The impact of a study abroad programme on learning abilities and personality traits: evidence from a randomization

ABSTRACT

Personality traits are increasingly considered as a powerful predictor of socio-economic success as academic achievement. In this article, we exploit the random assignment of applicants to a programme in order to retrieve unbiased estimates of the impact of studying abroad on both cognitive and noncognitive abilities. Our findings suggest that secondary school students, especially those considered ‘more able’, benefited from a 1-month experience abroad, as it enhanced both personality traits and language proficiency.

KEYWORDS:

• Student mobility
• programme evaluation
• randomization
• LATE
• personality traits

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• I2
• C93
• J24

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Also, other studies (such as, Di Pietro 2012) look at effect of studying abroad on international labour market mobility.

² The programme covered all of the costs connected to living and studying abroad (travel, accommodation, food, tuition fees etc.).

³ The random assignment of applicants to the programme ensures, in principle, that the two groups are comparable. However, with small sample sizes, it is not impossible to find compositional differences between the two groups. The table A1 in Appendix shows that the two groups are similar with respect to a large set of observable characteristics

⁴ In the latter case, those who participated in programmes in English-speaking countries were considered not assigned, but participants for all the outcomes. Instead, those students who took part in study experiences in non-English speaking countries were considered as participants only in relation to all the dimensions with the exception of English language skills.