The sustained economic growth in Romania during the period 2000-2008 was not accompanied by a regional convergence of the living standards. Specific factors, such as the persistence of regional specialization of employment and the dominance of subsistence households in rural areas still shape the regional disparities in economic performance. The economic crisis determined a decrease in the average household income, while the impact was unequally distributed by regions. The paper aims at measuring the cross-regional variation of the household income at NUTS2 level. In order to identify the specific factors which have mostly influenced the income changes, panel estimation is used.