Should the Government Promote Global Education?

Purpose: Increased mobility of workers has made their competition intense. To increase employment opportunities, workers are attempting to build internationally transferable human capital and governments are responding to this situation by providing global education. This study attempts to find the effects of tertiary education’s globalisation by the government on the labour-sending countries’ human capital. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study employs an analytical method by solving the maximisation problem of a representative individual in the labour-sending country to derive the demand for education. Findings: Human capital increases by globalising education if the country’s initial human capital is larger than the threshold level; however it decreases if the initial human capital is smaller than the threshold. Accordingly, in the process of education’s globalisation, the disparity in human capital may widen among countries with large initial human capital and those with small one. Practical Implications: It is not necessarily appropriate for the labour-sending country’s government to conduct the policy of tertiary education’s globalisation. Originality/Value: This study reveals that global education may have negative consequences for the labour-sending country and that whether the government should conduct the policy of tertiary education’s globalisation must be determined by observing their economic condition.