The drivers of economic growth and development are among the most important issues explored by economic theory. Sustainability of economic development was previously linked by various economic schools of thought to natural resources (agriculture, land, minerals, metals etc.), labor force (including skills, productivity, and education), entrepreneurship or technology and innovation. Capital was later introduced by classical economic theory as the key element. Without significant capital accumulation, all other production factors remain idle. The value added of the production process is a result of the existence, the accessibility and the cost of capital. Therefore, the development and the sophistication of the financial sector has gradually become very important for any nation interested in sustainable growth. This paper investigates the impact of financial sector development, sophistication and performance on economic growth based on a panel regression methodology. We found statistically significant results that confirm the importance of this connection and that are very consistent with economic theory and previous relevant articles and studies.

Digitalization has become more and more important for economic activities and economic development. E-commerce, as a part of local and international trade, is of increasing importance and is highly correlated with technological progress and innovation. Our research investigates the relevance of selected drivers that could explain the latest e-commerce adoption at global level. In our analysis, we used the UNCTAD B2C E-commerce Index (2014–2020, yearly data, covering 133 countries, 931 observations) which can be considered relevant to express an economy’s readiness to support e-commerce. E-commerce adoption is assessed in our research by the following six factors: (i) wealth, economic freedom, and economic development; (ii) access and sophistication of the financial sector; (iii) education; (iv) regulations; (v) development of ICT infrastructure; and (vi) frontier drivers (such as AI, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain technologies). In our research, we used a panel data analysis framework using hard data provided by different databases (UNCTAD, World Bank, etc.). The results we obtained confirmed that developed countries with a higher income level are higher adopters of e-commerce, financial development and the accessibility of financial services significantly help e-commerce adoption, a regulatory system (particularly economic freedom and property rights) strongly supports e-commerce adoption, education has a positive impact on e-commerce adoption, ICT infrastructure increases the adoption of e-commerce and the readiness and use of AI, and frontier technologies generate an increased adoption of e-commerce. The results we obtained are consistent with the findings of similar studies (most of them using different research methodologies) and opens the ground for interesting discussions and further research developments. The novelty of our research consists in the exhaustive perspective on e-commerce adoption drivers (including frontier technologies such as AI or blockchain) based on hard country data collected from various sources for a consistent panel of countries and a relevant number of years, providing an alternative approach to the mainstream studies on e-commerce adoption that process data from surveys, interviews, or focus groups.

The paper takes into discussion the issue of quality of higher education services, from the perspective of graduates and employers as main beneficiaries of higher education services, by putting face to face expectations of students at graduation with employers’ requirements. In the two surveys conducted in 2006 in Romania, both graduates and employers have been asked about skills and abilities developed through higher education programmes and the extent to which these correspond to their expectations and requirements. The discussion is relevant to the vast literature presenting the skills debate, employment and graduates transition to the labour market, as well as to the literature presenting students’ expectations from higher education.

Minimum wage laws have become one of the most debated state interventions in the economy, being considered by many specialists as a very efficient tool used to correct certain labour market failures. The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between minimum wage and employment dynamics, with a special focus on some vulnerable categories recognized in the literature (young people, female workers, the elderly, etc.). Thus, we analysed the relation between the dynamics of minimum wages and that of employment in 22 EU countries, panel data (1999–2016). The results suggest a negative impact of the minimum wage on total employment and on sensitive categories (youth, female workers, the elderly). The long-running negative impact holds for all but one group (55–64 years). The models were tested for random and fixed effects and the results were correspondingly adjusted with country and time and random and fixed effects. Cointegration tests and the tests using lagged minimum wage also confirm a robust relationship between the dynamics of the minimum wage and that of employment over time. Our findings are consistent with many previous studies and confirm the recommendations to prudently use this public policy tool.

The participation of central banks in the fight against climate change has recently been advanced in several academic articles and policy papers. Since the emerging consensus is that climate change poses financial risks, the envisaged green central banking has a responsibility to address environmental sustainability as a means of promoting financial stability—an increasingly accepted goal of central banks in the post-financial crisis world. Thus far, the pro side of the argument is well represented in the literature, though often the benefits remain implicit: with the help of central banks via monetary and macroprudential policies, a smooth transition to a low-carbon economy would be somehow beneficial to all of us. With this article, we aim to add to this literature by looking at the costs and trade-offs of this course of action in light of the observation that the con side of the proposal has been only marginally addressed. We put forward a framework for the analysis of the costs and trade-offs of green central banking and exemplify the applicability of this framework by studying three cases of central banks for which the transition to green operation has been advanced. We find evidence that if costs and trade-offs are taken into account, the case in favor of greening central banks becomes less straightforward than is currently conveyed in the literature.

The current economic crisis emerged from a particular financial crisis that started in the United States and being rapidly propagated all over the world. It did not affect a limited region or a limited economic sector. This crisis induced significant changes in all management areas, including financial management. This study is focused on financing strategies adopted by shipping companies during the crisis, analyzing relevant factors for a specific issue - the capital structure. The research methodology proposed for this analysis on relevant factors that could explain the capital structure of shipping is OLS regression applied on selected variables derived from the financial statements of the major shipping companies. The dependent variables reflecting capital structure are book value to total liabilities ratio and book value to total debt ratio. The explanatory variables are derived from the theory of capital structure. This study empirically illustrates the relevance of the capital structure theory for the studied economic sector and is a useful tool for the shipping companies, providing relevant information about the optimal capital structure adopted by shipping companies and about factors that influence this decision during a crisis period.