Investments, Economic Growth and Employment: VAR Method for Romania

Economic growth can be seen as an effect of both fiscal policies and different legislative norms applied at national and macroeconomic level. Investments are a determining factor in the evolution of socio-economic life, influencing also the employment rate. This paper aims to identify the influence of investments on economic growth and employment using the vector autoregressive model (VAR). Based on the quarterly data from Romania, between the first quarter of 2000 and the second quarter of 2018, the Granger causality test and the impulse - response function was applied to identify the effect of the investments on the sustainable development of the Romanian economy. The results revealed that investments in Romania influence the economic growth and, implicitly, the employment. In terms of impulse – response function, a negative relationship between investment and employment was identified, which may be due to the fact that the need for human resources is no longer a priority in some sectors of activity due to technology.