IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jed/journl/v39y2014i3p35-49.html

The Inconsistency of "Brain Gain": The Schooling-Migration Nexus Revisited

Author

Listed:
  • Andre Wolf

    (Hamburg Institute of International Economics, Germany)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of emigration of high-skilled workers on the skill formation in a small sending country within an Overlapping Generations framework. In contrast to the preceding literature, emigration is explicitly modelled as the outcome of a deterministic decision-process and domestic wages respond endogenously to the outflow. It is shown that lowering emigration barriers in this general equilibrium framework never results into a positive long-run effect on human capital despite positive repercussions on schooling, which challenges the propositions of the more stylized class of 'brain gain' models. Implications for policy designs in developing countries as well as for empirical research are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Andre Wolf, 2014. "The Inconsistency of "Brain Gain": The Schooling-Migration Nexus Revisited," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 39(3), pages 35-49, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:jed:journl:v:39:y:2014:i:3:p:35-49
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.jed.or.kr/full-text/39-3/3.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kugler, Maurice & Rapoport, Hillel, 2005. "Skilled emigration, business networks and foreign direct investment," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0503, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    2. Maurice Kugler & Hillel Rapoport, 2005. "Skilled Emigration, Business Networks and Foreign Direct Investment," CESifo Working Paper Series 1455, CESifo.
    3. Ravi Kanbur & Hillel Rapoport, 2005. "Migration selectivity and the evolution of spatial inequality," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 43-57, January.
    4. Rodriguez, Carlos Alfredo, 1975. "Brain drain and economic growth : A dynamic model," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 223-247, September.
    5. Beine, Michel & Docquier, Frederic & Rapoport, Hillel, 2001. "Brain drain and economic growth: theory and evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 275-289, February.
    6. Devesh Kapur, 2001. "Diasporas and Technology Transfer," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(2), pages 265-286.
    7. Stark, Oded & Helmenstein, Christian & Prskawetz, Alexia, 1998. "Human capital depletion, human capital formation, and migration: a blessing or a "curse"?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 363-367, September.
    8. Maurice Kugler & Hillel Rapoport, 2005. "Skilled Emigration, Business Networks and Foreign Direct Investment," CESifo Working Paper Series 1455, CESifo Group Munich.
    9. Thomas Liebig & Alfonso Sousa‐Poza, 2004. "Migration, Self‐Selection and Income Inequality: An International Analysis," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 125-146, February.
    10. Alexander Haupt & Eckhard Janeba, 2009. "Education, redistribution and the threat of brain drain," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 16(1), pages 1-24, February.
    11. repec:bla:obuest:v:63:y:2001:i:0:p:647-70 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Stark, Oded & Wang, Yong, 2002. "Inducing human capital formation: migration as a substitute for subsidies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 29-46, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Docquier, Frederic & Rapoport, Hillel, 2004. "Skilled migration: the perspective of developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3382, The World Bank.
    2. Daniela Federici & Marilena Giannetti, 2010. "Temporary Migration and Foreign Direct Investment," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 293-308, April.
    3. Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport, 2012. "Globalization, Brain Drain, and Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(3), pages 681-730, September.
    4. Ernest MIGUELEZ & Claudia NOUMEDEM TEMGOUA, 2017. "Immigration externalities, knowledge flows and brain gain," Cahiers du GREThA 2017-07, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    5. Hung‐Ju Chen, 2009. "A Brain Gain Or A Brain Drain? Migration, Endogenous Fertility, And Human Capital Formation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(4), pages 766-782, October.
    6. Schneider, Lutz & Kubis, Alexander & Wiest, Delia, 2010. "Selektivität, soziale Bindung und räumliche Mobilität –Eine Analyse der Rückkehrpräferenz," IWH Discussion Papers 17/2010, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    7. Docquier, Frédéric, 2006. "Brain Drain and Inequality Across Nations," IZA Discussion Papers 2440, IZA Network @ LISER.
    8. Dong, Baomin & Fu, Shihe & Gong, Jiong & Fan, Hanwen, 2014. "The Lame Drain," MPRA Paper 53825, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Michael Landesmann & Mario Liebensteiner & Robert Stehrer, 2010. "Migrants and Economic Performance in the EU15: their allocations across countries, industries and job types and their (productivity) growth impacts at the sectoral and regional levels," FIW Research Reports series II-009, FIW.
    10. Baochun Peng, 2009. "Rent‐seeking activities and the ‘brain gain’ effects of migration," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(4), pages 1561-1577, November.
    11. Alexander Haupt & Tim Krieger & Thomas Lange, 2010. "A Note on Brain Gain and Brain Drain: Permanent Migration and Education Policy," Working Papers CIE 27, Paderborn University, CIE Center for International Economics.
    12. José Luis Groizard & Joan Llull, 2006. "Skilled migration and growth. Testing brain drain and brain gain theories," DEA Working Papers 20, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Departament d'Economía Aplicada.
    13. Haupt, Alexander & Krieger, Tim & Lange, Thomas, 2013. "Education policy, student migration, and brain gain," Discussion Paper Series 2013-05, University of Freiburg, Wilfried Guth Endowed Chair for Constitutional Political Economy and Competition Policy.
    14. Luca Marchiori & I-Ling Shen & Frédéric Docquier, 2013. "Brain Drain In Globalization: A General Equilibrium Analysis From The Sending Countries' Perspective," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(2), pages 1582-1602, April.
    15. repec:cuf:journl:y:2014:v:15:i:2:schiff is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Bertoli, Simone & Brücker, Herbert, 2011. "Selective immigration policies, migrants' education and welfare at origin," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 19-22, October.
    17. Peter Simmons & Yuanyuan Xie, 2013. "Where is the grass greener? A micro-founded model of migration with application to Guangdong," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-23, December.
    18. Di Maria, Corrado & Lazarova, Emiliya A., 2012. "Migration, Human Capital Formation, and Growth: An Empirical Investigation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 938-955.
    19. Kugler, Maurice & Rapoport, Hillel, 2007. "International labor and capital flows: Complements or substitutes?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 155-162, February.
    20. Calogero Carletto & Jennica Larrison & Çaglar Özden, 2014. "Informing migration policies: a data primer," Chapters, in: Robert E.B. Lucas (ed.), International Handbook on Migration and Economic Development, chapter 2, pages 9-41, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    21. Lucia Rizzica, 2008. "The Impact of Skilled Migration on the Sending Country: Evidence from African Medical Brain Drain," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 98(6), pages 195-230, November-.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jed:journl:v:39:y:2014:i:3:p:35-49. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sung Y. Park (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eccaukr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.