IMF Working Papers

Democracy and Foreign Education

By Antonio Spilimbergo

March 1, 2007

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Antonio Spilimbergo. Democracy and Foreign Education, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2007) accessed November 21, 2024
Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

Do foreign-educated individuals play a role in promoting democracy in their home countries? Despite the large amount of private and public resources spent on foreign education, there is no systematic evidence that foreign-educated individuals foster democracy in their home countries. Using a unique panel dataset on foreign students starting from 1950, I show that, indeed, foreign-educated individuals promote democracy in their home country, but only if the foreign education is acquired in democratic countries. The results are robust to reverse causality, country-specific omitted variables, and inclusion of a variety of control variables. The results are stronger for small countries.

Subject: Education, Estimation techniques, Housing, Personal income, Population and demographics

Keywords: Dependent variable, Host country, Number of student, WP

Publication Details

  • Pages:

    50

  • Volume:

    ---

  • DOI:

    ---

  • Issue:

    ---

  • Series:

    Working Paper No. 2007/051

  • Stock No:

    WPIEA2007051

  • ISBN:

    9781451866155

  • ISSN:

    1018-5941