Are They Coming Back? The Mobility of University Students in Switzerland after Graduation

31 Pages Posted: 25 Feb 2018

See all articles by Chantal Oggenfuss

Chantal Oggenfuss

Swiss Coordination Centre for Research in Education (SKBF)

Stefan C. Wolter

Swiss Coordination Centre for Research in Education (SKBF); University of Bern - Department of Economics

Abstract

We analyze the internal mobility of university graduates in Switzerland. An empirically interesting question because not all the cantons have a university and therefore in some cantons students have to leave their home for studying but all the cantons have to bear the public costs for studying for their students irrespective of their study place. On average, approximately half of the students who had left their home canton in order to study, return to their home canton, and about half of those who do not return move onward from the canton where they studied to a third canton. Controlling for several factors explaining graduate mobility, we find that top performing students return less often than do low performers. As a consequence the home cantons, which cover the bulk of the costs also for the students that had left for studying in another canton, face a quantitative and qualitative disadvantage when losing mobile graduates.

Keywords: student mobility, graduate mobility, brain gain, brain drain

JEL Classification: H52, H75, I23, J61

Suggested Citation

Oggenfuss, Chantal and Wolter, Stefan C., Are They Coming Back? The Mobility of University Students in Switzerland after Graduation. IZA Discussion Paper No. 11349, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3129293 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3129293

Chantal Oggenfuss (Contact Author)

Swiss Coordination Centre for Research in Education (SKBF)

CH - 5000 Aarau
Switzerland

Stefan C. Wolter

Swiss Coordination Centre for Research in Education (SKBF) ( email )

CH - 5000 Aarau
Switzerland
+41 62 835 23 90 (Phone)
+41 62 835 23 99 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.skbf-csre.ch

University of Bern - Department of Economics ( email )

Gesellschaftstrasse 49
Bern, CH-3012
Switzerland
+41 31 631 40 95 (Phone)
+41 31 631 39 92 (Fax)

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