The Impact of EU Accession in Romania: An Analysis of Regional Development Policy Effects by a Multiregional I-O Model

because fiscal problems have caused a decline in public expenditure and, in turn, a decrease in
investments in public infrastructure which has made the degree of attractiveness still lower.

Another peculiarity of regional development in Romania is the coexistence of areas of different
levels of development within the single regions and the scarce economic integration among the sub-
regional areas. In fact, despite a dense urban network, there are few and insufficient links among urban
centres and the surrounding areas. In addition, the system of local transport appears to be extremely
inadequate to establish and maintain foreign contacts and economic relationships between counties.
This implies that the closure of the only company in a given county generally leads to migration to
rural areas or to Bucharest and not to other urban centres located in the same region, causing an urban
decline of small and medium size towns.

A last remarkable characteristic of regional development is the presence of a high number of
localities having an only one economic activity, generally a State-owned company, likely to undergo
restructuring and concentrating a disproportionate share of non-agricultural employment. It is evident
that this situation is highly critical for the serious consequences which labour market shocks could
produce in the future.

Table 2. Some geographic and socio-economic indicators about the Romanian NUTS-2 level
development regions.___________________________________________________________________________

Source: Author’s elaboration on data from Romania National Institute of Statistics

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