The Brain Drain: Curse or Boon?

By Simon Commander, Mari Kangasniemi, L. A. Winters. Social Science Research Network, 2003

115 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The migration of skilled individuals from developing countries has typically been considered to be costly for the sending country, due to lost investments in education, high fiscal costs and labour market distortions. Economic theory, however, raises the possibility of a beneficial brain drain primarily through improved incentives to acquire human capital. Our survey of empirical and theoretical work shows under what circumstances a developing country can benefit from skilled migration. It argues that the sectoral aspects of migration and screening of migrants in the receiving country are of major importance in determining the welfare implications of the brain drain. These issues, as well as the size of the sending country, duration of migration and the effect of diaspora populations, should be addressed in future empirical work on skilled migration. JEL

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7879f387efd6e10d205f6c2f3c19c11000940d39

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In Economics and Econometrics

1. Caglar Ozden
2. Aaditya Mattoo
3. C. Nielsen
4. Bernard M. Hoekman
5. John Gibson
6. David J. McKenzie

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Caglar Ozden
2. Ileana Cristina Neagu
3. Aaditya Mattoo
4. C. Nielsen
5. David J. McKenzie
6. John Gibson

Citations in the corpus

• Brain waste? Educated immigrants in the U.S. labor market (2005, background): “In this context, Commander et al. (2003) argue that the screening of immigrants in the receiving country is of major importance in determining the welfare implications of brain drain.”