Imf Policies And Their Effects On Education In Romania

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been largely criticized for its austere measures attached to the programs, so called conditionality. Some scholars claim that IMF has adverse effects on education in borrower countries. The latter is conditioned with the fact, that IMF often requires governments to cut budget deficits which is accompanied with direct cuts of public spending on education and health care. At the same time, Romania has been among the frontrunners of the European Union (EU) states to turn to the IMF for financial assistance during the crisis. Hence, article seeks to analyze the possible ways that IMF may influence public spending on education and reveal the current effects of IMF intervention on Romanian education. Thus, we have explored all Stand-By arrangements since 2008 and their measures: Prior actions,Quantitative performance criteria and Structural benchmarks. Furthermore, we have applied with-without, approach on main education indicators, in order to illustrate the IMF participation effects on Romanian educationsector by attributing differences to the IMF programs. Particularly, employing Bulgaria as a control group for with-without approach, shows that during the crisis Romanian education indicatorshave been more affected than those of Bulgaria. Our findings report that Romanian government should be aware while applying to the IMF assistance that it may have adverse effects on education in short and medium term periods.