IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpb/discus/68.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Higher education; time for coordination on a European level?

Author

Listed:
  • Laura Thissen
  • Sjef Ederveen

Abstract

Education has always been regarded as a national matter. According to the subsidiarity principle power may only be shifted to a higher level of coordination when solid arguments exist that this will improve welfare. This paper aims at answering the question if these arguments exist. We find no support for economies of scale, i.e. larger countries do not necessarily provide higher quality education; nor do larger schools. Empirical evidence for human capital externalities through student mobility is scarce. Concluding, we find little support for European coordination of higher education. However, there is evidence that student mobility is a precursor for labour migration. Uniformizing the structure of higher education in the EU, and making educational programs more transparent, may therefore be defended from this perspective. Quality does matter for students, and student mobility is increasing. This may be beneficial to labour mobility.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Thissen & Sjef Ederveen, 2006. "Higher education; time for coordination on a European level?," CPB Discussion Paper 68, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpb:discus:68
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cpb.nl/sites/default/files/publicaties/download/higher-education-time-coordination-european-level.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gordon Winston & David Zimmerman, 2004. "Peer Effects in Higher Education," NBER Chapters, in: College Choices: The Economics of Where to Go, When to Go, and How to Pay For It, pages 395-424, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Dreher, Axel & Poutvaara, Panu, 2005. "Student Flows and Migration: An Empirical Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 1612, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Coe, David T. & Helpman, Elhanan, 1995. "International R&D spillovers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 859-887, May.
    4. Charles T. Clotfelter, 1996. "Buying the Best: Cost Escalation in Elite Higher Education," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number clot96-1.
    5. Mayer, Thierry & Zignago, Soledad, 2006. "Notes on CEPII’s distances measures," MPRA Paper 26469, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Andreas Ammermueller & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2006. "Peer Effects in European Primary Schools: Evidence from PIRLS," CEE Discussion Papers 0065, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
    7. Erik Canton & Bert Minne & Ate Nieuwenhuis & Bert Smid & Marc van der Steeg, 2005. "Human Capital, R&D and Competition in Macroeconomic Analysis," Economics Working Papers 038, European Network of Economic Policy Research Institutes.
    8. Erik Canton & Bert Minne & Ate Nieuwenhuis & Bert Smid & Marc van der Steeg, 2005. "Human capital, R&D, and competition in macroeconomic analysis," CPB Document 91, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    9. Rose, Andrew K., 2006. "Size really doesn't matter: In search of a national scale effect," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 482-507, December.
    10. Gordon C. Winston, 1999. "Subsidies, Hierarchy and Peers: The Awkward Economics of Higher Education," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 13-36, Winter.
    11. Antonio Ciccone & Giovanni Peri, 2002. "Indentifying human capital externalities: Theory with an application to US cities," Economics Working Papers 611, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Jul 2005.
    12. Harris, John R & Todaro, Michael P, 1970. "Migration, Unemployment & Development: A Two-Sector Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 126-142, March.
    13. Giuseppe Nicoletti & Stephen S. Golub & Dana Hajkova & Daniel Mirza & Kwang-Yeol Yoo, 2003. "Policies and International Integration: Influences on Trade and Foreign Direct Investment," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 359, OECD Publishing.
    14. Andrea Bassanini & Ekkehard Ernst, 2002. "Labour Market Institutions, Product Market Regulation, and Innovation: Cross-Country Evidence," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 316, OECD Publishing.
    15. VANHAECHT, Eve & PAUWELS, Wilfried, 2005. "University competition: Symmetric or asymmetric quality choices?," Working Papers 2005021, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    16. Richard Blundell & Lorraine Dearden & Costas Meghir & Barbara Sianesi, 1999. "Human capital investment: the returns from education and training to the individual, the firm and the economy," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 20(1), pages 1-23, March.
