Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 23 ISSUE 3
Written by Lorena CHIȚEA

The emergence of the COVID-19 crisis has represented a challenge for the entire world, generating new social and economic paradigms. Besides the many negative effects, there are also positive effects of the pandemic, and here we must emphasise the change of perspective with regard to the funding policies, which no longer target only the return to the situation before the pandemic, but a step forward, towards a green, digital and more resilient Europe. The immediate effects in the case of the Romanian countryside highlight the different reception of the pandemic shock across the territory. Starting from the calculation of the Rural Development Index at the county level for the period 2018-2020, with 2018 being the reference year, the evolution of the index was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively from the perspective of the effects induced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, while before the COVID-19 crisis, the rural development level registered a slight translation of counties from the lower to the upper part of the ranking, during the pandemic the process was reversed, even though at national level there is a constant appreciation of the rural development index.

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