Institutional Arrangements and Overeducation: Challenges for Sustainable Growth. Evidence from the Romanian Labour Market

• Main Authors: Marius-Cristian Pană, Mina Fanea-Ivanovici
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-11-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: overeducation; institutional economics; institutional arrangements; sustainable development; tertiary graduates; unemployment; overskilled; overqualified
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6459

One of the approaches describing the strategic vision initiated by the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart sustainable and inclusive growth considers that increasing public expenses with education can help in achieving its goals. Concomitantly, higher levels of educational attainment are supposed to at least partially offset the negative effects of economic crises. Nevertheless, one of the consequences of this strategic approach—overeducation—tends to be underrated. This article aims to analyse the influence of the institutional arrangements of the business environment and labour market on overeducation in Romania. For this purpose, we designed two indicators for the institutional quality of business environment and labour market. Their evolutions were compared with the change in the unemployment rate among tertiary graduates. The research reveals that in Romania, the quality of institutional arrangements can still be improved, and that one of its negative consequences is unemployment and an exacerbated number of tertiary graduates in the higher education system. An inverse relationship has been identified between the quality of institutional arrangements of business environment and labour market, on one hand, and the rate of tertiary graduates who never worked in the total unemployed tertiary graduates, on the other hand.