    17. Andrew K. Rose, 2006. "Size Really Doesn't Matter: In Search of a National Scale Effect," NBER Working Papers 12191, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Hessel Oosterbeek & Dinand Webbink, 2006. "Assessing the returns to studying abroad," CPB Discussion Paper 64, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    19. O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), 1999. "Handbook of Labor Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 3.
    20. Edward P. Lazear, 2001. "Educational Production," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(3), pages 777-803.
    21. Antolin, Pablo & Bover, Olympia, 1997. "Regional Migration in Spain: The Effect of Personal Characteristics and of Unemployment, Wage and House Price Differentials Using Pooled Cross-Sections," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 59(2), pages 215-235, May.
    22. Bruce Sacerdote, 2001. "Peer Effects with Random Assignment: Results for Dartmouth Roommates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 681-704.
    23. Caroline Hoxby, 2000. "Peer Effects in the Classroom: Learning from Gender and Race Variation," NBER Working Papers 7867, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Bas Jacobs & Frederick van der Ploeg, 2006. "Guide to reform of higher education: a European perspective [‘The efficiency of Australian universities: a data envelopment analysis’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 21(47), pages 536-592.
    25. Henk Kox & Arjan Lejour & Raymond Montizaan, 2004. "The free movement of services within the EU," CPB Document 69, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beine, Michel & Noël, Romain & Ragot, Lionel, 2014. "Determinants of the international mobility of students," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 40-54.
    2. Malik Fahim Bashir & Changsheng Xu & Khalid Zaman & Ghulam Akhmat, 2014. "Key Factors Determining the Rationale for Brain Drain: An Irony Never Recovered," International Journal of Economics and Empirical Research (IJEER), The Economics and Social Development Organization (TESDO), vol. 2(8), pages 308-320, August.
    3. Elise S. Brezis, 2016. "Why Migrate: For Study or for Work?," Economies, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-12, August.
    4. Frederick Ploeg & Reinhilde Veugelers, 2008. "Higher Education Reform and the Renewed Lisbon Strategy: Role of Member States and the European Commission," Springer Books, in: George Gelauff & Isabel Grilo & Arjan Lejour (ed.), Subsidiarity and Economic Reform in Europe, chapter 5, pages 65-96, Springer.
    5. Rahel Falk & Werner Hölzl & Hannes Leo, 2008. "On the Roles and Rationales of European STI-Policies," Springer Books, in: George Gelauff & Isabel Grilo & Arjan Lejour (ed.), Subsidiarity and Economic Reform in Europe, chapter 8, pages 129-142, Springer.
    6. Weisser, Reinhard A., 2021. "Run, graduate, run: Internationally mobile students' reactions to changing political landscapes in Europe," GLO Discussion Paper Series 872, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Reinhard Weisser, 2021. "Run, graduate, run: Internationally mobile students’ reactions to changing political landscapes in Europe," Working Papers 2021.06, International Network for Economic Research - INFER.
    8. Elise S. Brezis, 2018. "Is Brain Drain passé? The Optimal Timing of Migration," Working Papers 2018-02, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Economics.
    9. Daraio, Cinzia & Bonaccorsi, Andrea & Geuna, Aldo & Lepori, Benedetto & Bach, Laurent & Bogetoft, Peter & F. Cardoso, Margarida & Castro-Martinez, Elena & Crespi, Gustavo & de Lucio, Ignacio Fernandez, 2011. "The European university landscape: A micro characterization based on evidence from the Aquameth project," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 148-164, February.
    10. Brezis Elise S., 2019. "Should individuals migrate before acquiring education or after? A new model of Brain Waste vs. Brain Drain," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 1-11, June.
    11. Sjef Ederveen & George Gelauff & Jacques Pelkmans, 2008. "Assessing Subsidiarity," Springer Books, in: George Gelauff & Isabel Grilo & Arjan Lejour (ed.), Subsidiarity and Economic Reform in Europe, chapter 2, pages 19-40, Springer.
    12. Romuald Méango, 2014. "International Student Migration: A Partial Identification Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 4677, CESifo.
    13. Gabriele Marconi, 2013. "Rankings, accreditations, and international exchange students," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-22, December.
