Human Capital Portability and International Student Migration

This article examines how human capital portability frictions affect the quantity and the quality of international student migration (ISM). Using administrative data on college enrolment in Spain, it evaluates a reform that lifted the requirement to take the Spanish end-of-high-school exam for foreign students from a subset of countries. The reform increased student migration from treated countries by 50%, compared to migration from control countries. Post-reform migrants have lower predicted test scores but still outperform native students. The results suggest that multilateral diploma recognitions can significantly increase ISM without large costs in student migrant quality, and with positive effects on average student quality.