Most of the recent literature on the effects of the brain drain on source countries consists of theoretical papers and cross-country empirical studies. In this paper we complement the literature through three case studies on very different regional and professional contexts: the African medical...

We explore the complementarities between high-skill emigration and poverty in developing countries. We build a model endogenizing human-capital accumulation, high-skill migration and productivity. Two countries sharing the same characteristics may end up either in a “low poverty/low brain...

Relying on an original data set on international migration by educational attainment for 1990 and 2000, we analyze the determinants of the brain drain from developing countries. We start from a simple decomposition of the brain drain in two multiplicative components, the degree of openess of...

The brain drain has long been viewed as a serious constraint on poor countries development. However, recent theoretical literature suggests that emigration prospects can raise the expected return to human capital and foster investment in education at home. This paper takes advantage of a new...

The aim of this paper is to highlight the positive and important role that skilled migration can have on TFP growth in the sendind countries, when diaspora effects in technology diffusion are introduced. To investigate our issue, we start from a previous paper by Vandenbussche, Aghion and Costa...

This paper updates and extends the Docquier-Marfouk data set on international migration by educational attainment. We use new sources, homogenize definitions of what a migrant is, and compute gender-dissaggregated indicators of the brain drain. Emigration stocks and rates are provided by level...

First, we briefly discuss the very idea of tradable quotas, looking at a set of cases in which it has been proposed (but not implemented)outside the realm of pollution control of natural resources management. Next we study a proposal of tradable procreation quotas. We generalize Boulding’s...

Brain drain is a major issue for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Econometric analysis confirms that smallness has a strong positive impact per se on emigration rates. On average, 50 percent of the high-skilled labour force in SIDS has left their country, and the brain drain exceeds 75...