Higher Education – A Solution To Unemployment? Case Study: Romania

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify whether or not there is a long term relationship between unemployment and higher education demand in Romania. In order to achieve this purpose, I quantified the demand of higher education as the number of first year students to the number of highschool graduates. Next, I used the Engel-Granger methodology in order to examine the long term relationship. Also, a brief analysis on unemployment and the higher education area in the european context is provided. One of the main findings of the paper is that there is a long-term negative relationship between unemployment and higher education demand. Thus, encouraging the high-school graduates to pursue higher education may be a proper approach in reducing unemployment. The paper may be a valuable tool for policy makers in higher education.

Keywords

• demand
• Engel-Granger
• higher education
• unemployment