Comparative judgements related to economic systems (along with pending political ideologies) represent a subject of investigation that, at first glance, appertains to the "ABC" of social sciences, although the "literacy" of policy-makers, business officials, or public opinion reveals surprising understanding flaws. The academic environmentwhere there is a tacit consensus on the interdisciplinary character of such an approach, on the perpetual relevance within the various (sub)disciplines, and on the somewhat exhaustion of the subordinated debatesremains subtly divided on a series of theoretical delimitations or historical evidence. This article aims to highlight a (sub)domain of the comparative analysis regarding the economic systems in which the literature is not as polarized as it is rarefied: what roots and reverberations does "social responsibility" have within the main economic systems and where and how its "ecological sustainability" component manifests itself? The present research targets to critically and originally review, in a "bioeconomic" key, the way in which social responsibility underlying sustainability is perceived, penetrated and practiced within pure liberal capitalism / market economy, canonical socialism / command economy, and real-world interventionism / mixed economy, offering both a priori insights and empirical illustrations.Proponents of free market solutions (i.e., the Austrian School) propose, therefore, a proprietarian alternative approach to the dominant paradigm of externalities and calculations decoupled from price. They recognize that although the delimitation of environmental resource ownership is not the easiest thing, it is logically coherent. They deny that it would be a utopian ideal, but only a politically unattractive solution, as history has illustrated it, whose ignorance transforms both socialist and statist hybrid solutions into wasteful economic experiments. Scientific and utopian socialism: the exploitation of (environment and) man by manBoth Marx (1844) and Engels (1883), following his master, insisted that there is a somewhat metabolic interaction between man and earth, between man and non-anthropic Two observations, before proceeding to the CSR component: "Pigouvian" taxes (to internalize externalities) and marketable permits (for CO2 or other greenhouse gas emissions) are clear improvements to "command and control" regulations, but come with their own institutional baggage. The "knowledge" and "calculation" issues (Cordato, 2004;Carden, 2013) are well-known, but there are other possible unintended consequences derived from these instruments: taxing CO2, for example, will transfer production and consumption decisions from taxed margin to untaxed margins, generating, in parallel with the reduction of CO2 emissions, the increase of even more hazardous gas emissions, such as methane.

In the current context of economic recovery and rebalancing, the necessity of modelling and estimating the potential output and output gap emerges in order to assess the quality and sustainability of economic growth, the monetary and fiscal policies, as well as the impact of business cycles. Despite the importance of potential GDP and the output gap, there are difficulties in reliably estimating them, as many of the models proposed in the economic literature are calibrated for developed economies and are based on complex macroeconomic relationships and a long history of robust data, while emerging economies exhibit high volatility. The object of this study is to develop a model in order to estimate the potential GDP and output gap and to assess the sustainability of projected growth using a multivariate filter approach. This trend estimation technique is the newest approach proposed by the economic literature and has gained wide acceptance with researchers and practitioners alike, while also being used by the IMF for Romania. The paper will be structured as follows. We first discuss the theoretical background of the model. The second section focuses on an analysis of the Romanian economy for the 1995-2013 time frame, while also providing a forecast for 2014-2017 and an assessment of the sustainability of Romania's economic growth. The third section sums up the results and concludes. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 3339

In this paper, we analyse the factors influencing the purchase frequency of three types of electronic devices and home appliances (mobile phone, TV set, laptop) by Romanian consumers and identifies the stimuli for a consumer behaviour aimed at a responsible getting out of use of electronic equipment and home appliances. Using survey data and a Poisson regression approach, we show that there is a negative relation between the gender of a respondent and the frequency of acquisition of home appliances during the last 5 years – despite that, only in the case of acquiring mobile phones the coefficient is statistically significant. Furthermore compared to individuals that have post-graduate studies (master’s degree or PhD), the high-school graduates present a greater inclination towards the more frequent purchase of mobile phones; as for age, the number of acquisitions of a new electronic device or home appliance, regardless of its nature, this decreases as age increases; referring to the acquisition manner, the persons who buy exclusively from specialized stores purchase less phones, PC-s and TV sets as compared to a person that adopts both manners (physical store and online). Concerning the stimuli for collecting, the research results show that these do not influence the purchase decision of a new equipment, regardless of its type, the results of Poisson regression being statistically insignificant for the analysed sample. The results of our paper show that there is no strong binding between the purchase determinants of new equipment and responsible recycling of old equipment.

In this paper, we analyse the factors influencing the purchase frequency of three types of electronic devices and home appliances (mobile phone, TV set, laptop) by Romanian consumers and identifies the stimuli for a consumer behaviour aimed at a responsible getting out of use of electronic equipment and home appliances. Using survey data and a Poisson regression approach, we show that there is a negative relation between the gender of a respondent and the frequency of acquisition of home appliances during the last 5 years – despite that, only in the case of acquiring mobile phones the coefficient is statistically significant. Furthermore compared to individuals that have post-graduate studies (master’s degree or PhD), the high-school graduates present a greater inclination towards the more frequent purchase of mobile phones; as for age, the number of acquisitions of a new electronic device or home appliance, regardless of its nature, this decreases as age increases; referring to the acquisition manner, the persons who buy exclusively from specialized stores purchase less phones, PC-s and TV sets as compared to a person that adopts both manners (physical store and online). Concerning the stimuli for collecting, the research results show that these do not influence the purchase decision of a new equipment, regardless of its type, the results of Poisson regression being statistically insignificant for the analysed sample. The results of our paper show that there is no strong binding between the purchase determinants of new equipment and responsible recycling of old equipment.

By location and legacy, the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) lies at the crossroads of what remains culturally labelled "Central" and "Eastern" Europe(s). The grouping reunites 12 countries that, with the exception of "Old Europe" Austria, share the post-communist NATO and EU membership destiny of the so-called "New Europe" group, with the particular sequels and hopes associated to it. For centuries, the space between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black seas absorbed the energies of Middle Age imperial tectonics. In the 20th century inter bellum epoch, the region hosted failed attempts of aggregation against latent aggressive menaces coming from an avenging Germany and an ascending Soviet Russia. For almost fifty years, communism made the region an inward-looking camp. Contemporary 3SI, reminiscent of the century-old "Intermarium" Polish idea, is a 2015 project emerged from Poland too and interestedly backed up by Croatia. It refurbished constant issues in the region: concern in relation to Russia (including the energy dependency), confidence in the US security "protectorate" and cautiousness towards the old EU Brussels/Berlin "cores". This paper surveys the rationales, of both (geo)political and (geo)economic nature, related to the 3SI, comparing them with similar historical initiatives and with alternative/complementary projects prepared in this geographical space. It observes commonalities but also differences of vision between 3SI members and the partners from the hard-core Euro-Atlantic twin-conclaves, as well as among 3SI members themselves: there are clashes inside-NATO and inside-3SI over the attitude towards Russia as well as divisions inside-EU and intra-3SI over the evolution within the Union itself. Starting from the very premise that the strength in (geo)politics requires solid economic structures, the essay observes the fields identified by the artisans of the 3SI as infrastructural backbones of the region, as parts and parcels of the competitive/convergent/cohesive EU integration: energy, transportation and digitalization. An earmarked case study is dedicated to Romania, country holding the Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2019, following a celebration of a century of nation-state unity and forging a societal debate on its place and role in the region/continent/world.