Iris Mihai - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Iris Mihai

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2018

Economic productivity is a complex concept used to capture how efficient an economic process is a... more Economic productivity is a complex concept used to capture how efficient an economic process is at a given moment in time. However, the way we measure productivity doesn't seem to capture the way productivity influences the social justice or the way social justice influences productivity. In this paper, we focus on the social implications of the economic development in our attempt to design an adequate measuring methodology able to capture the impact of the continuously growing productivity upon the quality of life in the selected countries. The research is on statistical data provided by OECD, The World Bank and Eurostat. The countries chosen for the empirical analysis have been selected on the basis of their GDP, more explicitly, we have selected all the countries that have a GDP higher than 1000 billion S. The research is based on input-output indexes used to emphasize productivity, together with variables that capture the social fairness component. The fundamental research hypothesis of this paper is whether the current economic development, made possible by the increases in productivity, improves the quality of life in the selected countries or it stands as a tool for economic dispersion resulting into the widening of the gap between the rich and poor. In other words, are the more productive economies also the more social responsible ones? The research provides answers to both questions, in the same time uncovering future research directions.

International Perspectives on Education and Society

the SPHERE project organized an international team of researchers who established and coded the g... more the SPHERE project organized an international team of researchers who established and coded the global database and conducted the case studies in this volume. At the Institute for Higher Education Research (HoF) of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, our team member Manfred Stock hosted several important project meetings to discuss theory and data, continuing formative conversations we had had with Gero Lenhardt over the years, especially during original project conceptualization discussions at the WZB Social Science Center Berlin, Germany. HoF researcher Isabell Maue contributed coding of the organizational data for Germany, as did Pauline Siebert in Halle and Leipzig, and Gudrun Calow was unfailingly supportive in administration at HoF Wittenberg. The entire team gratefully acknowledges the assistance in Qatar throughout the project provided by project manager Roshi Moeini. We also thank Georgetown student research assistants

Logos Universality Mentality Education Novelty: Economics & Administrative Sciences

It has been a while since we have started understanding the effects of our economic activity. But... more It has been a while since we have started understanding the effects of our economic activity. But are we really doing anything about it? In this paper, we aim at introducing and presenting a new indicator meant to tell the story of economic productivity beyond its economic implications. The construction of the new indicator starts by computing national economic productivity as a sum of labor and capital productivity. The national economic productivity is introduced in a multiplicative equation with reversed GINI coefficient, the human development index and a ratio of biocapacity and ecological footprint of consumption. The reversed GINI coefficient corrects the value of the national economic productivity by accounting for the inequality of the distribution of income. The human development index captivates the quality of life beyond the distribution of income with areas like education and health. The ratio between the biocapacity and the ecological footprint of consumption showcases ...

Economic productivity is a complex phenomenon that serves to highlight how efficient an economic ... more Economic productivity is a complex phenomenon that serves to highlight how efficient an economic process is. However, the existing paradigms for measuring productivity are not coherent, presenting us with a heterogeneous concept too scattered to prove significant for the policy makers. In this paper, we focus on the social implications of the economic development in our attempt to design an adequate measuring methodology able to capture the impact of the continuously growing productivity upon the quality of life in the selected countries. The research is based on statistical data provided by EU KLEMS, The World Bank, Eurostat and The New Maddison Project. The countries chosen for the empirical analysis belong to two groups: Baltic

The Century of Science: The Global Triumph of the Research University, Sep 1, 2017

In The Century of Science — edited by Justin J.W. Powell, David P. Baker, and Frank Fernandez — a... more In The Century of Science — edited by Justin J.W. Powell, David P. Baker, and Frank Fernandez — a multicultural, international team of authors examines the global rise of scholarly research in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and health (STEM+) fields. At the beginning of the 20th century, the global center-point of scientific productivity was about half way between Western Europe and the U.S., in the North Atlantic. Then, the center moved steadily westward and slightly southward—reflecting the burgeoning science capacity of the U.S. supported by America’s thriving public and private universities, technological innovation, and overall economic growth. After WWII, this began to change as the course of the world’s scientific center of gravity turned and for the next 70 years traveled eastward, the direction it still travels, especially due to the rise of China and other prolific East Asian countries, such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Europe continues to be the cent...

