Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36200 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4445
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
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.
Subjects: 
Higher education
research
Americanization
JEL: 
O31
I23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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