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Addition through Depletion: The Brain Drain as a Catalyst of Human Capital Formation and Economic Betterment

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  • Stark, Oded

    (University of Bonn)

  • C Simon Fan

Abstract

Enabling educated individuals to work abroad entails a brain drain and results in educated unemployment at home. Because the prospect of migration raises the expected returns to higher education it also facilitates a "brain gain": a eveloping economy ends up with a higher fraction of educated individuals. Due to the positive externality effect of the prevailing, economy-wide endowment of human capital on the formation of human capital, a relaxation of migration policy pursued in both the current period and the preceding period can greatly facilitate the "take-off" of a developing economy in the current period. Thus we identify a new policy tool that could yield an improvement in the well-being of the population of a developing economy: a controlled migration of educated workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Stark, Oded & C Simon Fan, 2003. "Addition through Depletion: The Brain Drain as a Catalyst of Human Capital Formation and Economic Betterment," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2003 192, Royal Economic Society.
  • Handle: RePEc:ecj:ac2003:192
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stark, Oded & Helmenstein, Christian & Prskawetz, Alexia, 1997. "A brain gain with a brain drain," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 227-234, August.
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    12. Steve Boucher & Oded Stark & J. Edward Taylor, 2009. "A Gain with a Drain? Evidence from Rural Mexico on the New Economics of the Brain Drain," International Economic Association Series, in: János Kornai & László Mátyás & Gérard Roland (ed.), Corruption, Development and Institutional Design, chapter 6, pages 100-119, Palgrave Macmillan.
    13. Howard Davies, 2005. "Trade in the Chinese 21st Century," World Economics, World Economics, 1 Ivory Square, Plantation Wharf, London, United Kingdom, SW11 3UE, vol. 6(1), pages 1-13, January.
    14. Oded Stark, 2005. "The New Economics of the Brain Drain," World Economics, World Economics, 1 Ivory Square, Plantation Wharf, London, United Kingdom, SW11 3UE, vol. 6(2), pages 137-140, April.
    15. Lant Pritchett, 1997. "Divergence, Big Time," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 3-17, Summer.
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    17. Eric A. Hanushek, 1996. "Measuring Investment in Education," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 9-30, Fall.
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    Cited by:

    1. Makulec, Agnieszka., 2014. "Philippines' bilateral labour arrangements on health-care professional migration : in search of meaning," ILO Working Papers 994869923402676, International Labour Organization.
    2. Katarzyna Budnik, 2011. "Emigration Triggers: International Migration of Polish Workers between 1994 and 2009," NBP Working Papers 90, Narodowy Bank Polski.
    3. Masso, Jaan & Eamets, Raul & Mõtsmees, Pille, 2013. "The Effect of Migration Experience on Occupational Mobility in Estonia," IZA Discussion Papers 7482, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. repec:ilo:ilowps:486369 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:ilo:ilowps:486992 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Stark, Oded & Byra, Lukasz & Casarico, Alessandra & Uebelmesser, Silke, 2017. "A critical comparison of migration policies: Entry fee versus quota," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 91-107.
    7. Muhammad Ali & Abiodun Egbetokun & Manzoor Hussain Memon, 2018. "Human Capital, Social Capabilities and Economic Growth," Economies, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-18, January.
    8. Schiff, Maurice, 2005. "Brain Gain: Claims about Its Size and Impact on Welfare and Growth Are Greatly Exaggerated," IZA Discussion Papers 1599, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Franc Sanja & Časni Anita Čeh & Barišić Antea, 2019. "Determinants of Migration Following the EU Enlargement: A Panel Data Analysis," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 14(2), pages 13-22, December.
    10. Zhang, Yi & Matz, Julia Anna, 2017. "On the train to brain gain in rural China," Discussion Papers 252443, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    11. Byra, Lukasz, 2013. "Rethinking the brain drain: Dynamics and transition," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 19-25.
    12. Hung-Ju Chen & Xiangbo Liu, 2015. "International Migration, Skill Acquisition and Matching Frictions," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(3), pages 1469-1476.
    13. Stark, Oded & Casarico, Alessandra & Devillanova, Carlo & Uebelmesser, Silke, 2012. "On the formation of international migration policies when no country has an exclusive policy-setting say," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 420-429.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Brain drain; human capital formation; externalities; economic growth; social welfare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

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