The study presents alternative measures for measuring the welfare of a country in the context of identifying relationships generated by the impact of changes in the income level, measured by gross domestic product (GDP), related to other welfare, measured by the Happy Planet Index (HPI). The analysis was conducted in Romania, during the period from 2012 to 2016. The research methodology involves simple linear regression and welfare descriptive variables such as GDP, GDP/capita, HPI and its subcomponents’ indicators, namely life satisfaction, life expectancy and ecological footprint. Identification of aspects that have an impact on the welfare of citizens allows to compare levels of wellbeing experienced worldwide and to identify the main areas at the national level on which improvements can be made. The results indicate that, although there is no correlation between GDP and HPI, GDP/capita has great influence on both life satisfaction and life expectancy. Also, GDP has influence on the ecological footprint. Given these considerations, the main conclusion of the research is that, although the level of welfare, quantified using GDP, changes positively, this change is due to the increased life expectancy, life satisfaction, reduced ecological footprint rather than to changes in income levels.
Sustainable economic development isbased on the favourable and stable business environment that promotescompetitiveness of companies. Commercial banks facilitate the capital flow fromthe less efficient sectors of the economy and businesses to more competitiveindustries and enterprises. The purpose of the research is to analyze the dynamicsof the Baltic States’ GDPs during years 2005–2010and to test the GDP correlation with the loans issued by domestic commercialbanks to the businesses. The key results of the analysis provide evidence aboutthe mutual relations between the leading and influencing factors in GDP andissued loans and serve as a basis for developing proposals on fostering the recoveryof Baltic States’ economies. The Granger testanalysis performed for the aggregate GDP and lending, as well as for six industries,provides controversial results and indicates that output in some industries hasmutual relationship with the availability of financial resources, however thebusiness sector development leads to the increase of credit granting thus ensuringthe development of the sector. The methods applied in the research comprise thesystematic, logical and comparative analysis, analysis of statistical data,expert method and generalization, as well as the econometric Granger causalitytest method.