis and a comprehensive set of diagnostic and stability tests. The bounds tests strongly reject the null of no cointegration, confirming a long-run relationship that remains robust under finite-sample critical values. The causality analysis demonstrates a supply-leading mechanism from the equity market to real economic activity, while economic growth in turn Granger-causes both market liquidity and trade openness, pointing to demand-following dynamics for these channels. The analysis shows that foreign direct investment, market liquidity, and trade openness exert positive and significant short-run effects; yet their long-run coefficients are negative, significantly for FDI (foreign direct investments), capturing an asymmetry between immediate output gains and durable structural contribution that is characteristic of emerging European economies. The error-correction term is positive, demonstrating that real GDP (gross domestic product) per capita does not adjust back toward the long-run relationship in the conventional sense, but, instead, it behaves as a forcing variable that leads the financial and trade channels rather than being led by them. All in all, the findings describe an economy with functional short-run transmission channels, but limited long-run structural anchoring, with direct relevance for Sustainable Development Goals 8 and 17 and Romania’s ongoing OECD accession.

This study examines the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth in Romania during 2003–2023, by distinguishing the effects of FDI stock and FDI flow, with a focus on sustainable development. Because the variables have different integration orders, we used the ARDL model and the bounds test to check the long-run relationship between real GDP per capita and FDI stock, FDI inflows, exports, and labor productivity growth. The refined ARDL model (adjusted for multicollinearity) confirms a stable long-run equilibrium relationship among the variables, with all coefficients statistically significant at the 5% level. Long-run elasticities indicate that economic growth is primarily driven by FDI stock (0.23) and exports (0.24), validating the “export–investment nexus” hypothesis. Also, FDI inflows contribute positively (0.09), while labor productivity remains a critical internal determinant (0.03). Short-run dynamics, captured through the ARDL-ECM specification, reveal that only labor productivity exerts an immediate effect, whereas foreign capital plays a structural stabilizing role. The error correction term (–0.279) suggests an adjustment speed of approximately 27.9% annually, reflecting strong economic resilience across EU ascension (2007), financial crisis (2008–2009), and COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021). Our study contributes to the literature regarding the effects of FDI in Romania, by simultaneously including FDI stock and flow and considering the pandemic period. Also, our study employs dynamic productivity specification and provides transparent model selection procedures within a sustainable framework. The results in this study are of interest for policymakers, emphasizing the need to focus on attracting quality FDI (green and high-tech investments, investor retention, and human capital development) which can facilitate sustainability-oriented strategies that could lead to sustainable economic growth.

Water is one of the fundamental resources for the existence of humans and the environment. Throughout time, due to urbanization, expanding population, increased agricultural production, and intense industrialization, significant pollution with persistent contaminants has been noted, placing the water quality in danger. As a consequence, different procedures and various technologies have been tested and used in order to ensure that water sources are safe for use. The adsorption process is often considered for wastewater treatment due to its straightforward design, low investment cost, availability, avoidance of additional chemicals, lack of undesirable byproducts, and demonstrated significant efficacious potential for treating and eliminating organic contaminants. To accomplish its application, the need to develop innovative materials has become an essential goal. In this context, an overview of recent advances in hydrogels based on chitosan and nanocomposites and their application for the depollution of wastewater contaminated with dyes is reported herein. The present review focuses on (i) the challenges raised by the synthesis process and characterization of the different hydrogels; (ii) the discussion of the impact of the main parameters affecting the adsorption process; (iii) the understanding of the adsorption isotherms, kinetics, and thermodynamic behavior; and (iv) the examination of the possibility of recycling and reusing the hydrogels.

The transition to the circular economy is a basic principle of the policy of the European Union, it is the chance for a cleaner world, an ideal world with “zero waste”. This document analyzes the implementation degree of circular economy in Romania through 10 monitoring indicators defined by European Commission in ”Measuring progress towards the circular economy in the European Union—Key indicators for a monitoring framework”, released in January 2018. In order to understand the paper, it was considered necessary to define the indicators with reference to the targets proposed by the European Union. The analysis of the stage of implementation of the circular economy in Romania was made by using the data published by Eurostat. Methodologically, a comparative study was carried out between the level of implementation of circular economy indicators in Romania and the EU and the position occupied by Romania among the member states was identified for each of these 10 circular economy monitoring criteria. Each indicator is analyzed and the causes and motivations that led to the obtaining of the mentioned values are identified. The results of the study show that Romania is in the upper part of the hierarchy for certain indicators, contributing to the achievement of EU targets. It also identifies the causes that delay performance in others, indicating future solutions, necessary to be adopted to remedy the situation. Implementing the circular economy requires long-term vision, political determination and consistency, and, last but not least, funding. In these directions, governmental measures must be taken to increase performance at the national level. In conclusion with an economy that is not sufficiently strong, and affected as it is by the current crises, Romania is moving forward on the path of transitioning to a circular economy.

The treatment of contaminated water is currently a major concern worldwide. This work was directed towards the preparation of a composite hydrogel by entrapping cherry stones powder on chitosan, which is known as one of the most abundant natural polymers. The synthesized material was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and by the point of zero charge determination. Its ability to remove two azo dyes models (Acid Red 66 and Reactive Black 5) existing in single form and in binary mixture was evaluated. Response Surface Methodology–Central Composite Design was used to optimize three parameters affecting the process while targeting the lowest final contaminant concentrations. The best results were obtained at pH 2, an adsorbent dose of 100 g/L, and a temperature of 30 °C, when more than 90% of the pollutants from the single component systems and more than 70% of those of the binary mixtures were removed from their aqueous solutions. The adsorption process was in accordance with Elovich and pseudo-second-order kinetic models, and closely followed the Freundlich and Temkin equilibrium isotherms. The obtained results led to the conclusion that the prepared hydrogel composite possesses the ability to successfully retain the target molecules and that it can be considered as a viable adsorbent material.

The purpose of this study is to emphasize the main aspects regarding the evolution of the capital market in Romania in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study tries to present the main aspects which marked the evolution of the national capital market in the last period. The domestic capital market went through a delicate period during the beginning of 2020, since in times of crisis the stock markets react emotionally and thus, are recorded relatively important fluctuations. Although the COVID-19 pandemic created a lot of uncertainty in the capital market, the end of 2020 brought back optimism among investors. In 2021, the d domestic capital market recovered all the decreases registered in 2020 and ended this year with very good results.

The North-East (NE) region of Romania is, in terms of area, the largest of the 8 regions and is made up of 6 counties: Iasi, Bacau, Neamt, Suceava, Botosani and Vaslui. NE Region is one of the poorest regions of Romania. The SMEs sector, considered to be the engine of economic development, is rather poorly developed in this region. Thus, in this area of the country we have the lowest density level of SMEs in Romania, the NE region occupying the penultimate place in the economic performance standings, from different regions of the country. The chance of economic recovery of the region is attracting and efficient use of government and community funds to develop the SMEs sector.

The purpose of this study is to emphasize the main aspects regarding the establishment, development and evolution of the capital market in Romania. This study tries to present the main milestones which marked the evolution of the national capital market from the beginning until now. Even if the first Romanian stock exchange was established in 1881, the modern capital market in Romania is a relatively young, which began to function with the reestablishment of Bucharest Stock Exchange in 1995. The capital market in Romania has a great potential of development. Statistical data presented in this paper, regarding the evolution and the development of the capital market in Romania, emphasizes that this market was and is strongly linked to developments in the real economy.