Recent empirical evidence seems to show that temporary migration is a widespread phenomenon, especially among highly skilled workers who return to their countries of origin when these begin to grow. This paper develops a simple, tractable overlapping generations model that provides a rationale for return migration and predicts who will migrate and who returns among agents with heterogeneous abilities. The model also incorporates the interaction between the migration decision and schooling: the possibility of migrating, albeit temporarily, to a country with high returns to skills produces positive schooling incentive eects. We use parameter values from the literature and data on return migration to simulate the model for the Eastern-Western European case. We then quantify the eects that increased openness (to migrants) would have on human capital and wages in Eastern Europe. We nd that, for plausible values of the parameters, the possibility of return migration combined with the education incentive channel reverses the brain drain into a signi cant brain gain for Eastern Europe.
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Paper provided by University of Vienna, Department of Economics in its series Vienna Economics Papers with number
0907.
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 O15 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
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