Transformations  in
Business & Economics

CONDITIONALITIES IN THE RECOVERY PROCESS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH AND CONVERGENCE IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
Ramona Tiganasu, Gabriela Carmen Pascariu, Livia Baciu

ABSTRACT.The polarization phenomenon observed in recent decades in the EU countries has become one of the issues discussed extensively in economic theory and regional policy. The development gaps deepened after the last two waves of enlargement to Eastern Europe, this fact generating serious challenges concerning the convergence process.The recovery of disparities is a necessity, especially given that the statistics on convergence indicators emphasize that the taken measures are often poor, they are not produced in accordance with the socio-economic and institutional framework of each state and obviously there is no potentiation of the synergy effects between all Community policies. Starting from these, in this article we intend to analyze in dynamics (the year 2000 compared to the year 2012) the convergence process in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), in terms of three indices: Macroeconomic Stability Index (MSI), Governance Index (GI) and Entrepreneurial Climate Index (ECI), which have in their structure different indicators that define them. Resorting to an empirical analysis, the research results will highlight which constituent elements from each index contribute the most to the development process, and which is the inter-conditionality degree between the three indices. Based on determinative relations among the considered variables, we will draw up, in the conclusions, several measures that some CEECs should take in order to recover the development gaps .

KEYWORDS: macroeconomic stability, governance, entrepreneurial climate, Central and Eastern European countries.

JEL classification: E02, M21, O17, O43.