IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cra/wpaper/2010-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Should I stay or should I go? An institutional approach to brain drain

Author

Listed:
  • Lea Cassar
  • Bruno S. Frey

Abstract

This paper suggests that institutional factors which reward social net- works at the expenses of productivity can play an important role in ex- plaining brain drain. The e€ects of social networks on brain drain are analyzed in a decision theory framework with asymmetric information. We distinguish between the role of insidership and personal connections. The larger the cost of being an outsider, the smaller is the number and the average ability of researchers working in the domestic job market. Per- sonal connections partly compensate for this e€ect by attracting highly connected researchers back. However, starting from a world with no dis- tortions, personal connections also increase brain drain.

Suggested Citation

  • Lea Cassar & Bruno S. Frey, 2010. "Should I stay or should I go? An institutional approach to brain drain," CREMA Working Paper Series 2010-12, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    • Handle: RePEc:cra:wpaper:2010-12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.crema-research.ch/papers/2010-12.pdf
    File Function: Full Text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.crema-research.ch/abstracts/2010-12.htm
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kwok, Peter & Leland, Hayne, 1984. "Migration and Asymmetric Information: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 535-535, June.
    2. Kwok, Viem & Leland, Hayne, 1982. "An Economic Model of the Brain Drain," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(1), pages 91-100, March.
    3. Paul Winters & Alain de Janvry & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2001. "Family and Community Networks in Mexico-U.S. Migration," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 36(1), pages 159-184.
    4. Lien, Da-Hsiang Donald, 1987. "Economic analysis of brain drain," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 33-43, February.
    5. P. Giannoccolo, 2005. "Brain Drain Competition Policies in Europe: a Survey," Working Papers 534, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    6. Katz, Eliakim & Stark, Oded, 1984. "Migration and Asymmetric Information: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 533-534, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Brain Drain; Social Networks; Institutions; Asymmetric In- formation; Italian Academia;

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cra:wpaper:2010-12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Anna-Lea Werlen). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/cremach.html .

    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 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.

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.