Brain Drain and Human Capital Formation in Developing Countries: Winners and Losers

✍ Scribed by Michel Beine; Fréderic Docquier; Hillel Rapoport

• Book ID: 111056028
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 190 KB
• Volume: 118
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2008.02135.x

✦ Synopsis

Using new data on emigration rates by education level, we examine the impact of brain drain migration on human capital formation in developing countries. We find evidence of a positive effect of skilled migration prospects on gross human capital formation in a cross-section of 127 countries. For each country of the sample we then estimate the net effect of the brain drain using counterfactual simulations. Countries combining relatively low levels of human capital and low emigration rates are shown to experience a Ôbeneficial brain drainÕ, and conversely, there are more losers than winners, and the former tend to lose relatively more than what the latter gain.* A previous version of this article received the 2003 Milken Institute Award for Distinguished Economic Research (Beine et al., 2003). Remarks and suggestions from two referees were very helpful. We thank for comments