Working Paper: NBER ID: w15217
Authors: Lex Borghans; Frank Crvers
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.
Keywords: Higher Education; Research; Internationalization; Americanization
JEL Codes: I23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| decreased communication costs (L96) | shift towards international cooperation (F55) |
| decreased communication costs (L96) | increased engagement in international research discussions (O36) |
| increased transferability of research findings (C90) | increased engagement in international research discussions (O36) |
| adoption of English as lingua franca (F30) | internationalization of research (O36) |
| timing of transformation varies by field (C41) | pace of adopting international standards (L15) |
| market size, communication costs, and institutional factors (L96) | speed of adopting international standards (L15) |