Extending the case for a beneficial brain drain

Simone Bertoli () and Herbert Brücker ()
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Herbert Brücker: Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), http://www.iab.de/

Working Papers Series from Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche

Abstract: The recent literature about the so called brain drain assumes that destination countries are characterized not only by higher wages than the source country, but also by a higher or at least not lower relative return to skill. As this assumption has a doubtful empirical validity, we assess whether the main prediction of this literature, namely the possibility of a beneficial brain gain, still holds under the reverse assumption. We show that there is still a case for a beneficial brain drain. Immigration policies that are biased against unskilled workers are not necessary for a beneficial brain drain to occur once one considers that agents face heterogeneous migration costs.

Keywords: migration; brain drain; skill premium; heterogeneous agents; selective immigration policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J24 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm, nep-lab and nep-mig
Date: 2008
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