Competitiveness and Economic Growth in Romanian Regions

Considering the fact that Romanian economy competitiveness is not based on innovation and investment in human capital, this study makes an empirical evaluation of the impact of occupation and unemployment in Romanian counties on the economic growth. The approach based on panel vector-autoregressive (panel VAR) models indicated a negative impact of occupation and activity rate in 42 Romanian counties on the economic growth during 2006-2014. On the other hand, the real economic growth was achieved at high unemployment rates. These results are contrary to previous studies in literature and are due to a structural economic crisis and to lack of labour productivity and investment in human capital. Further policy measures should focus on structural unemployment decrease, more skilled labour force according to labour market needs, lifelong learning, higher performance and quality of education system, promotion of social inclusion, poverty control.