Microeconomics: Input-Output Tables & Analysis eJournal, 2014

Economic productivity is a complex phenomenon that serves to highlight how efficient an economic ... more Economic productivity is a complex phenomenon that serves to highlight how efficient an economic process is. However, the existing paradigms for measuring productivity are not coherent, presenting us with a heterogeneous concept too scattered to prove significant for the policy makers. In this paper, we focus on the social implications of the economic development in our attempt to design an adequate measuring methodology able to capture the impact of the continuously growing productivity upon the quality of life in the selected countries. The research is based on statistical data provided by EU KLEMS, The World Bank, Eurostat and The New Maddison Project. The countries chosen for the empirical analysis belong to two groups: Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland and Sweden). The research is based on input-output indexes used to emphasize productivity, together with its social fairness component and its sustainability over time. Th...

Purpose The authors seek to better understand the relationships between science production, natio... more Purpose The authors seek to better understand the relationships between science production, national wealth, inequality, and human development around the globe. Design The chapter uses econometric models, including Granger causality, to test alternate hypotheses about whether more economic wealth is related to more science or if more science leads to more wealth. Findings The immediate result of our models is that a country’s wealth contributes to the conditions necessary for productive science. While large countries produce many research articles in the STEM+ fields more or less irrespective of their per capita GDP, with countries like the Soviet Union, China, or India being important contributors to world science, the most productive countries were the richer ones. GDP per capita values are important predictors for higher numbers of STEM+ research articles adjusted for population size. Nevertheless, human development and income equality also have a positive relationship with scien...

This paper analyses the factors that have shaped the Armenian identity over time, based on the ma... more This paper analyses the factors that have shaped the Armenian identity over time, based on the main historical events and strategic actors who made their contribution to the becoming of the Armenian people and their identity. The central issue of the article is the Armenian genocide which had a major influence on the way that Armenians see themselves and the world around them, today. The study revealed that not only the genocide that happened almost a century ago, had a major impact on the Armenian identity, but also the current recognition or denial of facts by the contemporary world. In this respect, the role of the Diaspora proved priceless, because they were the ones that pressured their host countries to recognize the genocide and to support Armenia. The topic is presented form a phenomenological perspective, trying to capture the human experience in the way it was perceived by the Armenian people.

The last century provided the stage for important changes in the productivity of all industries. ... more The last century provided the stage for important changes in the productivity of all industries. The Industrial Revolution together with the several technological revolutions enhanced the growth rhythm of economies by introducing new and improved production means. This article analyses several indicators of productivity for five European countries, during the last decades of the 20th century and the first of the 21st century. The research is based on statistical data provided by EU KLEMS, OECD and The New Maddison Project and the reviewed period is 1970-2007. The countries that have been the focus of our research are Finland, France, Germany, Greece and Spain. The choice of countries is justified by the need to approach both countries that are well known for their productivity enhancing methods and countries that have entered the race at a later stage. Another reason motivating our selection is the fact that we wanted to include countries from Northern, Central and Southern Europe. ...

Productivity is a totem of economic performance; depending on the perspective one wants to captur... more Productivity is a totem of economic performance; depending on the perspective one wants to capture, productivity can reflect the performance of the labor force, capital, know-how, time, financial resources etc. In this paper we have chosen to analyze the productivity of the twelve most unsustainable economies worldwide: United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Belgium, Kuwait, Singapore, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Macedonia, Japan and the United States of America. The research is based on statistical data provided by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program and the Global Footprint Network. The research is based on economical, environmental and development indexes used to evaluate productivity adjusted by the ecological deficit of the nations. The fundamental research hypothesis of this paper is how productive would actually be the selected countries if their economies would be responsible enough to resume themselves to their own biocapacities. The secon...

