Research Seed Grant | 2003-2004

Educational Reform in Romania

by Cristian Pop-Eleches and Andreea Balan (Harvard)

In the late 1990s, Romania drastically changed the admission criteria for entry into high school and university. While under the old regime admissions to high school were administered in a decentralized way by each high school separately, the new system is based on a national standardized exam and a centralized computerized allocation process that drastically increased the school choice available to students. Similarly, following an educational exam reform, admission to Romanian universities is now based not only on the "university admission" exam grade (administered in a decentralized manner at the university level) but also on the grade obtained by candidates in the (nationwide) baccalaureate exam taken upon completion of high school.

Our research plan is to study the effects of this policy change in order to shed light on recent theoretical and empirical findings from the literature on the economics of education. We plan to study the effects and determinants of grade corruption by teachers, the importance of peer and school effects in education as well as the effect of school choice on sorting of students and the welfare implications of this sorting.