Effets et financement de la mobilité étudiante en Europe

The idea that a student’s stay abroad has a globally positive impact on the welfare of individuals and countries seems to be extensively accepted today. In this paper we first examine economic effects of students’ mobility. Then, considering that those effects are not limited to the sole financial compensation of mobile students, we investigate the key issue of the financing of internationally mobile students in a European context. Indeed, according to us, the current system for financing cross-border students, based on the host country, is neither sustainable nor efficient: it produces too little cross-border education. On that background we explore two alternative solutions. The first one substitutes to the financing by the host country, a financing by the country of origin, through vouchers that the student may use at home or abroad provided it is in a recognized institution. The second one, potentially an efficient design, combines that substitution with a reimbursement of education costs through interjurisdictional transfers or the change of vouchers into contingent loans