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The Returns to the Brain Drain and Brain Circulation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some Computations Using Data from Ghana

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  • Yaw Nyarko

Abstract

We look at the decision of the government or "central planner" in the allocation of scarce governmental resources for tertiary education, as well as that for the individual. We provide estimates of the net present values, or cost and benefits. These include costs of tertiary education; the benefits of improved skills of those who remain in the country; and also takes into account the flows of the skilled out of the country (the brain drain) as well as the remittances they bring into the country. Our results are positive for the net benefits relative to costs. Our results suggest that (i) there may be room for creative thinking about the possibility that the brain drain could provide mechanisms for dramatic increases in education levels within African nations; and (ii) by at least one metric, spending by African nations on higher education in this period yielded positive returns on the investment. Our results on the individual decision problem resolve a paradox in the returns to education literature which finds low returns to tertiary education.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 16813.

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Date of creation: Feb 2011
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16813

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  1. Docquier, Frederic & Rapoport, Hillel, 2004. "Skilled migration: the perspective of developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3382, The World Bank.
  2. Gibson, John & McKenzie, David, 2010. "The economic consequences of"brain drain"of the best and brightest: microeconomic evidence from five countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5394, The World Bank.
  3. Michael Clemens & Satish Chand, 2008. "Skilled Emigration and Skill Creation: A quasi-experiment," Working Papers 152, Center for Global Development.
  4. Michael Clemens, 2007. "Do Visas Kill? Health Effects of African Health Professional Emigration," Working Papers 114, Center for Global Development.
  5. Philippe De Vreyer & Flore Gubert & Anne-Sophie Robilliard, 2009. "Return Migrants in Western Africa: Characteristics and Labour Market Performance," Working Papers DT/2009/06, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
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Cited by:
  1. Berlinschi, Ruxanda & Schokkaert, Jeroen & Swinnen, Jo, 2010. "When drains and gains coincide: migration and international football performance," Open Access publications from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven urn:hdl:123456789/284208, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

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