Adriana AnaMaria Davidescu

The Impact of Unemployment Rate on the Size of Romanian Shadow Economy

This article estimates the size of the Romanian shadow economy (SE) using the currency demand approach, in order to evaluate if there is any relationship between the SE and unemployment rate (UR). Using Granger causality tests and error correction models, we examine the impact of both registered and International Labour Office unemployment rates (ILO_UR) on the Romanian SE covering the period between 2000Q1 and 2010Q2. We find that the Romanian SE as a percentage of official gross domestic product (GDP) is decreasing over the analyzed period, from 36.5 percent at the end of 2000 to 31.5 of real GDP at the middle of 2010. Our empirical results also support a unidirectional Granger causality that runs from the URs to the SE. The generalized impulse response functions indicate the existence of a short-run negative relationship between URs and the Romanian SE. The empirical results also indicate that there is a positive long-run relationship between both URs and SE, with a 1 percent increase in URs leading to an increase in the SE of 0.36 percent due to the registered unemployment rate and an increase of 2.27 percent due to the ILO_UR.

FDI and The Unemployment - A Causality Analysis for the Latest EU Members☆

Abstract FDI have been regarded in the last years, by the developing countries, as one of the best alternatives to fuel their economic growth. The macroeconomic stability and the labor market of an economy have been identified by the literature, as some of the main aspects that are analyzed by foreign investors before deciding for a future host country. The reverse impact is also mentioned by the researchers who provide strong evidence supporting the hypothesis that FDI bring important benefits to a host country. Consequently, studying the interdependencies between the inflow of FDI and the unemployment becomes of high importance for each country which shows increased interest in attracting foreign direct investments. The present analysis is conducted for the period 1991 – 2012, on yearly data (for the latest thirteen member states of the EU) downloaded from the web page of the World Bank. The econometrical methodology is based on the T-Y procedure which was used with the purpose of analyzing the short term causal relationship between the two variables. The main finding of the study is that there is no Granger causality relation between the variables for six countries and a one direction causal relation was idetified for the remaining ones.

Identifying the Main Factors of Workplace Flexibility Among Romanian Employees

Workplace flexibility gained increasingly more importance in the last decade, companies using it as a useful instrument to improve retention, to increase the overall level of work motivation and also to assure an adequate personal life to employees.

An Empirical Analysis of Herzberg’s Two-Factor od Work Motivation Applied on Hospital Employees in Jordan

The objective of this study is to identify the main motivational factors for employees from Jordanian private and public hospitals to see what kind of factors will manifest a higher impact on the overall level of motivation. Also, the paper aims to analyze the potential differences in the opinions of employees from the public vs. private hospitals regarding the main growth and hygiene motivational factors. A structural equation model was used to empirically test the Herzberg’s two-factor theory of work motivation. This study is based on a sample of 325 employees from 6 hospitals in Jordan.

Revisiting the Size of Romanian Informal Economy Using the Gutmann Approach

Abstract Since transactions between participants in unofficial sector(achived using currency) are undectable it is difficult to obtain a estimation of this sector. The currency is regarded as a superior medium of exchange for conducting underground transactions. The paper aims to estimate the size of informal economy using Gutmann approach for quarterly data covering the period 2000-2014. Thus, the study analyzes the ratio of currency to overnight deposits in order to estimate the amount of informal sector. The main idea behind this approach is that a rise in currency stocks and payments is likely a good indicator of transactions which are not reported to the government authorities. The method requires the choice of a base period where the ratio of currency in circulation to overnight deposits is minimum, and the empirical results are fairly sensitive to the choice. The empirical results pointed out that the ratio of underground economy to official economy reaches the value of 19% at the beginning of 2000 and follows a decreasing trend during the period 2000-2008.From the end of 2008, it begins to increase gradually reaching to about 13% of official GDP in first quarter of 2014.