Monday 9 January 2012

Eight Questions about Brain Drain

a Policy Research Working Paper (WPS5668) by John Gibson and David McKenzie published by The World Bank Development Research Group in May 2011 and included in the Journal of Economic Perspectives Volume 25 Number 3 (Summer 2011)

Abstract

High-skilled emigration is an emotive issue that in popular discourse is often referred to as brain drain, conjuring images of extremely negative impacts on developing countries. Recent discussions of brain gain, diaspora effects, and other advantages of migration have been used to argue against this, but much of the discussion has been absent of evidence. This paper builds upon a new wave of empirical research to answer eight key questions underlying much of the brain drain debate:
  1. What is brain drain?
  2. Why should economists care about it?
  3. Is brain drain increasing?
  4. Is there a positive relationship between skilled and unskilled migration?
  5. What makes brain drain more likely?
  6. Does brain gain exist?
  7. Do high-skilled workers remit, invest, and share knowledge back home? and
  8. What do we know about the fiscal and production externalities of brain drain?
This paper is a product of the Finance and Private Sector Development Team, Development Research Group. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://econ.worldbank.org.

Full paper (PDF 30pp)

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