Testing the 'Brain Gain' Hypothesis: MIcro Evidence from Cape Verde

Aitor Lacuesta and Pedro C. Vicente Catia Batista
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Pedro C. Vicente and Catia Batista ()

The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series from IIIS

Abstract: Does emigration really drain human capital accumulation in origin countries? This paper explores a unique household survey purposely designed and conducted to answer this research question. We analyze the case of Cape Verde, a country with allegedly the highest ‘brain drain’ in Africa, despite a marked record of income and human capital growth in recent decades. Our micro data enables us to propose the first explicit test of ‘brain gain’ arguments according to which the prospects of own future migration can positively impact educational attainment. According to our results, a 10pp increase in the probability of own future migration improves the average probability of completing intermediate secondary schooling by 8pp. Our findings are robust to the choice of instruments and econometric model. Overall, we find that there may be substantial human capital gains from lowering migration barriers.

New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-hrm and nep-mig
Date: 2009-02-16
Note: Length:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tcd.ie/iiis/documents/discussion/pdfs/iiisdp282.pdf (application/pdf)

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: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iis:dispap:iiisdp282

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series from IIIS
Address: 01
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Eva Mateo ().