INTERNATIONAL DEMAND FOR AMERICAN HIGHER-EDUCATION - AN EXTENSION

This article reports the estimated effects of a country's population and income on its citizens' demand for American higher education. Data are from 1978, 1982, and 1987. With the behavioral variables, the model includes binary variables for Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Asian countries. Population significantly affects demand, but the effect is not proportional: A 10% increase in population causes demand for American higher education to rise by about 2%. The impact of income is similar; for this variable, the estimated elasticity is about 0.1. Together, these findings suggest that countries meet the majority of any change in their citizens' demand with domestic supply. For 1978 and 1982, OPEC provided considerably more students than other countries, other things being equal. By 1987. This difference had vanished. At the same time, Asian countries were providing more students than other countries, other things being equal, and the difference increased monotonically through time. © 1990 Human Sciences Press, Inc.