TY - JOUR

T1 - Studying abroad experience and the wages of females

AU - Asankulova, Zhanylai

AU - Thomsen, Stephan

N1 - Funding Information: Today, almost all universities in Germany offer individual exchange programs that typically comprise tuition fee waivers, approval of course credits, and, in some cases, additional benefits (like lump-sum payments, travel grants, living grants and the like). These programs are usually based on cooperation contracts and aim at promoting two-way exchanges, i.e., sending students abroad and receiving students from the host country for one or two semesters. There are also longer-term programs leading to so-called double degrees from both the sending and hosting higher education institutions. Since the late 1970s, more and more countries began to moving their focus from primarily hosting foreign students to promoting studying abroad for own students. International student mobility has become more affordable and less dependent on financial support of parents due to the inauguration of studying abroad scholarship programs. The amount of foreign students enrolled in universities across the world more than doubled within 10 years to about 5.3 million in 2017, with international students (including degree and credit mobility) representing about 5% of all students in OECD countries and about 6% in non-OECD countries (OECD, ).

PY - 2024/2

Y1 - 2024/2

N2 - Studying abroad acts as investment in human capital and ideally outweighs associated investment costs due to higher earnings or related non-monetary benefits. We estimate monetary returns to studying abroad for female graduates 1 and 5 years after graduation. The empirical estimates—based on panel data from four graduate cohorts in 1997, 2001, 2005, and 2009—confirm positive returns to studying abroad. Mobile females earn 3.2% higher wages compared to non-mobiles at labor market entry. These initial wage gains tend to improve further over time, resulting in about 4.0% higher earnings for mobile females 5 years after graduation. Detailed consideration of different socio-economic groups reveals that female graduates from non-academic backgrounds and females majoring in social sciences benefit most. Studying abroad, therefore, has positive effects on later income of female graduates.

AB - Studying abroad acts as investment in human capital and ideally outweighs associated investment costs due to higher earnings or related non-monetary benefits. We estimate monetary returns to studying abroad for female graduates 1 and 5 years after graduation. The empirical estimates—based on panel data from four graduate cohorts in 1997, 2001, 2005, and 2009—confirm positive returns to studying abroad. Mobile females earn 3.2% higher wages compared to non-mobiles at labor market entry. These initial wage gains tend to improve further over time, resulting in about 4.0% higher earnings for mobile females 5 years after graduation. Detailed consideration of different socio-economic groups reveals that female graduates from non-academic backgrounds and females majoring in social sciences benefit most. Studying abroad, therefore, has positive effects on later income of female graduates.

KW - Human capital

KW - International student mobility

KW - Returns to education

KW - Wages of females

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150636286&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10734-023-01013-z

DO - 10.1007/s10734-023-01013-z

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85150636286

VL - 87

SP - 401

EP - 431

JO - Higher education

JF - Higher education

SN - 0018-1560

IS - 2

ER -