THE IMPACT OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE REGIONAL DISPARITIES OF EARNINGS IN ROMANIA

After eight years since acquiring the status of EU member state, Romania is still registering high disparities regarding the regional development, even if over the past years the funding from the European Regional Development Fund has started to be significant. The inter- and intraregional disparities are seen both in terms of aggregate economic results, and in respect of infrastructure, territorial distribution and the business enterprise system, the urban/ rural relation, the conditions of living and especially the population’s income level. Unfortunately, the ambitious projects for reducing the regional disparities inspired by the policy in the field of EU have been suppressed quickly by the world economic crisis. This being said, the authors aim at analysing the earnings disparities on regional level in Romania, respectively the impact the economic crisis has had over the dynamic of these disparities. Thus, we have attempted to identify the factors to have influenced the earnings and the earning inequalities. For the econometric analysis, we decided to assess a data panel at the level of development regions. The independent variables to have entered the pattern were the gross added value, foreign direct investments, the post-graduate and higher education graduates and the inflation rate.