Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Camelia Burja and Vasile Burja
The results obtained by applying <strong>the</strong> DEA methodology for all directions <strong>of</strong> development <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
knowledge economy place Romania in a modest position in <strong>the</strong> group <strong>of</strong> countries that joined EU
recently. Its position coincides with <strong>the</strong> ranking made by <strong>the</strong> World Bank with <strong>the</strong> Knowledge
Economy Index established on <strong>the</strong> basis <strong>of</strong> some criteria such as: Economic Incentive and
Institutional Regime; Innovation; Education; Information Communication Technology. In 2009
Romania is ranked in <strong>the</strong> last place <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> EU (World Bank, 2010). This shows that Romania still has
important steps to perform for Knowledge economy to become functional and efficient.
4. Conclusions
Economic and social development has always been determined by <strong>the</strong> progresses recorded by
knowledge. In contemporary economy, using knowledge as a production factor has been generalized
by transition from <strong>the</strong> classic model <strong>of</strong> economic growth based on capital to knowledge-based
economy, where education, science, innovation and computerization have a key role in economic
growth.
Implementing KE is a priority strategic objective for <strong>the</strong> <strong>European</strong> Union. Romania and <strong>the</strong> recently
joined countries to <strong>the</strong> EU have undertaken this objective in order to achieve <strong>the</strong> <strong>European</strong> model <strong>of</strong>
sustainable economic growth based on economic competitiveness, social welfare and environmental
protection.
Evaluating <strong>the</strong> performance <strong>of</strong> knowledge economy is important for underlying <strong>the</strong> policies <strong>of</strong> efficient
allocation and use <strong>of</strong> resources, which produce, use and disseminate economy knowledge in order to
produce goods and provide services.
This paper presented <strong>the</strong> performance <strong>of</strong> Knowledge economy in Romania in comparison with
countries that joined <strong>the</strong> EU recently. The Data Envelopment Analysis methodology allowed
assessing <strong>the</strong> performances <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> economic systems by making comparisons with <strong>the</strong> most efficient
systems <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> group <strong>of</strong> countries analyzed (production frontier).
The results <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> analysis show that Romania, during <strong>the</strong> considered period, registered a major
progress in developing knowledge economy, but <strong>the</strong>re are still gaps from o<strong>the</strong>r countries for a series
<strong>of</strong> important indicators, and <strong>the</strong> low economic performance shows that <strong>the</strong> potential <strong>of</strong> this type <strong>of</strong>
economy is not capitalized efficiently.
Research may be developed by taking into account o<strong>the</strong>r indicators that reflect <strong>the</strong> effort put into
implementing KE in those countries and <strong>the</strong> obtained results. The analysis may also be rounded by
using o<strong>the</strong>r methods.
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