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences

Annals Economy Series, 2014

Productivity is a totem of economic performance; depending on the perspective one wants to captur... more Productivity is a totem of economic performance; depending on the perspective one wants to capture, productivity
can reflect the performance of the labor force, capital, know-how, time, financial resources etc. In this paper we have
chosen to analyze the productivity of the twelve most unsustainable economies worldwide: United Arab Emirates,
Qatar, Belgium, Kuwait, Singapore, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Macedonia, Japan and
the United States of America. The research is based on statistical data provided by the World Bank, the United
Nations Development Program and the Global Footprint Network. The research is based on economical,
environmental and development indexes used to evaluate productivity adjusted by the ecological deficit of the
nations. The fundamental research hypothesis of this paper is how productive would actually be the selected
countries if their economies would be responsible enough to resume themselves to their own biocapacities. The
secondary hypothesis is what global impact has the complete disregard of the planet‟s limited capacity to support
social and economical activities. The empirical analysis will provide answers to both questions, emphasizing once
more the interdependencies between the global actors and the need to incorporate the environmental perspective
when analyzing the economic performance of a country.

The last century provided the stage for important changes in the productivity of all industries. ... more The last century provided the stage for important changes in the productivity of all industries. The Industrial Revolution together with the several technological revolutions enhanced the growth rhythm of economies by introducing new and improved production means. This article analyses several indicators of productivity for five European countries, during the last decades of the 20th century and the first of the 21st century. The research is based on statistical data provided by EU KLEMS, OECD and The New Maddison Project and the reviewed period is 1970-2007. The countries that have been the focus of our research are Finland, France, Germany, Greece and Spain. The choice of countries is justified by the need to approach both countries that are well known for their productivity enhancing methods and countries that have entered the race at a later stage. Another reason motivating our selection is the fact that we wanted to include countries from Northern, Central and Southern Europe. The research is based on input-output indexes used to emphasise the productivity of labour and capital and its evolution over the time. The basic research question of the present paper is whether there are largely different methods for computing productivity or we can consider the existence of a single theoretical concept measured in many ways. Subsequently, we wanted to verify whether these measurements reflect different underlying realities or if they are just different representations of the same process.

Economic productivity is a complex phenomenon that serves to highlight how efficient an economic ... more Economic productivity is a complex phenomenon that serves to highlight how efficient an economic process is. However, the existing paradigms for measuring productivity are not coherent, presenting us with a heterogeneous concept too scattered to prove significant for the policy makers. In this paper, we focus on the social implications of the economic development in our attempt to design an adequate measuring methodology able to capture the impact of the continuously growing productivity upon the quality of life in the selected countries. The research is based on statistical data provided by EU KLEMS, The World Bank, Eurostat and The New Maddison Project. The countries chosen for the empirical analysis belong to two groups: Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland and Sweden). The research is based on input-output indexes used to emphasize productivity, together with its social fairness component and its sustainability over time. The fundamental research hypothesis of this paper is whether the current economic productivity, socially adjusted by GINI, is sustainable. The secondary hypothesis is whether high levels of economic productivity represent a strong enough incentive to countervail the limited biocapacity of a country. The empirical analysis will answer both questions, highlighting the importance of the ecological reserves and the importance of addressing productivity also from a social and an environmental perspective, and not only the obsolete economic perspective.

Lucrarea prezintă economia mondială din perspectivă teoretică, prin prisma scrierilor unora dintr... more Lucrarea prezintă economia mondială din perspectivă teoretică, prin prisma scrierilor unora dintre cei mai importanţi teoreticieni, care au definit şi au dat substanţă domeniului. Pornind de la distincţia dintre componenta socială şi componenta matematicistă a ştiinţei economice, surprindem schimbările conceptului survenite ca urmare a schimbării comportamentului şi rolului individului în societate. De-a lungul timpului, teoreticienii au dezvoltat modele conceptuale şi metode de analiză dintre cele mai riguroase în încercarea lor de a spori gradul de înţelegere al acestui procces, cel mai probabil unul dintre cele mai complexe ale vieţii sociale. Odată cu modelele şi metodele de analiză, s-au dezvoltat şi concepte care să le susţină, toate conducând la creşterea gradului de complexitate al ştiinţei economice şi toate constituind un pas înspre ceea ce este astăzi economia, respectiv ştiinţa economică. Economia contemporană, marcată de o serie de particularităţi incontestabile precum: globalizare, interdependenţă, inovaţii în domeniul tehnologic, mobilitate, este unul dintre cele mai dinamice procese ale vieţii sociale.

