Posted on 15 December 2015. Tags: health, income, subjective wellbeing, sustainable development, wealth
Why it is so important to maintain a continuous economic growth within a planet showing clear signs of its exhaustion is an important issue that is questioned more and more often in the last decade or so. The main motivation is to create the resources needed for people to live better and to be happy. A closer look of what the sources of happiness are and how they relate to economic growth reveals that the relation is not straight-forward. Further economic growth depends on many factors but it is assumed that globalization would create favourable conditions for all countries. Empirical evidence indicates that developing countries are in fact the ones that benefit less from globalization.
Globalization, Economic Growth and Happiness: The Perspectives of an Economy Based on Non-Material Values (802.4 KiB, 2,697 hits)
Posted in Economics, Information Technology, Volume V, Issue no. 6
Posted on 15 April 2014. Tags: air pollution, urban sustainability, waste management, water pollution
The urban environment is becoming the host for most of people around the world. Therefore, the concern regarding the environmental challenges is increasing and the range of solutions is widening. Various combinations of these solutions are proposed as models of urban sustainability and some of them are supported by governmental policies. Integrated urban development and urban regeneration models are presented in order depict how could be resolved sustainability issues related to air and water pollution and waste management. Strategic approach, coordination and public-private partnership result as the key prerequisites for implementing these models.
Sustainable Urban Development (225.7 KiB, 2,724 hits)
Posted in Economics, Volume IV, Issue no. 2
Posted on 15 October 2013. Tags: good practices, Real tourism, urban priorities, urban tourism planning
Urban tourism is an old concept having its origin in antiquity, especially when existing ports were frequented at the time. Even though we cannot say that at that time tourism was a concept clearly defined, it is common practice for a few millennium particularly in the Mediterranean area (Greece, the Roman Empire, and Egypt) and the Middle East, with a significant contribution and particular in the evolution of urban areas.
Tourism Planning in Urban Areas – Trends, Best Practices and Priorities in Bucharest (266.4 KiB, 8,733 hits)
Posted in Economics, Volume III, Issue no. 5
Posted on 15 February 2013. Tags: changes, economy, sustainable development, valuation
Sustainable development necessitates the harmonisation of human’s and nature’s needs under the siege of continuous demographic growth and the quest for wellbeing based on material things. This outcome implies important changes to occur at individual, collective and corporate behaviour. How they could be accomplished is a question that animates debates for several decades and revealed that solutions should be related to the process of valuation. Better understanding of value and how it relates to the needs of environmental protection is the aim of our analysis that recalls axiological milestones and compares them with environment related issues. Value as a product of object and subject in the framework of human aspirations is at some extent transposed in economic value. Environmental goods valuation in economic terms encounters numerous difficulties, including high costs and low reliability. Therefore we conclude that decision making should be underpinned not only by economic valuation, but also by value judgement that cannot be expressed in monetary terms.
Values and Environmental Ethics – Pillars of Changing Human Behaviour Toward Sustainable Development (290.3 KiB, 3,825 hits)
Posted in Economics, Volume III, Issue no. 1
Posted on 15 April 2012. Tags: access and implementation, cohesion funds, European financial support, POS = Sectorial Operational Program, structural funds
The paper deals with the basic theoretical aspects and the policy of the European Union, which is financed by a number of budgetary instruments. Under this policy, Romania is qualified for financial aid to support economic and social development of the country. This aid is considerably higher than that the aid received by the pre-accession PHARE, ISPA and SAPARD programs. The EU serves for the financing of policies, the largest amounts being allocated to the common agricultural policy. The paper bring in details on several aspects such as: what are the structural funds, which are institutions that manage them, and the ways of accessing these funds.
European Financial Aid Use for Environmental Protection in Romania (724.3 KiB, 2,345 hits)
Posted in Economics, Volume II, Issue no. 2
Posted on 15 August 2011. Tags: ecotourism, EDEN, EU, sustainable development, tourism policy
Environment and tourism interact in very close terms, the relation being strong and in many cases straightforward. The synergic interaction came into reality in several forms of alternative tourism with a very dynamic evolution in the last decades. Ecotourism, as the outmost of environment friendly tourism, attracts more and more consumers and determines communities or entrepreneurs to create a prolific economic framework. The paper explores at what extent EU policies are prepared to harness the benefits of this interaction. It resulted that tourism-environment combination is not only a sector policy target, but also an important development levy for rural areas and an effective protection means for nature conservation.
Tourism and Environment – Towards a European Tourism Policy (809.0 KiB, 3,149 hits)
Posted in Economics, Issue no. 5
Posted on 15 April 2011. Tags: environmentalism, polluting industries, stakeholder management, sustainable development
The seriousness of environmental processes such as climate change, biodiversity loss or resources depletion becomes obvious through studies that require advanced expertise. Due to these characteristic environmental issues remained for a long time beyond public perception, but also beyond the economic cycle. Once some of the ecological unbalances were embodied in acute events with direct health impact, environmental issues entered the political agenda at different levels. The finding of solutions for environmental problems depends also on the capacity of the society to create intervention means that allow the expression of ecological unbalances in forms that are perceivable for both population, and economic systems.
Interplays Between Environmentalism And Polluting Industries (328.0 KiB, 2,634 hits)
Posted in Economics, Issue no. 3