Research and development expenditures between discretionary costs and source for economic growth

At the microeconomic level, the research and development costs are included in a broader category known as "discretionary costs", i.e. they are not mandatory and occur as a result of managerial decisions. At the macroeconomic level, research and development spending stimulates innovation and contributes in this way to increase and diversify production, performance, productivity and economic efficiency.The Europe 2020 Strategy, based on the role of research and development expenses in the current period, has set a target on medium term for such expenditures: to rise up to 3% of GDP in the EU for 2020. The source of funding for research and development expenditures may be: state budget allocations to the government sector and higher education institutions and private funds allocated by corporate or nonprofit organizations. Our study aims to rank the impact of research activities undertaken by the government sector, higher education institutions and the private sector by GDP and gross private domestic investment and identify the most appropriate measures for achieving the Europe 2020 goals by Romania.