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The Americanization of European Higher Education and Research

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Author Info
Lex Borghans
Frank Cörvers

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Abstract

Over the past two decades there has been a substantial increase in the mobility of students in Europe, while also research has become much more internationally oriented. In this paper we document changes in the structure of research and higher education in Europe and investigate potential explanations for the strong increase in its international orientation. While higher education started to grow substantially around 1960, only a few decades later, research and higher education transformed gradually to the American standard. Decreased communication costs are likely causes for this trend. This transformation is most clearly revealed in the change of language used in research from the national language, Latin, German and French to English. Smaller language areas made this transformation earlier while there are also clear timing differences between research fields. Sciences and medicine tend to switch to English first, followed by economics and social sciences, while for law and arts only the first signs of such a transformation are currently observed. This suggests that returns to scale and the transferability of research results are important influences in the decision to adopt the international standard.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 15217.

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Date of creation: Aug 2009
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15217

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I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education Research Institutions

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  1. Rabah Amir & Malgorzata Knauff, 2008. "Ranking Economics Departments Worldwide on the Basis of PhD Placement," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(1), pages 185-190, 08. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. J. Peter Neary & James A. Mirrlees & Jean Tirole, 2003. "Evaluating Economics Research in Europe: An Introduction," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(6), pages 1239-1249, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Andreu Mas-Colell, 2003. "The European Space of Higher Education: Incentive and Governance Issues," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 93(6), November-. [Downloadable!]
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