Water, Energy, Food, Waste Nexus: Between Synergy and Trade-Offs in Romania Based on Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance

Radu Petrariu, Marius Constantin, Mihai Dinu, Simona Roxana Pătărlăgeanu and Mădălina Elena Deaconu
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Radu Petrariu: Faculty of International Business and Economics, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania
Marius Constantin: Faculty of Agri-Food and Environmental Economics, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania
Mihai Dinu: Faculty of Agri-Food and Environmental Economics, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania
Simona Roxana Pătărlăgeanu: Faculty of Agri-Food and Environmental Economics, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania
Mădălina Elena Deaconu: Faculty of Agri-Food and Environmental Economics, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 16, 1-23

Abstract: Boosting the externalities across the water, energy, food, and waste (WEFW) sectors is challenging, especially considering tightening constraints such as population growth, climate change, resource-intensive lifestyles, increased waste production, sanitary crises and many others. The nexus approach supports the transition to a more sustainable future because intersectoral trade-offs can be reduced and externalities exploited, making imperative for decision makers, entrepreneurs, and civil society to simultaneously engage, with respect to all the components of the nexus. This research addressed intersectoral synergies and trade-offs in the case of the WEFW nexus in Romania, judging from the perspectives of entrepreneurial activity and economic results. The objective of this research was to explore the nexus in-depth by statistically analyzing the financial and economic indicators reported by active enterprises at county-level, based on the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance data. Research results describe the effects of the policies implemented in the fields of WEFW sectors. At the same time, attention was paid to the quality of the entrepreneurial activity, analyzed from the perspective of economic performance. This paper fills a research gap regarding the WEFW nexus by resorting to an economic and entrepreneurial performance assessment in order to find sectoral pathways toward policy cohesion in Romania. Findings suggested the existence of major trade-offs among sectors, owing to the fact that each county has a different development degree.

Keywords: interconnectedness; transdisciplinarity; policy coherence; entrepreneurial activity assessment; circular economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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