Evaluations of Driving Effects of the Automotive Industry in the Romanian Economy – A Quantitative Analysis

After a decade of transformations experienced by Romania on its way to the market economy, the sustained economic growth in the period 2000-2008 marked a positive change of path. Structural changes of the production system were expected under the impact of tehnological upgrading and of the integration to the European Union. The paper is focusing on the analysis of inter-industrial linkages, as well as on the evaluation of direct and indirect technological requirements, by using the Input-Output model. Since the automotive industry had a very good dynamic in the last years, its position in the system is of great interest. The research reveals its linkage intensities during the growth period and under the shock of the crisis. The results show that this export oriented industry has reduced its upstream linkages and increased its downstream linkages, while becoming more dependent on the international flows.