Planning for higher education in Socialist Romania. Political priorities or economic needs?

Abstract

The present paper intends to analyze the planning of study places in
Romanian higher education during the real Socialist regime. A strict numerus
clausus system was in place that enabled a national planning of study places
for each discipline. The numbers were supposed to reflect the “real” needs
of the economy. We use econometric models (VAR regressions and Granger
causality tests) to find if the planning was related to previous and following
GDP values as estimated by an independent source (the Maddison project).
The results show that the planning was indeed based on the economic situation
as well as on political goals, and even succeeded in positively influencing
economic development in some areas of study. The economic disaster of
Romanian communism was not caused by deficient planning.