ROMANIAN RURAL AREA TYPOLOGY BY THE INEQUALITY LEVEL - A MULTICRITERIAL APPROACH –

1. ROMANIAN RURAL AREA TYPOLOGY BY THE INEQUALITY LEVEL- A MULTICRITERIAL APPROACH – Monica Mihaela Tudor Institute of Agricultural Economics Bucharest, Romania

2. One of the most important aspects of the economic and social rhetoric in the last years, in academic and political circles is SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY: • complexity and dimension of the inter-individual inequalities • interdependence between the different aspects governing people’s lives • impact of the inequalityes upon human development in general

3. Project description Title: “Economic-social models to attenuate the inequalities in the rural areas by regions” Period: 2008 – 2011 Financed by : Romanian Ministry of Education and Research “Partnership” Program Coordinator of the project: Institute of Agricultural Economics, Bucharest Partners: Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Bucharest Institute of Economic and Social Research, Iasi University of Pitesti

4. Inequality - definition • Inequality in opportunities between communes • Deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption level

5. Objectives • Identify major sources of inequality in the Romanian rural area II. The theoretical model aggregating the rural inequality indicators was constructed on the basis of those aspects of inequality with the greatest mutual driving force and permits the evaluation of the socio-economic inequality level that the population in a given area is facing. III. Typology of the Romanian rural area by rural inequality level

6. Methodology • Diagnosis analyses of the Romanian rural area – -identification of a set of socio-economic dimensions describing the condition and extent of rural inequality • Factorialanalyses - identify major sources of inequality in the Romanian rural area • Cluster method - The hierarchy of rural communities by the socio-economic inequality level reveals the areas that are most vulnerable to the inequality risk

7. I. Identify major sources of inequality in the Rural Romania (1) On the basis of the diagnosis analyses by regions, a set of five criteria has been selected describing and conditioning the rural inequality level in Romania. MATRIX OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY CRITERIA Criterion 1: TERRITORY EQUIPMENT – provides information on the on-dwelling comfort; rural technical infrastructure as support to rural development – to business environment included. Criterion 2: DEMO-SOCIAL DIMENSION – provides information on the local demographic perspectives, on the disintegration of family values, living attractiveness of the zone and the socio-economic opportunities that the respective area is presumed to provide, etc. Criterion 3: SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE – provides information on the educational and health infrastructure and them adequacy for the community needs; potential access to ICT, etc. Criterion 4: ECONOMIC DIMENSION – provides information on paid job access opportunities and the rural population’s dependence on the social transfers and agriculture, agricultural land operation intensification, development of economic activities complementary to agriculture, the abilities to promote rural services complementary to agriculture, etc. Criterion 5: INVESTMENTS – reveals the projection on the future development potential of the rural community, etc.

8. I. Identify major sources of inequality in the rural Romania (2) Each criterion is associated to a number of indicators that describe the inequality level, calculated at the level of commune, on the basis of available statistical data from the NIS local database 2008 Importance of socio-economic inequality criteria and indicators in explaining the general variation of the inequality level between rural communities in Romania

9. Importance of socio-economic inequality criteria by regions (% in total variation of cumulated inequality) Socio-economic inequality criteria

10. III. Typology of the Romanian rural area by rural inequality level (1) Community profile of rural inequality in Romania According to the cumulated intensity of the manifestation of the factors that describe the socio-economic inequalities: rural communities characterized by a lower rural socio-economic inequality level (cluster I – 20.5% of communes) rural communities characterized by a medium rural socio-economic inequality level (cluster II – 40.7% of communes) rural communities characterized by a higher rural socio-economic inequality level (cluster III– 38.8% of communes).

11. III. Typology of the Romanian rural area by rural inequality level(2) Average value of rural inequality matrix indicators by clusters

12. Conclusions • The hierarchy of the main inequality sources in Romania’s rural area led to the conclusion that the element that mostly conditions the socio-economic inequality in rural Romania is those regarding the demographic disequilibria (demo-social dimension). • This is followed, as source of socio-economic inequality: • Territory equipment • Economic development of the area providing job opportunities • Social infrastructure • Investments

13. Conclusions • The rural communities characterized by a MEDIUM and LOW level of rural socio-economic inequality (Cluster II and I): → from the point of view of territorial distribution are mainly found in the mountain and plateau area; → these communes have a wide range of resources that provide them occupational opportunities.

14. Conclusions The rural communities that cumulate the most economic and social vulnerability sources (cluster III) are: • Grouped into relatively compact areas, • These are, in general, communes located in the plain areas, whoselocal economies highly depend on agriculture, • Providing relatively few opportunities for ascending occupational mobility as the nearest areas are also less attractive to investors. Urgent corrective interventions are needed in these rural areas in order to remove the sources of social inequalities as there is the risk of an increase in the negative social and economic effects translated into the absence of available resources and access to resources that should sustain an acceptable human development for the 21st century.

15. CRISAN COMMUNE is located in TULCEA county rural communities characterized by a lower rural socio-economic inequality level According to the cumulated intensity of the manifestation of the factors that describe the socio-economic inequalities CRISAN COMMUNE IS INCLUDED IN CLUSTER I

16. Average value of rural inequality matrix indicators

17. Thank you for your attention ! Monica Mihaela TUDOR Institute of Agricultural Economics Bucharest monik_sena@yahoo.com