    14. João Paulo Cerdeira Bento, 2014. "The Determinants of International Academic Tourism Demand in Europe," Tourism Economics, , vol. 20(3), pages 611-628, June.
    15. Donald Lien & Yaqin Wang, 2010. "Optimal design for study-abroad scholarship: the effect of payback policy," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 191-205.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laura Thissen & Sjef Ederveen, 2006. "Higher education; time for coordination on a European level?," CPB Discussion Paper 68.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. Gelauff, George & Lejour, Arjan, 2006. "The new Lisbon Strategy: An estiamtion of the impact of reaching 5 Lisbon targets," MPRA Paper 16168, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Frederick Ploeg & Reinhilde Veugelers, 2008. "Higher Education Reform and the Renewed Lisbon Strategy: Role of Member States and the European Commission," Springer Books, in: George Gelauff & Isabel Grilo & Arjan Lejour (ed.), Subsidiarity and Economic Reform in Europe, chapter 5, pages 65-96, Springer.
    4. Marc van der Steeg, 2005. "Why should governments intervene in education, and how effective is education policy," CPB Memorandum 122, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    5. Kang, Changhui, 2007. "Classroom peer effects and academic achievement: Quasi-randomization evidence from South Korea," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 458-495, May.
    6. Gordon Winston & David Zimmerman, 2004. "Peer Effects in Higher Education," NBER Chapters, in: College Choices: The Economics of Where to Go, When to Go, and How to Pay For It, pages 395-424, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Victor Lavy & Analia Schlosser, 2011. "Mechanisms and Impacts of Gender Peer Effects at School," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 1-33, April.
    8. Nicole Schneeweis & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2008. "Peer effects in Austrian schools," Studies in Empirical Economics, in: Christian Dustmann & Bernd Fitzenberger & Stephen Machin (ed.), The Economics of Education and Training, pages 133-155, Springer.
    9. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2013. "Under Pressure? The Effect of Peers on Outcomes of Young Adults," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(1), pages 119-153.
    10. Arjan Lejour & Paul Veenendaal & Gerard Verweij & Nico van Leeuwen, 2006. "Worldscan; a model for international economic policy analysis," CPB Document 111.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    11. Zwick, Thomas, 2012. "Determinants of individual academic achievement: Group selectivity effects have many dimensions," ZEW Discussion Papers 12-081, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    12. Entorf, Horst & Lauk, Martina, 2006. "Peer Effects, Social Multipliers and Migrants at School: An International Comparison," IZA Discussion Papers 2182, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Lang, Kevin & Siniver, Erez, 2011. "Why is an elite undergraduate education valuable? Evidence from Israel," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 767-777.
    14. Giacomo DeGiorgi, "undated". "Be As Careful Of The Company You Keep As Of The Books You Read. Peer Effects In Education And On The Labor Market," Discussion Papers 07-054, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    15. Martins, Pedro S. & Walker, Ian, 2006. "Student Achievement and University Classes: Effects of Attendance, Size, Peers, and Teachers," IZA Discussion Papers 2490, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Arjan Lejour & Paul Veenendaal & Gerard Verweij & Nico van Leeuwen, 2006. "Worldscan; a model for international economic policy analysis," CPB Document 111, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    17. Lena Lindahl, 2011. "A comparison of family and neighborhood effects on grades, test scores, educational attainment and income—evidence from Sweden," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 207-226, June.
    18. Orsetta Causa & Catherine Chapuis, 2009. "Equity in Student Achievement Across OECD Countries: An Investigation of the Role of Policies," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 708, OECD Publishing.
    19. Maria De Paola & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2010. "Peer group effects on the academic performance of Italian students," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(17), pages 2203-2215.
    20. Helmuth Cremer & Dario Maldonado, 2013. "Mixed oligopoly in education," Documentos de Trabajo 10500, Universidad del Rosario.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • H87 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - International Fiscal Issues; International Public Goods
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpb:discus:68. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cpbgvnl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.