https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/28520 Sat, 18 Apr 2026 20:35:38 GMT 2026-04-18T20:35:38Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31228 Title: Education system, labour market and education system graduates employment in Romania Authors: Popovici, Adina Abstract: The objective of our paper is to highlight and analyse certain aspects related to the education system, labour market and education system graduates employment in Romania. It starts by pointing out the importance of education and some of the transformations the Romanian education system has undertaken after 1989 and during the process of passage to the Bologna system. It then focuses on the Romanian labour market and education system graduates employment. We conclude that the education system, the economic system and the labour market in Romania after 1989 have been very different from the communist regime period and that, during the 2006-2010 period, the Romanian education system graduates employment registered a continuous decrease. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31228 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31227 Title: Urban advantages and disadvantages in southeastern Europe : an appreciation on industrial firms by using exploratory factor analysis Authors: Metaxas, Theodore Abstract: The article aims to define the connection between the characteristics of the urban/ regional environment and competitiveness of industrial firms. The article introduces the diamond theory of M. Porter, so as to examine this connection through a primary empirical study realised in 168 industrial firms (> 30 employees) in four cities of Southeastern Europe, Bari (Italy), Varna (Bulgaria) and Volos, Larissa (Greece). By using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis, the study awards the importance of some particular factors of the four cities environment, such as agglomeration factors and access to markets, also qualitative and labour factors, which along with the firms we study, may contribute to their competitiveness. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31227 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31225 Title: Marketing strategies for the primary sector : an empirical study Authors: Tsourgiannis, Lambros; Warren, Martyn; Karasavvoglou, Anastasios; Eddison, John Abstract: This study aims to profile the marketing strategies that sheep farmers follow in the Region of East Macedonia and Thrace (EMTh) in Greece and the County of Cornwall in U.K. based upon their distribution channel selection, farm and personal characteristics. A survey conducted to 343 and 240 sheep farmers in EMTh and Cornwall respectively. Farmers in EMTh follow three marketing strategies: (i) cost focus, (ii) production orientation and (iii) return focus strategy, while Cornish farmers adopt the: (i) production Orientation and (ii) differentiation strategy. There are many differences regarding their marketing orientation, distribution outlet selection, farm and farmer characteristics. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31225 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31224 Title: The evaluation of the USD currency and the oil prices : a Var analysis Authors: Thalassinos, Eleftherios; Politis, Evangelos D. Abstract: Dollar devaluation creates a huge problem in the world oil industry, leading to a vast decrease in the revenues of the oil producers, though the local oil producers use the local currencies to operate and the oil price is evaluated in dollars. The depreciation of the US dollar reduces the effect of the high prices in oil, making it rather cheap for all the countries and especially for the Eurozone area. The record high exchange rate of the Euro vis-à-vis dollar followed by a subsequent high of the crude oil price, suggests on a relation between the price of the oil and the evaluation of the US dollar. The main aim of this research is to construct an restricted Vector Autoregressive estimation model to simulate the relation between the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar and Euro against the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices for light crude oil, in connection with the impulse response of the prices to the various shocks. Lastly, a co integration test will illuminate the possibility of simultaneous long term integration along with Granger causality test to estimate the direction of causality in variables. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/31224 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z