The article focuses on the development process within the European Union and the impact produced ... more The article focuses on the development process within the European Union and the impact produced by the economic crisis in 2008. The research is based on statistical date provided by Eurostat and the reviewed period is 2005-2011, three years before the year of the crisis, the year of the crisis and three years after it. The object of the research contains twelve elements: European Union, Euro Area, the five most developed countries within the EU (Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Austria) and the 5 least developed countries within the EU (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria). The key indicators discussed are GDP and Inequality of income distribution, together with the correlations between them. The results are presented in an attempt to demonstrate the incapacity of the European Union to deal with issues that have been its priorities for over half century. The paper demonstrates that there is a correlation between GDP and Inequality of income distribution, not as strong as expected, and also the fact that these correlations generate related development challenges concerning the social equity between people and countries.

Această lucrare prezintă formarea profesională continuă ca element de influenţă a procesului de d... more Această lucrare prezintă formarea profesională continuă ca element de influenţă a procesului de dezvoltare socială şi economică din Uniunea Europeană şi din România. În prima parte este definită formarea profesională continuă şi sunt prezentate câteva dintre caracteristicile ei definitorii aşa cum apar ele în legislaţia specifică domeniului, dar şi în anumite lucrări de specialitate. Ulterior, studiul se împarte în două direcţii: formarea profesională continuă în Uniunea Europeană, respectiv formarea profesională în România, cu câteva date, caracteristici şi concluzii. Toate acestea conduc spre relevarea importanţei FPC în creşterea calităţii capitalului uman, implicit a productivităţii companiilor.

Books by Iris Mihai

The Century of Science: The Global Triumph of the Research University, Sep 2017

In The Century of Science — edited by Justin J.W. Powell, David P. Baker, and Frank Fernandez — a... more In The Century of Science — edited by Justin J.W. Powell, David P. Baker, and Frank Fernandez — a multicultural, international team of authors examines the global rise of scholarly research in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and health (STEM+) fields. At the beginning of the 20th century, the global center-point of scientific productivity was about half way between Western Europe and the U.S., in the North Atlantic. Then, the center moved steadily westward and slightly southward—reflecting the burgeoning science capacity of the U.S. supported by America’s thriving public and private universities, technological innovation, and overall economic growth. After WWII, this began to change as the course of the world’s scientific center of gravity turned and for the next 70 years traveled eastward, the direction it still travels, especially due to the rise of China and other prolific East Asian countries, such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Europe continues to be the center of global science. Focusing on these developments, this volume provides historical and sociological understandings of the ways that higher education has become an institution that, more than ever before, shapes science and society. Case studies, supported by the most historically and spatially extensive database on STEM+ publications available, of selected countries in Europe, North America, East Asia, and the Middle East, emphasize recurring themes: the institutionalization and differentiation of higher education systems to the proliferation of university-based scientific research fostered by research policies that support continued university expansion leading to the knowledge society. Growing worldwide, research universities appear to be the most legitimate sites for knowledge production.

Countries like France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan began the 20th century with prerequisites in place to realize the emerging model of university-based research. Over the past several decades, China, South Korea, and Taiwan, with different historical legacies and conflicts in education and research policy, have witnessed explosive growth, sustained by public and private funds. Qatar recently embarked on an ambitious government-driven effort to develop a world-class university sector and cultivate academic STEM+ research from scratch. These more recent entrants to the global scientific enterprise pose the question whether it is possible to leapfrog across decades, or even centuries, of cultivating university systems, to compete globally. Simultaneously with international and regional competition, world-leading science increasingly implies collaboration across cultural and political borders as global scientific production and networking continue to rise exponentially.

