Abstract
This article investigates if public investments in rural basic infrastructure represent the best strategy for boosting the local economy of rural communities from Romania. The article focuses on one specific program implemented under the Cohesion policy in the framework of the National Plan for Rural Development, called Measure 322. Geographically, the research included a sample of rural communities from the North-Western Region of Romania. Moreover, the study also looks at other determinants of local economic development (LED), rather than infrastructure investments, with a focus on certain features characterizing Romanian rural communities such as population size, isolation from urban centers, connection with European and national roads networks, educational stock, etc. The research included three steps, namely the construction of the LED Index, a cvasi-experimental research, and a regression model. Our main findings seem to suggest that, while investments in infrastructure do help, the development gap between beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries remains relatively the same. In terms of determinants of LED level, percentage of population with a university degree and connection to a European road are the most significant in the Romanian rural context.
Highlights
A recent report by the World Bank describes a troublesome reality regarding the uneven social and economic development of the regions in Romania, noting that there are ‘widening disparities in economic opportunity and poverty across these regions and between urban and rural areas’ [1] (p. 1)
The study looks at other determinants of local economic development (LED), rather than infrastructure investments, with a focus on certain features characterizing Romanian rural communities such as population size, isolation from urban centers, connection with European and national roads networks, educational stock, etc
To construct the LED Index, we used factorial analysis based on principal component analysis (PCA)
Summary
A recent report by the World Bank describes a troublesome reality regarding the uneven social and economic development of the regions in Romania, noting that there are ‘widening disparities in economic opportunity and poverty across these regions and between urban and rural areas’ [1] (p. 1). The rural areas suffer, amongst other factors, from poor access to public services, an infrastructure gap, and from generalized poverty. The situation is very dramatic especially in the mountain regions, where communities are extremely scattered and far away from major urban centers and access to basic services depends on road accessibility and connectivity. Sewage and water infrastructure are problematic—one in five rural people lack access to potable water, and a third live without access to a flush toilet [5]. Territorial disparities with regard to access to different types of infrastructure exist among rural communities—for example, the most affected communities by the lack of water infrastructure are the ones from the South and North-Eastern parts of Romania, where less than 1% of households have access to potable water [6] While a variety of classifications of infrastructure are available in the literature [8,9,10], in this article we will examine only basic physical infrastructure which includes local roads, water and sewage networks
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
