The effects of social networks on the flow of international students

International study provides many benefits to the countries that host students, to the students’ home countries and to the students themselves. We extend the empirical knowledge regarding flows of international students, using a panel of data that spans 17 years, 26 host countries and 85 countries of origin. We examine the hypothesis that social networks are an important factor motivating study abroad by including lagged variables of the levels and shares of enrolment in the analysis. The analysis shows that they are significant factors: a 1% rise in a host country's share of an origin country's international student “diaspora” is associated with a 0.09%–0.12% rise in the number of students studying in that host from that origin, 5 years later. This is consistent with the literature on the economics of immigration, which finds social networks to be important, and transitory, in inducing immigration. These effects are found in models that control for other factors as well: earnings differentials, quality of higher education system, distance, common language and colonial relationship. The results suggest that one‐off policies to better recruit or attract international students will have ongoing benefits, in terms of follow‐on recruitment of further students by the initial students.