https://jseg.ro/index.php/jseg <p><strong>Open </strong><strong>access and peer reviewed online </strong>international journal</p> <p>The <strong>only</strong> international journal centered around the concept of smart economic growth</p> <p>Incorporates <strong>interdisciplinary developments from all fields of economics and business</strong></p> <p>Helps understanding the new peculiarities, trends and paradigms emerging into the process of contemporary economic growth&nbsp;</p> <p>Quality research papers, and particularly papers following a <strong>quantitative and empirical approach</strong>,</p> Monica Szeles Phd en-US JOURNAL OF SMART ECONOMIC GROWTH 2537-141X https://jseg.ro/index.php/jseg/article/view/352 <p><em>This paper evaluates the macroeconomic performance of the Cuban economy during the 2015–2024 period, a decade marked by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tightening of U.S. sanctions, and the accumulation of internal imbalances. Through a descriptive analysis based on official statistics and the estimation of the output gap using the Hodrick-Prescott filter, the dynamics of the real sector, the monetary sector, and public finances are examined. The results reveal a context of stagflation: GDP contracted by 10.9% in 2020 and has not managed to recover to pre-pandemic levels, with signs of a loss of installed productive capacity. In the monetary sphere, the 2021 exchange rate unification (Tarea Ordenamiento) triggered an unprecedented inflationary process. Public finances exhibit persistent fiscal deficits, and fiscal policy still lacks the institutional arrangements to limit quasi-fiscal operations and enable it to fulfill its stabilization function. It is concluded that economic recovery, price stabilization, and the transformation of the regulatory framework require interdependent reforms in the fiscal, monetary, and investment spheres, the proper sequencing of which is critical to their success.</em></p> Michel Carmona Segui Copyright (c) 2026 Michel Carmona Segui https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 2026-05-01 2026-05-01 11 1 1 17 https://jseg.ro/index.php/jseg/article/view/360 <p><em>Gender disparities and segregation in the context of higher education manifest in unequal patterns of enrollment across different academic fields, being women more concentrated in areas such as education, health and social sciences and, on the other hand, the men in engineering, technology as well as other STEM-related disciplines. The main objective of this study is to examine patterns of gender disparity and segregation across disciplines while providing an updated empirical overview of the Romanian context by analyzing statistical reports and presenting gender-disaggregated enrollment data across different fields of study in higher education from the academic years 2018–2019 to 2022–2023. The results reveal a consistent, stable and persistent pattern of gender segregation across the different fields of study in Romanian higher education and highlight the continued gendered field selection in this context, which demonstrates a persistent horizontal segregation within the system.</em></p> Bianca Tescasiu Claudia Correa Garcia Rodolfo Pérez Lavandera Copyright (c) 2026 Bianca Tescasiu, Claudia Correa Garcia, Rodolfo Pérez Lavandera https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 2026-05-31 2026-05-31 11 1 19 40