The paper shows that in a reasonable production structure for a developing economy a brain drain of skilled labour may raise the welfare of the economy while an emigration of unskilled labour is welfare reducing. Also an emigration of skilled / unskilled labour lowers the urban unemployment of...

The paper shows that in a reasonable production structure for a developing economy a brain drain of skilled labour may raise the welfare of the economy while an emigration of unskilled labour is welfare reducing. Also an emigration of skilled/unskilled labour lowers the urban unemployment of...

Liberalization of foreign trade and investment raises the domestic ratio of skilled to unskilled wages (skill premium) if the country has a sufficiently well-educated workforce, but lowers it otherwise. Wide wage inequality is undesirable on equity grounds, especially in poor countries where the...