Publication Type
Working Paper
Version
submittedVersion
Publication Date
4-2023
Abstract
We study the role of international students in the higher education sector and the local economy by exploiting a policy reform in South Korea that significantly restricted the admission of foreign students to local universities. By comparing the pre- and post-reform differences between universities with different pre-reform shares of international student enrollment, we find limiting the inflow of international students significantly worsened the financial outcomes of local universities. We also document that a reduction in the number of international students in local areas resulted in decreases in native employment, mainly in sectors such as agriculture and business support services, suggesting that limiting the inflow of international students can have unintended spill-over effects on the local labor market.
Keywords
International Students, Local Economy, Higher Education, Student Screening, South Korea
Discipline
Asian Studies | Education Policy | Higher Education | Labor Economics
Research Areas
Applied Microeconomics
First Page
1
Last Page
30
Citation
CHOI, Syngjoo; CHOI, Chung-Yoon; KIM; and LEE, Jongkwan.
The unintended consequences of international student shortage: Evidence from a policy reform in South Korea. (2023). 1-30.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/2729
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Education Policy Commons, Higher Education Commons, Labor Economics Commons