Foreign National Doctoral Students In U.S. Economics Programs

This paper examines why enrollment of foreign national students in U.S. economics graduate programs increased so dramatically since the 1960s. New information regarding the “stay rates” of foreign national students is examined. The paper concludes that growth in the number of foreign national economics graduate students was related to the quality of U.S. graduate programs, growth in foreign social science baccalaureate degree awards, growing foreign incomes, and movement of foreign economies towards markets. These trends were especially pronounced in Asia, where most foreign national economics students are from.