Publication: Competitive Cities : Reshaping the Economic Geography of Romania
Loading...
Published
2013-12-26
ISSN
Date
2014-04-01
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This document examines the geographic distribution of employed individuals across Romania, the implications, and recommendations. Under optimal conditions, cities concentrate economic resources and human talent in a virtuous cycle of increasing urbanization that generates a diverse range of opportunities, enabling people to find better-paying jobs, companies to recruit employees with the right set of skills, and capital and ideas to flow across space more efficiently. The benefits of agglomeration kick in rapidly, increasing the attraction of cities as living and working spaces. However, in the short term, uneven development across regions is both a normal and an inevitable phenomenon. Regrettably, many policymakers tend to resist growing internal divergence, trying to artificially spread the benefits of growth evenly across space. In practice, however, such policies rarely have the intended effects, often wasting resources and slowing down the economy. The basic solution for lagging areas is instead to connect people living there to opportunities in growing cities and offer them access to basic infrastructure for encouraging short-term working mobility and discouraging depopulation/ peremptory migration in favor of intra- and inter-county commuting. In the long run, convergence in living standards will occur as benefits from leading areas spill over to surrounding communities and people who had left lagging areas bring back capital, jobs, and ideas.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2013. Competitive Cities : Reshaping the Economic Geography of Romania. Romania regional development program;. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17559 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Coordination of Strategies and Programs for EU and State-Funded Investments in Romania’s Infrastructure(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-03-27)This report provides a diagnostic and a set of recommendations for the coordination of infrastructure investments in three main sectors in Romania: roads; water and wastewater; and social infrastructure (education, health, culture, and sports). The proposals formulated are targeted primarily at the main client of this work, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration (MRDPA) and specifically at the Directorate General for Regional Development and Infrastructure (DG RDI), which manages the most important state-budget-funded program for local infrastructure investments – the National Local Development Program (PNDL). Other key stakeholders include the Center of Government (CoG), the Ministry of Public Finances, the Ministry of European Funds, other central authorities in charge of EU and/or state-funded investment programs, Regional Development Agencies, and county and local councils. While customized for the PNDL, the recommendations that follow can be replicated across all state-budget-funded investment programs. This report presents multiple instruments for promoting coordination: dedicated platforms, harmonization of investment programs (design, financing criteria, producers), and knowledge sharing of good practices at the local level.Publication A Framework for Urban Transport Projects : Operational Guidance for World Bank Staff(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-01)This paper starts with a brief perspective on urban transport in developing countries, followed by a detailed presentation of an overall framework for making projects in this sector. Additional details on cities and projects used as case studies are given in the accompanying tables. The challenge for the Bank is to assist client cities in providing transport infrastructure and services that respond to demographic, spatial and economic growth in ways that balance the many different competing interests. Reflecting the importance that poverty and environmental factors are given in its development lending, the key strategic goal of the Bank is to protect and nurture public transport services and non-motorized transport modes, with underlying meta-objectives of equity and sustainability. In the policy dimension, the following approach features: (i) the equitable allocation of existing/new street space to protect and nurture public transport, and non-motorized modes; (ii) a for-the market rather than in the market, on the street competitive model for public transport, with services operated by the private sector under strong public regulation, and oversight; (iii) a financially viable public transport system, with affordable fares commensurate with costs, and any necessary subsidies targeted to those in need; (iii) appropriate user charges for urban roads (parking and traffic); and (iv) feedback from transport demand to resource mobilization from within the sector. The investment dimension of the approach is increasingly oriented towards the provision and rehabilitation of public transport systems operating on exclusive rights of way, both roadway and rail-based, because of their potential for efficient, high-quality services as well as for being a vehicle for progress on several policy fronts. The final chapter illustrates a variety of ways in which this framework is reflected in the design of actual Bank-funded urban transport projects.Publication TRACE Model in Pilot Cities in Latin America(Washington, DC, 2015-05-19)This report, supported by the energy sector management assistance program (ESMAP), applies the tool for the rapid assessment of city energy (TRACE) to examine energy use in León, México. This study is one of three requested and conducted in 2013 by the World Bank Latin America and the Caribbean energy unit to begin a dialogue on energy efficiency (EE) potential in Latin America and Caribbean cities. In Puebla and León, TRACE helped the Mexican Secretary of Energy (SENER) develop an urban EE strategy. TRACE is a simple, practical tool for making rapid assessments of municipal energy use. It helps prioritize sectors that have the potential to save significant amounts of energy and identifies appropriate EE measures in six sectors - transport, municipal buildings, wastewater, streetlights, solid waste, and power and heat. Globally, the six are often managed by the cities which have substantial influence over public utility services. The study looked at six areas to determine the three that have the greatest savings potential and where the city has a significant degree of control: streetlights, solid waste, and municipal buildings.Publication Handshake, No. 4 (January 2012)(International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, 2012-01)This issue includes the following headings: mass rapid transit: a tool for urban expansion; financing: beyond sovereign guarantees; and low-income housing: lessons from Latin America.Publication Mainstreaming Gender in Road Transport : Operational Guidance for World Bank Staff(Washington, DC, 2010-03)The paper aims to provide guidance for both transport and gender specialists on how to mainstream gender-related considerations into road transport projects to improve development effectiveness, sustainability and to reduce gender inequality. The paper draws attention to the most basic ways in which gender affects and is affected by transport policies and projects and provides practical approaches to address gender-related problems in road transport projects. Women and men have different travel and transport needs due to their different social and economic roles and activities. Women also face different constraints than men in accessing, using and paying for transport services. Transport can play a significant role in ameliorating or exacerbating the life conditions of women, particularly when poor and living in developing countries, depending on the extent to which gender differences are taken into account. The paper provides examples of entry points for mainstreaming gender into various road project contexts in urban, rural areas, highlighting documented good practices in this area. The paper identifies opportunities where women can play a role in the planning and implementation of road transport operations, particularly through participatory approaches and labor-based road construction. Included is an innovative table that presents examples of data and indicators to be collected for creating a baseline and for measuring results at the project level.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
No results found.