Human capital acquisition and international migration in a model of educational market
Roman Zakharenko
Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2012, vol. 42, issue 5, 808-816
Abstract:
This paper analyzes international high-skilled migration caused by financial frictions in educational market. I develop a model of learning in which acquisition of skill is only possible through personal interaction with a skilled individual; the income of the skilled is sensitive to financial constraints for the unskilled. Cross-country differences in such constraints have a multiplicative effect on the skill premium, causing outmigration of skilled individuals from a less developed country. I study welfare implications of such brain drain for the sending and receiving countries. Although it makes more difficult skill acquisition in the sending country, the unskilled may still be better off: increased cost of skill acquisition is offset by higher income once the skill has been acquired. For the receiving country, I identify a phenomenon of immiserizing immigration: a depletion of the stock of skill in the sending country due to brain drain hinders further production of skill, which may hurt the receiving country. Additionally, I find that increased openness of the sending country to migration and the resultant accelerated brain drain increase the incentives of the country government to reduce financial frictions.
Keywords: Skill acquisition; Brain drain; Immiserizing immigration; Financial constraints (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J61 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166046211001323
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:regeco:v:42:y:2012:i:5:p:808-816
DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2011.11.002
Access Statistics for this article
Regional Science and Urban Economics is currently edited by D.P McMillen and Y. Zenou
More articles in Regional Science and Urban Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu (repec@elsevier.com).