Language Learning Opportunities Abroad and International Student Mobility to China

This paper empirically investigates whether Chinese language learning opportunities abroad have exerted a positive effect on international student mobility (ISM) to China. We utilize both official and self-compiled panel data for 182 countries, spanning a period of 15 years. We use the establishment of Confucius Institutes as an indicator of Chinese language learning opportunities. As our benchmark regressions, we employ fixed effects models with both linear and nonlinear regressors. Our findings provide support for a significant positive impact of language learning opportunities on ISM, with evidence suggesting a diminishing marginal effect. This result is seldom documented in the existing literature. We verify the robustness of our findings in three ways. First, we assess whether the number of international students changes significantly before the exposure to Chinese language learning opportunities. Next, we examine if our main findings remain consistent when controlling for region-specific trends. Finally, we test the robustness of our main results against various changes in the estimation sample. We also find evidence of effect heterogeneity based on countries’ geographic distance to China, the linguistic distance from their official language to Chinese, and their income levels. This paper argues that exposure to the destination country’s language and culture is a critical determinant of students’ decisions to study abroad in that country. JEL Classification: F22, I20, N30.