This volume’s case studies offer new insights into how countries develop the university-based knowledge thought fundamental to meeting social needs and economic demands. Despite repeated warnings that universities would lose in relevance to other organizational forms in the production of knowledge, our findings demonstrate incontrovertibly that universities have become more—not less—important actors in the world of knowledge. The past hundred years have seen the global triumph of the research university.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2018

Economic productivity is a complex concept used to capture how efficient an economic process is a... more Economic productivity is a complex concept used to capture how efficient an economic process is at a given moment in time. However, the way we measure productivity doesn't seem to capture the way productivity influences the social justice or the way social justice influences productivity. In this paper, we focus on the social implications of the economic development in our attempt to design an adequate measuring methodology able to capture the impact of the continuously growing productivity upon the quality of life in the selected countries. The research is on statistical data provided by OECD, The World Bank and Eurostat. The countries chosen for the empirical analysis have been selected on the basis of their GDP, more explicitly, we have selected all the countries that have a GDP higher than 1000 billion S. The research is based on input-output indexes used to emphasize productivity, together with variables that capture the social fairness component. The fundamental research hypothesis of this paper is whether the current economic development, made possible by the increases in productivity, improves the quality of life in the selected countries or it stands as a tool for economic dispersion resulting into the widening of the gap between the rich and poor. In other words, are the more productive economies also the more social responsible ones? The research provides answers to both questions, in the same time uncovering future research directions.

International Perspectives on Education and Society

the SPHERE project organized an international team of researchers who established and coded the g... more the SPHERE project organized an international team of researchers who established and coded the global database and conducted the case studies in this volume. At the Institute for Higher Education Research (HoF) of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, our team member Manfred Stock hosted several important project meetings to discuss theory and data, continuing formative conversations we had had with Gero Lenhardt over the years, especially during original project conceptualization discussions at the WZB Social Science Center Berlin, Germany. HoF researcher Isabell Maue contributed coding of the organizational data for Germany, as did Pauline Siebert in Halle and Leipzig, and Gudrun Calow was unfailingly supportive in administration at HoF Wittenberg. The entire team gratefully acknowledges the assistance in Qatar throughout the project provided by project manager Roshi Moeini. We also thank Georgetown student research assistants

Logos Universality Mentality Education Novelty: Economics & Administrative Sciences

It has been a while since we have started understanding the effects of our economic activity. But... more It has been a while since we have started understanding the effects of our economic activity. But are we really doing anything about it? In this paper, we aim at introducing and presenting a new indicator meant to tell the story of economic productivity beyond its economic implications. The construction of the new indicator starts by computing national economic productivity as a sum of labor and capital productivity. The national economic productivity is introduced in a multiplicative equation with reversed GINI coefficient, the human development index and a ratio of biocapacity and ecological footprint of consumption. The reversed GINI coefficient corrects the value of the national economic productivity by accounting for the inequality of the distribution of income. The human development index captivates the quality of life beyond the distribution of income with areas like education and health. The ratio between the biocapacity and the ecological footprint of consumption showcases ...

Economic productivity is a complex phenomenon that serves to highlight how efficient an economic ... more Economic productivity is a complex phenomenon that serves to highlight how efficient an economic process is. However, the existing paradigms for measuring productivity are not coherent, presenting us with a heterogeneous concept too scattered to prove significant for the policy makers. In this paper, we focus on the social implications of the economic development in our attempt to design an adequate measuring methodology able to capture the impact of the continuously growing productivity upon the quality of life in the selected countries. The research is based on statistical data provided by EU KLEMS, The World Bank, Eurostat and The New Maddison Project. The countries chosen for the empirical analysis belong to two groups: Baltic

The Century of Science: The Global Triumph of the Research University, Sep 1, 2017

In The Century of Science — edited by Justin J.W. Powell, David P. Baker, and Frank Fernandez — a... more In The Century of Science — edited by Justin J.W. Powell, David P. Baker, and Frank Fernandez — a multicultural, international team of authors examines the global rise of scholarly research in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and health (STEM+) fields. At the beginning of the 20th century, the global center-point of scientific productivity was about half way between Western Europe and the U.S., in the North Atlantic. Then, the center moved steadily westward and slightly southward—reflecting the burgeoning science capacity of the U.S. supported by America’s thriving public and private universities, technological innovation, and overall economic growth. After WWII, this began to change as the course of the world’s scientific center of gravity turned and for the next 70 years traveled eastward, the direction it still travels, especially due to the rise of China and other prolific East Asian countries, such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Europe continues to be the cent...

