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The International Migration of Knowledge Workers: When is Brain Drain Beneficial?

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Author Info
Peter J. Kuhn
Carol McAusland

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Abstract

We consider the welfare effects of the emigration of workers who produce a public good (knowledge). We distinguish between the knowledge diversion and knowledge creation effects of such emigration, and show that the remaining residents of a country can gain from emigration, even when tastes for knowledge goods exhibit a kind of 'home bias'. In contrast to existing models of beneficial brain drain (BBD), our results do not require agglomeration economies, education-related externalities, remittances, return migration, or an emigration 'lottery'. Instead, they are driven purely by the public nature of knowledge goods, combined with differences in market size that induce greater knowledge creation by emigrants abroad than at home. BBD is even more likely in the presence of weak sending-country intellectual property rights (IPRs), or when source country IPR policy is endogenized.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12761.

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Date of creation: Dec 2006
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12761

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  3. Alexander Haupt & Eckhard Janeba, 2004. "Education, Redistribution, and the Threat of Brain Drain," NBER Working Papers 10618, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Gene M. Grossman & Edwin L.-C. Lai, 2004. "International Protection of Intellectual Property," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1635-1653, December. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Grossman, Gene & Lai, Edwin, 2002. "International Protection of Intellectual Property," CEPR Discussion Papers 3118, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Rodriguez, Carlos Alfredo, 1975. "On the Welfare Aspects of International Migration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(5), pages 1065-72, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Rivera-Batiz, Luis A & Romer, Paul M, 1991. "Economic Integration and Endogenous Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 106(2), pages 531-55, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Jean-Pierre Vidal, 1998. "The effect of emigration on human capital formation," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 589-600. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Oded Stark & Christian Helmenstein & Alexia Prskawetz, 1998. "Human Capital Depletion, Human Capital Formation, and Migration: A Blessing in a "Curse"?," Departmental Working Papers _096, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Economics.
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  1. Kuhn, Peter J. & McAusland, Carol, 2008. "Consumers and the Brain Drain: Product Design and the Gains from Emigration," IZA Discussion Papers 3602, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  2. Susana Iranzo & Giovanni Peri, 2007. "Migration and Trade in a World of Technological Differences: Theory with an Application to Eastern-Western European Integration," NBER Working Papers 13631, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Susana Iranzo & Giovanni Peri, 2009. "Migration and Trade: Theory with an Application to the Eastern-Western European Integration," CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0905, Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London. [Downloadable!]
  4. Rosalind S Hunter, 2009. "The Elite Brain Drain," Working Papers id:2048, esocialsciences.com. [Downloadable!]
  5. Hunter, Rosalind S. & Oswald, Andrew J. & Charlton, Bruce G., 2009. "The Elite Brain Drain," IZA Discussion Papers 4005, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
    • RosalindS. Hunter & AndrewJ. Oswald & BruceG. Charlton, 2009. "The Elite Brain Drain," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(538), pages F231-F251, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Ajay Agrawal & Devesh Kapur & John McHale, 2008. "Brain Drain or Brain Bank? The Impact of Skilled Emigration on Poor-Country Innovation," NBER Working Papers 14592, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Elisabetta Lodigiani, 2009. "Diaspora Externalities as a Cornerstone of the New Brain Drain Literature," Development Working Papers 277, Centro Studi Luca d\'Agliano, University of Milano. [Downloadable!]
  8. Alexander Haupt & Eckhard Janeba, 2009. "Education, redistribution and the threat of brain drain," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-24, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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