Gulbakyt Kabanbayeva

Al-Farabi Kazakh National University,

Almaty, Kazakhstan

gulqz10@gmail.com

Academic mobility and financial stability: A case of Erasmus student exchange program

Maria Gureva

Department of Economics and Organization of Production

Industrial University of Tyumen

Tyumen, Russian Federation

dorosheva_06@mail.rus

Peter Bielik

Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra

Nitra, Slovakia

peter.bielik@uniag.sk

Grzegorz Ostasz

Rzeszow University of Technology,

Rzeszow, Poland

gost@prz.edu.pl

Abstract. Globalization and digitalization have dramatically changed higher education more than any other sphere of social or economic life. Constant flow of information and free access to all possible data, news, and topics, valuable and fake alike, imposed many challenges for the stakeholders in higher education worldwide. Lecturers and students worldwide became closer thanks to the new technologies, yet they also are drifting apart enclosed in single information bubbles. It is surprising that this digital epoch is seeing an increase in academic mobility worldwide. It appears that young people are willing to leave the comfort of their homes and social networks in order to experience the academic life and culture of other countries. It appears that this trend might also have considerable economic impacts on both sending and receiving countries. Our paper investigates the link between academic mobility and financial stability. We focus on the case study of academic exchange Erasmus program funded by the European Union (EU) and its impact on the financial stability of the Eurozone based on the criteria of the Optimum Currency Area (OCA). Our findings suggest that academic mobility indirectly improves financial stability in four fields: First of all, it enhances future labour mobility. Second, it decreases path-dependence and homogenizes policy preferences. Third, it induces more intensive trade relations. And finally, it increases international solidarity which is very important for such multi-national complex projects as the EU.

Received: November, 2018

1st Revision: January, 2019

Accepted: February, 2019

DOI: 10.14254/2071-8330.2019/12-1/22

JEL Classification: I22, E42, N14

Keywords: academic mobility, Erasmus program, financial stability, higher education, Optimum Currency Area, intercultural exchange