Introduction. One of the goals of the national development policy is to support the sustainable economic and social growth of regions territorially balanced in Romania, in order to reduce economic and social inequalities among regions. The presence of multiple functional links in regional economy among processes being variable in time and space leads to the use of panel data models. Such models include regression equations where one uses series that are a combination of time series and cross-sectional data series.
Aim of the study. This paper presents theoretically the main elements of panel data analysis.
Keywords: regional development; sustainable development; panel data models
