Transformations  in
Business & Economics

INEQUALITY, AUSTERITY, AND ECONOMIC EXPECTATIONS IN ROMANIA
Paul Dobrescu, Loredana Radu, Alina Bargaoanu

ABSTRACT. In the European Union, the social unrest that has emerged during the economic crisis continues to destabilize many states, especially in the Central and Eastern Europe. Romania is no exception. In the past 3 years, Romania has been negatively impacted by political and social fluidity. At a macro level, Romania reports economic growth. But what happens at the micro level? By building on key indicators of economic development and a national public opinion survey implemented at the end of 2017, our paper demonstrates Romanian citizens do not appear to perceive any correlation between the accession to the EU or, better said, between the poor capitalization of EU membership, on the one hand, and the raising internal and external gaps, on the other one. Our conclusions are grounded in the data generated in the State of the Nation project, a large scale EU-funded project aimed at building an online data aggregating supporting strategic decision making in Romania .

KEYWORDS:  economic development, growth, government, wealth, Romania.

JEL classification:  F63, O11, O22.