Evaluation of the impact of Erasmus study mobility on salaries and employment of recent graduates in Spain

Abstract

ABSTRACTLittle empirical literature assessing the impact of Erasmus study program on graduate career prospects exists. All too often, the empirical evidence available is either bias or indirect. Furthermore, the existing differences among study mobility participants and non-participant peers in terms of ability, socioeconomic background or field of study are often ignored, leading us to believe that the correlations observed to date cannot be considered as causal. In an attempt to obtain less biased evidence on the effect of Erasmus study mobility on career and salary prospects, a propensity score matching approach was used. As far as we are aware, no other studies involving this approach have been carried out in Spain. Our objective therefore was to contribute to the knowledge available through the analysis of two graduate surveys. The main conclusion reached was that in the medium term, Erasmus programs do in effect have a positive impact on the prospects of recent graduates, who in terms of income were able to command salaries that were 10–12 per cent higher than their counterparts.