Microeconomics: Input-Output Tables & Analysis eJournal, 2014

Economic productivity is a complex phenomenon that serves to highlight how efficient an economic ... more Economic productivity is a complex phenomenon that serves to highlight how efficient an economic process is. However, the existing paradigms for measuring productivity are not coherent, presenting us with a heterogeneous concept too scattered to prove significant for the policy makers. In this paper, we focus on the social implications of the economic development in our attempt to design an adequate measuring methodology able to capture the impact of the continuously growing productivity upon the quality of life in the selected countries. The research is based on statistical data provided by EU KLEMS, The World Bank, Eurostat and The New Maddison Project. The countries chosen for the empirical analysis belong to two groups: Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland and Sweden). The research is based on input-output indexes used to emphasize productivity, together with its social fairness component and its sustainability over time. Th...

Purpose The authors seek to better understand the relationships between science production, natio... more Purpose The authors seek to better understand the relationships between science production, national wealth, inequality, and human development around the globe. Design The chapter uses econometric models, including Granger causality, to test alternate hypotheses about whether more economic wealth is related to more science or if more science leads to more wealth. Findings The immediate result of our models is that a country’s wealth contributes to the conditions necessary for productive science. While large countries produce many research articles in the STEM+ fields more or less irrespective of their per capita GDP, with countries like the Soviet Union, China, or India being important contributors to world science, the most productive countries were the richer ones. GDP per capita values are important predictors for higher numbers of STEM+ research articles adjusted for population size. Nevertheless, human development and income equality also have a positive relationship with scien...

This paper analyses the factors that have shaped the Armenian identity over time, based on the ma... more This paper analyses the factors that have shaped the Armenian identity over time, based on the main historical events and strategic actors who made their contribution to the becoming of the Armenian people and their identity. The central issue of the article is the Armenian genocide which had a major influence on the way that Armenians see themselves and the world around them, today. The study revealed that not only the genocide that happened almost a century ago, had a major impact on the Armenian identity, but also the current recognition or denial of facts by the contemporary world. In this respect, the role of the Diaspora proved priceless, because they were the ones that pressured their host countries to recognize the genocide and to support Armenia. The topic is presented form a phenomenological perspective, trying to capture the human experience in the way it was perceived by the Armenian people.

The last century provided the stage for important changes in the productivity of all industries. ... more The last century provided the stage for important changes in the productivity of all industries. The Industrial Revolution together with the several technological revolutions enhanced the growth rhythm of economies by introducing new and improved production means. This article analyses several indicators of productivity for five European countries, during the last decades of the 20th century and the first of the 21st century. The research is based on statistical data provided by EU KLEMS, OECD and The New Maddison Project and the reviewed period is 1970-2007. The countries that have been the focus of our research are Finland, France, Germany, Greece and Spain. The choice of countries is justified by the need to approach both countries that are well known for their productivity enhancing methods and countries that have entered the race at a later stage. Another reason motivating our selection is the fact that we wanted to include countries from Northern, Central and Southern Europe. ...

Productivity is a totem of economic performance; depending on the perspective one wants to captur... more Productivity is a totem of economic performance; depending on the perspective one wants to capture, productivity can reflect the performance of the labor force, capital, know-how, time, financial resources etc. In this paper we have chosen to analyze the productivity of the twelve most unsustainable economies worldwide: United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Belgium, Kuwait, Singapore, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Macedonia, Japan and the United States of America. The research is based on statistical data provided by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program and the Global Footprint Network. The research is based on economical, environmental and development indexes used to evaluate productivity adjusted by the ecological deficit of the nations. The fundamental research hypothesis of this paper is how productive would actually be the selected countries if their economies would be responsible enough to resume themselves to their own biocapacities. The secon...

