Disparities in Regional Economic Development in Romania

Abstract The issue of economic disparities within the European Union economies is not new, it is actually a topical issue. Unfortunately, the EU enlargement has determined an even stronger deepening of the regional disparities, because in the absence of adequate regional development policies, the financial instruments have proved to be ineffective. Recent studies show that the economic crisis has increased regional disparities in the European Union countries, influencing the most important regions, especially the economically less advanced ones, the significant regional differences being identified at the NUTS 3 level. Based on these issues, the present paper tries to answer the following questions: 1. How extended are the regional disparities in Romania and how did they evolve over the period 1998-2012? 2. How did the economic crisis influence disparities? Which territorial units were more affected? In order to measure regional inequalities the Hoover index was used as well as the coefficient of variation, and the indicator for assessing the level of development as well as for highlighting regional disparities was GDP per capita. The analysis and interpretation of the results provide an overview of the situation at the regional level in Romania