The effects of international academic mobility: evidence from the Science without Borders Program

• Grant number: 21/00470-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: July 01, 2021
• End date: February 28, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics
• Principal Investigator: André Portela Fernandes de Souza
• Grantee: Otavio Canozzi Conceição
• Host Institution: Escola de Economia de São Paulo (EESP). Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to investigate the effects of the Science without Borders (SwB) Program on the trajectory of its beneficiaries in terms of postgraduate, entrepreneurship and labor market outcomes. The program's main objective was to increase the domestic supply of highly qualified individuals in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. To identify the program's causal effect and verify whether it achieved its goals, an instrumental variable approach is proposed. Based upon the academic records of candidates that were regular students at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), we propose to compare those with similar observable characteristics, such as the same semester/year of admission, major, Grade Point Average (GPA), and socioeconomic variables reported at the time of admission to UFBA, who applied for SwB calls with the same destination country. Controlling by the same motivation and interests, captured by these covariates, we expect that SwB candidates from UFBA who applied for less competitive calls were more likely to be approved. The instrumental variable is the national competition's degree of the call for which the UFBA student applied. The main variables of interest are employability, wage, graduation and entry rate in Master's programs, and the probability of starting a new firm or becoming a partner of a company in Brazil. The project aims to contribute to the evaluation of government-sponsored study abroad programs around the world. (AU)