Gender bias in the Erasmus network of universities

Luca De Benedictis; Silvia Leoni

doi:10.1007/s41109-020-00297-9

Gender bias in the Erasmus network of universities

Appl Netw Sci. 2020;5(1):64. doi: 10.1007/s41109-020-00297-9. Epub 2020 Sep 15.

Authors

Luca De Benedictis^{1

2}, Silvia Leoni³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Economics and Law, University of Macerata, Via Crescimbeni 14, Macerata, 62100 Italy.
² Department of Business and Management, Luiss, Viale Romania 32, Rome, 00197 Italy.
³ Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Marche Polytechnic University, Piazzale Martelli 8, Ancona, 60121 Italy.

Abstract

The Erasmus Program (EuRopean community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students), the most important student exchange program in the world, financed by the European Union and started in 1987, is characterized by a strong gender bias. Female students participate to the program more than male students. This work quantifies the gender bias in the Erasmus program between 2008 and 2013, using novel data at the university level. It describes the structure of the program in great detail, carrying out the analysis across fields of study, and identifies key universities as senders and receivers. In addition, it tests the difference in the degree distribution of the Erasmus network along time and between genders, giving evidence of a greater density in the female Erasmus network with respect to the one of the male Erasmus network.

Keywords: Degree distribution; Erasmus; Gender bias; Network Analysis.