THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF POVERTY IN ROMANIA. SOCIOECONOMIC ASPECTS AND INEQUALITIES

The social problem of poverty in Romania has important spatial dimensions. In Romania, the transition and post-transition periods have brought fundamental changes to all levels, economic, politic and social arrangements. The aim of this paper is to capture some of the significant trends of the poverty in Romania, during the post-communist period and the spatial differences in poverty in order to identify the poorest counties and to point to the change in the development of poverty in regions. A special interest will be focused on the three dimensions of poverty: income, material deprivation, unemployment, which significantly spurred increase in disparities between regions. Based on data exploration techniques of related indicators and indices (e.g. unemployment rate, inequality of income distribution, material deprivation rate, long-term unempolyment rate), the study describes the main influencing factors of socioeconomic development in Romania. To deeply analyze the multidimensional poverty, a cluster analysis is carried out to group counties on the basis of a standardized variables. The response measure to socioeconomic inequalities are discussed in a view of the existing development strategies, either at the local, regional or national level.

Keywords: poverty, unemployment, material deprivation, socioeconomic development.

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