Donald R. Winkler

Foreign Demand for United States Higher Education: A Study of Developing Countries in the Eastern Hemisphere

Foreign student enrollments in the United States have increased rapidly over the past 25 years. The total number increased from 36,494 in 1954 to 336,990 in 1982. While foreign students still represent less than 2% of all higher education enrollments in the United States, this proportion is likely to grow over the next decade as enrollments of American citizens decline. One consequence of the growth to date has been that many colleges and universities depend on foreign students for an important part of their tuition revenue or enrollment-determined budget, and this dependence is also likely to grow over the next decade. Another important consequence of larger flows of foreign students is an increase in immigration to the United States of skilled labor as students adjust their visa status to immigrant. The growing influence of foreign students as consumers of U.S. higher education services underscores the importance of better understanding the nature of this phenomenon. This paper sets forth a model of foreign demand for U.S. higher education and estimates that model for several countries using time-series data for 1954-73. The only countries selected for study are lowor middle-income Eastern Hemisphere nations. These countries were chosen in part because they had the highest rates of enrollment growth in the United States. In addition, these countries were treated similarly by U.S. immigration legislation and were treated differently from Western Hemisphere and Western European countries. In what follows, the theory of student demand for U.S. higher

Migration of professional manpower to the United States.

The results of an investigation of the immigration of professionals to the United States are presented. The data concern a sample of professionals from 17 developing and developed countries who were immigrants in 1969. Both direct and indirect immigration are considered, and special attention is paid to the constraints on professional immigration and the adjustment of status imposed by immigration policies. The results suggest that the relative wage rate is more strongly related to the brain drain than is relative income and that more restrictive policies concerning labor certification would probably prove effective in reducing the student brain drain in the short term.

United States immigration policy and indirect immigration of professionals

Abstract Professionals migrate to the U.S. from other countries through both direct and indirect channels. The indirect channel, which entails entering the U.S. as a foreign student or visitor and subsequently adjusting visa status to immigrant, has assumed increasing importance over time. The number of adjustments of status can be expected to further increase in the future as the eligible pool, comprised mainly of foreign students, continues to expand. The ratio of adjustments to the eligible pool is also influenced by U.S. immigration policy, which originates in administrative regulations as well as legislative action. U.S. immigration policy affects the ease of immigration and thus the ratio of adjustments to the eligible pool. Variations in immigration policy across countries and over time are found to have statistically significant impacts on this ratio.

The fiscal consequences of foreign students in public higher education: a case study of California

Abstract An attempt is made to determine the size of California state taxpayer subventions to foreign students enrolled in public higher education. Aggregate subventions are estimated to be in the range of

The Costs and Benefits of Foreign Students in United States Higher Education

36–55 million for the 1978 academic year. Subventions are likely to increase significantly by the end of the decade as colleges and universities enroll larger numbers of foreign students to compensate for the projected decline in domestic students. The possible economic rationale for such subventions is discussed, and policy options are presented and evaluated.

Teacher Preferences and the Level and Distribution of Scholastic Achievement

This paper makes a two-fold contribution to the practical application of cost-benefit analysis and to our understanding of the costs and benefits to the host country of foreign students in higher education. First, within the technical constraints it develops a model for assessing costs and benefits; this model is potentially applicable to all countries with foreign students. The model includes educational and political as well as economic inputs, and the paper discusses qualitative as well as quantitative costs and benefits. Secondly, the model is applied to the particular case of the United States. The significance of different perspectives for assessing net benefit is recognized, and costs and benefits are assessed from the perspectives of higher education institutions, state residents and all US citizens. The paper finds positive net benefits, subject to a number of assumptions. However, the policies of both state governments and the US government do not appear to be consistent with the goal of maximizing this net benefit.

The revealed preferences of a local government : Black/white disparities in scholastic achievement

Studies of educational production typically have assumed inputs to be exogenous and that pupils receive equal amounts of teacher time within the classroom. Here, an economic analysis is made of the effects of teachers on educational achievement under conditions where the teacher resources are distributed within the classroom according to a deterministic objective function. The maximization of achievement and the minimization of the variance in achievement are included as possible teacher objectives. The production function is assumed to be Cobb-Douglas. The results indicate the elasticities on teacher characteristics are small in size. Teachers strongly preferred maximization of average achievement to minimization of variance in achievement in the class.

Tax-Exempt Debt: An Intergovernmental Perspective

Abstract Many studies of the educational sector implicitly assume schools attempt only to maximize student cognitive achievement subject to a budget constraint. The validity of this assumption is tested in this paper. In specific, the preferences of a representative bureaucrat in an urban school system are estimated. The results indicate he does not simply maximize achievement. The representative bureaucrat also has preferences with respect to the distribution of inputs and outputs between black and white children.

Increasing Numbers of Foreign Students But a Lack of Coherent National Policy

The amount of tax-exempt debt has dramatically grown in recent years, although this growth has slowed with the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. At the same time, real rates of return on this debt have risen. These phenomena may be explained by the effects of the federal and state governments. This article discusses the state and local policy variables that influence the market for intergovernmental debt. Placing these variables in a model of supply and demand for tax-exempt debt and analyzing them for unintended consequences and feedback loops produces a more robust and accurate picture of this market. Policy conclusions are then drawn to indicate the appropriate role for state and local governments in the tax-exempt arena.

Migration of Foreign Students to the United States.

Abstract The Overseas Student Question edited by Peter Williams. Exeter, New Hampshire: Heineman Educational Books, 1982, 320 pages,