• Energy Research

One of the approaches describing the strategic vision initiated by the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart sustainable and inclusive growth considers that increasing public expenses with education can help in achieving its goals. Concomitantly, higher levels of educational attainment are supposed to at least partially offset the negative effects of economic crises. Nevertheless, one of the consequences of this strategic approach—overeducation—tends to be underrated. This article aims to analyse the influence of the institutional arrangements of the business environment and labour market on overeducation in Romania. For this purpose, we designed two indicators for the institutional quality of business environment and labour market. Their evolutions were compared with the change in the unemployment rate among tertiary graduates. The research reveals that in Romania, the quality of institutional arrangements can still be improved, and that one of its negative consequences is unemployment and an exacerbated number of tertiary graduates in the higher education system. An inverse relationship has been identified between the quality of institutional arrangements of business environment and labour market, on one hand, and the rate of tertiary graduates who never worked in the total unemployed tertiary graduates, on the other hand.

Fighting corruption and enhancing tax compliance through digital public services represent key factors for increasing sustainable development in Romania. We argue that fighting corruption may increase the level of sustainable development, through digital pubic services. Using digital public services leads to the increase of the level of tax compliance, because entrepreneurs will feel more confident and responsible and they will decide to better comply. Tax regulations can affect the level of tax compliance through the additional costs they generate. The discussion is based on the consideration of the costs generated by compliant behavior and we explain how such costs influence the entrepreneurs’ decision in the fiscal environment. If the costs are higher, entrepreneurs will take evasive initiatives and will refuse to comply. Among the numerous tools developed to fight corruption, the use of communication technologies has recently been researched and there is still need for further research in the Romanian economic environment. The use of digital public services reduces costs for entrepreneurs and increases their confidence in state institutions due to higher levels of transparency. We argue for increasing sustainable development in Romania through digital public services, thus fighting corruption and enhancing tax compliance.