Vlad Tarko invites us at CADI, on Friday, 15th June 2012 at 1800, to take part in a discussion regarding the austerity policies in Romania between 2007 and 2011, starting from the chapter on Romania (draft) from the book Paul Dragos Aligica & Vlad Tarko, ‘The Uses of Austerity: Spending Cuts, Stimulus and Reform in the Economic Crisis’ , book that will be published by the Center for European Studies.

“The economic crises in Romania had an external cause, the temporary slowdown of international trade, and an internal cause, irresponsible government spending (Tăriceanu Government). First, the crisis affected the private sector which readjusted relatively quickly. However, it then affected the public sector, due to a collapse in tax-revenues in 2008 and 2009. The Boc-Government policy regarding the crises can be described as “postponing the inevitable”. The government hoped that the situation cause by the crisis will pass quickly, and the revenues from taxes will come back to “normal”. The necessity of structural measures was put into the second plan, and the public cutting were made in each economic sector, keeping the inefficient administrative structure intact. Within the positive measures taken we can observe: cutting the state employees’ salaries till they were paid less than the employees working in the private sector, improving the investment environment, continuing with the positive reforms taken by the Tăriceanu-Government (deregulation of the economy and decreasing the bureaucracy), some results from the fight against corruption and they tried to reform the education system. However, the real private sector reform was not realized, and the economy remains more regulated than the ones in the West-Europe.” (Vlad Tarko”).