The Brain Drain and the World Distribution of Income and Population Growth

Over the last two decades immigration policies in OECD economies have become increasingly selective and the rate of skilled migration from low income economies has risen markedly. This paper analyzes the theoretical implications of this shift in migration patterns for the growth and distribution of world income and population using a model with endogenous education, fertility and migration decisions in both the sending and receiving economies. It shows that Brain Drain migration may cause fertility to fall and human capital accumulation to increase in both the sending and receiving economies. It also shows that the world economy may converge to a special kind of core-periphery equilibrium where increasing inequality between countries is fueled by Brain Drain migration but where, nonetheless, the welfare of agents in both the core and the periphery is increased. Thus Brain Drain migration may increase inequality between countries at the same time as reducing world poverty and increasing world growth.