The paper addresses a current and growing phenomenon in the context of higher education massification, namely student employment in the Hungarian-Romanian cross-border area. Previous studies seek to reveal the negative but also positive effects of reducing the time required for learning activities at the expense of time spent at work. If we consider the decision to get a job during college from the perspective of students’ need to cover the financial costs, then the analysis of working students brings forward the issue of horizontal inequalities in higher education, with consequences also on inequalities in the labor market insertion. Our study aims to emphasize the characteristics of students’ options to work during their studies, describing their social and academic profile. From the perspective of the correlation between time assigned for study and the time assigned for work, we analyze the relationship between academic engagement and the employment status of students. Our study is based on data from the survey carried out within the HURO /0901/253/2.2.2 – HERD project among students from Hungary and Romania. Our results show that there are significant differences between the two countries in terms of the dimensions and structure of students’ employment. However, variables referring to country and universities (from Romania and Hungary) don’t have a significant impact in the regression model for employment status. Students from this region who are working while they study are those from the Master programs, those who need to pay their tuition, those with low household incomes and who had to work also during their high-school studies. Our data suggest that the main reason for working is the financial one. Interesting results were found regarding academic engagement. In our study, working students have a higher level of academic engagement.

The informal economy is a reality that influences the lives of people directly at the planetary level.The term "informal economy" is used to include all workers and businesses in rural or urban areas working in the informal environment. It is emphasized that informal employees are not able to be recognized and defended by the legal regulations in force.The global changes in the field of information and communication technologies have generated increased labor market competitiveness. Under these circumstances, there has been a more flexible relationship between employees and employers. The main purpose of the article is to examine the pros and cons of the informal economy. Knowing these arguments can be a source of effective measures aimed at counteracting the negative effects that such activities may have.Simultaneously encompasses a theoretical approach to the informal economy, describing areas where it is highlighted, the factors that generate it, its dimensions, the theories put forward by the various economically-specific schools describing this concept, research methods.

In the first decades of the 21st century, in a period characterized by turbulent, liberalized economic environment, in a world marked by a strong demographic growth, depletion of natural resources, climate change and destruction of ecosystems, we are more concerned than ever about the issues related to economic growth and development. In the first part of the paper, we presented the result of an overview study, based on which we synthesized the dynamics of the determinants of economic growth, after which we carried out a comparative study of economic growth and development. The second part of this paper presents a review of those economic indicators that are considered to be the most relevant in measuring economic development. The conclusions of the paper converge on the idea that, despite controversies regarding the importance of GDP as an indicator of economic development, it continues to remain the most present and important reference indicator in economic statistics. However, in order to obtain an accurate and more complex image of the economic and social performance, it is recommended to use several indicators in combination with GDP.