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences

Annals Economy Series, 2014

Productivity is a totem of economic performance; depending on the perspective one wants to captur... more Productivity is a totem of economic performance; depending on the perspective one wants to capture, productivity
can reflect the performance of the labor force, capital, know-how, time, financial resources etc. In this paper we have
chosen to analyze the productivity of the twelve most unsustainable economies worldwide: United Arab Emirates,
Qatar, Belgium, Kuwait, Singapore, Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Macedonia, Japan and
the United States of America. The research is based on statistical data provided by the World Bank, the United
Nations Development Program and the Global Footprint Network. The research is based on economical,
environmental and development indexes used to evaluate productivity adjusted by the ecological deficit of the
nations. The fundamental research hypothesis of this paper is how productive would actually be the selected
countries if their economies would be responsible enough to resume themselves to their own biocapacities. The
secondary hypothesis is what global impact has the complete disregard of the planet‟s limited capacity to support
social and economical activities. The empirical analysis will provide answers to both questions, emphasizing once
more the interdependencies between the global actors and the need to incorporate the environmental perspective
when analyzing the economic performance of a country.

The last century provided the stage for important changes in the productivity of all industries. ... more The last century provided the stage for important changes in the productivity of all industries. The Industrial Revolution together with the several technological revolutions enhanced the growth rhythm of economies by introducing new and improved production means. This article analyses several indicators of productivity for five European countries, during the last decades of the 20th century and the first of the 21st century. The research is based on statistical data provided by EU KLEMS, OECD and The New Maddison Project and the reviewed period is 1970-2007. The countries that have been the focus of our research are Finland, France, Germany, Greece and Spain. The choice of countries is justified by the need to approach both countries that are well known for their productivity enhancing methods and countries that have entered the race at a later stage. Another reason motivating our selection is the fact that we wanted to include countries from Northern, Central and Southern Europe. The research is based on input-output indexes used to emphasise the productivity of labour and capital and its evolution over the time. The basic research question of the present paper is whether there are largely different methods for computing productivity or we can consider the existence of a single theoretical concept measured in many ways. Subsequently, we wanted to verify whether these measurements reflect different underlying realities or if they are just different representations of the same process.

Economic productivity is a complex phenomenon that serves to highlight how efficient an economic ... more Economic productivity is a complex phenomenon that serves to highlight how efficient an economic process is. However, the existing paradigms for measuring productivity are not coherent, presenting us with a heterogeneous concept too scattered to prove significant for the policy makers. In this paper, we focus on the social implications of the economic development in our attempt to design an adequate measuring methodology able to capture the impact of the continuously growing productivity upon the quality of life in the selected countries. The research is based on statistical data provided by EU KLEMS, The World Bank, Eurostat and The New Maddison Project. The countries chosen for the empirical analysis belong to two groups: Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland and Sweden). The research is based on input-output indexes used to emphasize productivity, together with its social fairness component and its sustainability over time. The fundamental research hypothesis of this paper is whether the current economic productivity, socially adjusted by GINI, is sustainable. The secondary hypothesis is whether high levels of economic productivity represent a strong enough incentive to countervail the limited biocapacity of a country. The empirical analysis will answer both questions, highlighting the importance of the ecological reserves and the importance of addressing productivity also from a social and an environmental perspective, and not only the obsolete economic perspective.

Lucrarea prezintă economia mondială din perspectivă teoretică, prin prisma scrierilor unora dintr... more Lucrarea prezintă economia mondială din perspectivă teoretică, prin prisma scrierilor unora dintre cei mai importanţi teoreticieni, care au definit şi au dat substanţă domeniului. Pornind de la distincţia dintre componenta socială şi componenta matematicistă a ştiinţei economice, surprindem schimbările conceptului survenite ca urmare a schimbării comportamentului şi rolului individului în societate. De-a lungul timpului, teoreticienii au dezvoltat modele conceptuale şi metode de analiză dintre cele mai riguroase în încercarea lor de a spori gradul de înţelegere al acestui procces, cel mai probabil unul dintre cele mai complexe ale vieţii sociale. Odată cu modelele şi metodele de analiză, s-au dezvoltat şi concepte care să le susţină, toate conducând la creşterea gradului de complexitate al ştiinţei economice şi toate constituind un pas înspre ceea ce este astăzi economia, respectiv ştiinţa economică. Economia contemporană, marcată de o serie de particularităţi incontestabile precum: globalizare, interdependenţă, inovaţii în domeniul tehnologic, mobilitate, este unul dintre cele mai dinamice procese ale vieţii sociale.

