Bogdan Oancea

Evaluating Java performance for linear algebra numerical computations

Abstract In this paper we evaluate the performance of a Java library in the context of designing numerical solutions for linear algebra problems. Nowadays there are a number of libraries like LAPACK or ATLAS available in C or FORTRAN for solving such problems. Java is a relatively new object-oriented language and is almost universally recognized as a very good programming language for writing portable programs. Despite these advantages, it is a common believe that Java still lags behind C/C++ or Fortran performance especially for computational intensive numerical applications. We developed a Java library for matrix computations and show that using a set of optimization techniques Java can achieve performance comparable with other libraries developed in C or Fortran.

Parallel algorithms for large scale econometric models

Abstract In this paper we have developed algorithms to solve macroeconometric models with forward-looking variables based on Newton method for nonlinear systems of equations. The most difficult step for Newton methods represents the resolution of a large linear system for each iteration. Thus, we compare the performances resulted by solving this linear system using two iterative methods and the direct method. We’ve also described an implementation of the parallel versions of such algorithms using a software package. Our experiments confirm that the iterative methods have a low computational complexity and storage requirements, but the parallel versions of direct methods show a superior speedup.

Analysis of Mobility Related Aspects and Politicizing the Civil Service Within Romanian Public Administration

This paper presents a number of issues related to the mobility of civil servants and to the politicizing the civil service in Romania in the period 2000-2010. Analysis of the politicization phenomenon has allowed identification of three stages: 2000-2004, 2005-2008 and 2009-present. Application of legislation within the civil service has allowed a considerable increase of the stability level. Professionalization of the prefect function did not generate a considerable increase in its level of stability. Lately it is noted an increased dependency of the public function to the political system, through legislative changes initiated at the government level. In this paper, using qualitative and quantitative methods, a number of issues related to mobility of civil servants and to the politicization of civil service are highlighted. For this study, there were used data sets from a sample of civil servants form the public administration. Civil servants’ oppinion is totally unfavorable to the process of politicizing the public administration.

Higher Education and Economic Growth. A Comparison between Czech Republic and Romania

Although there is a strong theoretical framework for the economic growth and its relationship with education, the empirical evidence of this relationship is rather scarce. In this paper we investigated the causality and the long-run relationship between economic growth and higher education in the Czech Republic and Romania, using data series for 1980-2013 period. We used a VECM to analyse the long-run relationship between higher education and economic growth and Granger methodology to test the causality between variables. The results showed that higher education has an important positive effect on economic growth, although the impact level of the higher education on economic growth is different in the two countries. We also showed that there is a causality relationship that goes from higher education to economic growth for both countries.

Decomposition of the Inequality of Income Distribution by Income Types—Application for Romania

This paper identifies the salient factors that characterize the inequality income distribution for Romania. Data analysis is rigorously carried out using sophisticated techniques borrowed from classical statistics (Theil). Decomposition of the inequalities measured by the Theil index is also performed. This study relies on an exhaustive (11.1 million records for 2014) data-set for total personal gross income of Romanian citizens.