Competitive Areas of Integration: The Case of Romania in South-East Europe

The paper attempts to substantiate the conjecture of an optimum competitive area, tentatively referred to as a certain pattern of spatially-defined areas conducive to competitive development for industries or firms in such a way that benefits from competition are maximized. Following a documentary economic analysis, as well as a statistical investigation, both centered on the particular case of Romania, it could be expected to reconsider the region of South-East Europe (SEE) as such a homogeneous area with in-built potential for competitive advance in the larger European space of economic integration. The work presents a factual exposition of the regional sources of Romania’s competitive advantages and shows that there are economic tendencies which point out a rather more stable and economically self-supporting space of competitive advantages than analyses of European integration would conventionally consider. It also adds to the evidence of competitive development by emphasizing distinctively homogeneous regions of trade and development and, in particular, the case of SEE