The article focuses on the development process within the European Union and the impact produced ... more The article focuses on the development process within the European Union and the impact produced by the economic crisis in 2008. The research is based on statistical date provided by Eurostat and the reviewed period is 2005-2011, three years before the year of the crisis, the year of the crisis and three years after it. The object of the research contains twelve elements: European Union, Euro Area, the five most developed countries within the EU (Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Austria) and the 5 least developed countries within the EU (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria). The key indicators discussed are GDP and Inequality of income distribution, together with the correlations between them. The results are presented in an attempt to demonstrate the incapacity of the European Union to deal with issues that have been its priorities for over half century. The paper demonstrates that there is a correlation between GDP and Inequality of income distribution, not as strong as expected, and also the fact that these correlations generate related development challenges concerning the social equity between people and countries.

Această lucrare prezintă formarea profesională continuă ca element de influenţă a procesului de d... more Această lucrare prezintă formarea profesională continuă ca element de influenţă a procesului de dezvoltare socială şi economică din Uniunea Europeană şi din România. În prima parte este definită formarea profesională continuă şi sunt prezentate câteva dintre caracteristicile ei definitorii aşa cum apar ele în legislaţia specifică domeniului, dar şi în anumite lucrări de specialitate. Ulterior, studiul se împarte în două direcţii: formarea profesională continuă în Uniunea Europeană, respectiv formarea profesională în România, cu câteva date, caracteristici şi concluzii. Toate acestea conduc spre relevarea importanţei FPC în creşterea calităţii capitalului uman, implicit a productivităţii companiilor.

The Century of Science: The Global Triumph of the Research University, Sep 2017

In The Century of Science — edited by Justin J.W. Powell, David P. Baker, and Frank Fernandez — a... more In The Century of Science — edited by Justin J.W. Powell, David P. Baker, and Frank Fernandez — a multicultural, international team of authors examines the global rise of scholarly research in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and health (STEM+) fields. At the beginning of the 20th century, the global center-point of scientific productivity was about half way between Western Europe and the U.S., in the North Atlantic. Then, the center moved steadily westward and slightly southward—reflecting the burgeoning science capacity of the U.S. supported by America’s thriving public and private universities, technological innovation, and overall economic growth. After WWII, this began to change as the course of the world’s scientific center of gravity turned and for the next 70 years traveled eastward, the direction it still travels, especially due to the rise of China and other prolific East Asian countries, such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Europe continues to be the center of global science. Focusing on these developments, this volume provides historical and sociological understandings of the ways that higher education has become an institution that, more than ever before, shapes science and society. Case studies, supported by the most historically and spatially extensive database on STEM+ publications available, of selected countries in Europe, North America, East Asia, and the Middle East, emphasize recurring themes: the institutionalization and differentiation of higher education systems to the proliferation of university-based scientific research fostered by research policies that support continued university expansion leading to the knowledge society. Growing worldwide, research universities appear to be the most legitimate sites for knowledge production.

Countries like France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan began the 20th century with prerequisites in place to realize the emerging model of university-based research. Over the past several decades, China, South Korea, and Taiwan, with different historical legacies and conflicts in education and research policy, have witnessed explosive growth, sustained by public and private funds. Qatar recently embarked on an ambitious government-driven effort to develop a world-class university sector and cultivate academic STEM+ research from scratch. These more recent entrants to the global scientific enterprise pose the question whether it is possible to leapfrog across decades, or even centuries, of cultivating university systems, to compete globally. Simultaneously with international and regional competition, world-leading science increasingly implies collaboration across cultural and political borders as global scientific production and networking continue to rise exponentially.

This volume’s case studies offer new insights into how countries develop the university-based knowledge thought fundamental to meeting social needs and economic demands. Despite repeated warnings that universities would lose in relevance to other organizational forms in the production of knowledge, our findings demonstrate incontrovertibly that universities have become more—not less—important actors in the world of knowledge. The past hundred years have seen the global triumph of the research university.