EU countries to measure human development incorporating the ambient PM2.5 concentration effect. Using a principal component analysis, we extract the information for 2010 and 2015 using the Real GDP/capita, the life expectancy at birth, tertiary educational attainment, ambient PM2.5 concentration, and the death rate due to exposure to ambient PM2.5 concentration for 29 European countries. This paper has two main results: it gives an overview about the relationship between human development and ambient PM2.5 concentration, and second, it provides a new quantitative measure, PHDI, which reshapes the concept of human development and the exposure to ambient PM2.5 concentration. Using rating classes, we defined thresholds for both HDI and PHDI values to group the countries in four categories. When comparing the migration matrix from 2010 to 2015 for HDI values, some countries improved the development indicator (Romania, Poland, Malta, Estonia, Cyprus), while no downgrades were observed. When comparing the transition matrix using the newly developed indicator, PHDI, the upgrades observed were for Denmark and Estonia, while some countries like Spain and Italy moved to a lower rating class due to ambient PM2.5 concentration.

The complexity of the public sector generated by the mobilisation and use of significant financial resources, national cultural factors, the heterogeneity of the provision of public services, the numerous interested parties, the increasing demand for the quality of public services, the information asymmetry, require an actor to provide credible assurance regarding the proper management of public financial resources. In this context, performance audits are the link between public sector entities and stakeholders. The research has two components: the first component analyzes the degree of harmonization of the regulations specific to the performance audit in Romania with the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI); the second component analyses the degree of transparency of performance audit information by the SAIs of the EU Member States, through their official websites. In this regard, we have resorted to an in-depth longitudinal study, content analysis and disclosure index. The research results highlighted that the Romanian SAI has adopted in its normative framework the foremost ISSAI provisions on performance audit and the harmonization degree has systematically improved correlative with the regulatory revisions. The degree of disclosure for performance audit-specific information by the EU member state SAIs is high.

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTING EDUCATION FOR UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATES

The current context, dominated by climate change, resource constraints, health and financial crises, the need for continuity and increased profitability of companies, increasing stakeholder interest in environmental risks and non-financial information, requires addressing business from the perspective of environmental, social and governance standards. Companies will therefore integrate their sustainability performance objectives, complementary to their profitability objectives. Thus, the objective of this research is to measure the impact that sustainability performance has on company profitability. The research approach is two-dimensional. The first dimension considers the literature review on conceptual approaches specific to environmental, social, governance standards. The results highlighted the upward trend and the diversity of facets related to environmental, social, governance standards. The second dimension is a quantitative research that aims to measure the impact that sustainability performance (ESG score) has on the profitability of listed companies in Europe. The research data was collected for the period 2020-2022 from the Refinitiv database (LSEG Data & Analytics). The results revealed an increase in interest in sustainability performance of listed companies in Europe, both from the perspective of the reporting companies and in terms of the global average ESG score, during the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic. From the perspective of the regional affiliation of the reporting companies, Southern Europe is the best performing pole in terms of average ESG score, followed by Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Europe and the last position is occupied by Northern Europe. The results also showed that the ESG score has a positive but insignificant influence on the profitability of the sampled companies. This research complements the literature, given the topicality and importance of ESG issues, but is also relevant for stakeholders interested in the sustainability of companies' business.

This research aims to identify trends in corporate governance research, the relationship between corporate governance and internal auditing, and the factors that have led to changes in corporate governance. We used a structured literature review of the corporate governance literature based on a sample of 29 articles extracted from the Web of Science, the sample covering the period from January 2007 to May 2024. The research highlighted the diversity of research topics, methodologies, and research tools used to address corporate governance, as well as the important contribution of audit journals in disseminating studies on this topic. Global regulatory changes and alignment, financial crises and stock market crashes, transparency, independence of boards of directors have brought about a paradigm shift in corporate governance. The study provides a global picture of corporate governance in the recent dedicated literature with evidence for directions that still needs to be approached. The study provides useful insights for regulators and corporate management when analyzing and establishing governance good practices. Research adds value to the literature by identifying multidimensional conceptual coordinates of corporate governance, as well as outlining new research directions.