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Skill-biased technological change, unemployment and brain drain

Abstract

We develop a general equilibrium model of technological change and migration to examine the e ects of a change in skill endowments on wages, employment rates and emigration rates of skilled and unskilled workers. We nd that, depending on the elasticity of substitution between skilled and unskilled workers, an increase in the skill ratio can increase the expected wage of the skilled and decrease the brain drain. We provide empirical estimates and simulations to support our findings and show that e ects are empirically relevant and potentially sizeable. Our findings fit the stylized facts on educational upgrading in developing countries during the 1980s and the subsequent decrease in the brain drain from those countries during the 1990s.

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File URL: http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Papers.Econ/RePEc/vie/viennp/vie1108.pdf
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Paper provided by University of Vienna, Department of Economics in its series Vienna Economics Papers with number 1108.

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Date of creation: Jun 2011
Handle: RePEc:vie:viennp:1108
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.univie.ac.at/vwl

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
  • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
  • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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Cited by:

  1. Óscar Afonso & Tiago Sequeira, 2017. "Tradable and nontradable directed technical change," CEFAGE-UE Working Papers 2017_02, University of Evora, CEFAGE-UE (Portugal).

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