Assessing the South African Brain Drain, a Statistical Comparison

Jean-Baptiste Meyer, Mercy Brown and David Kaplan ()
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David Kaplan: University of Cape Town

Working Papers from University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit

Abstract: For several decades the analysis of the so-called brain drain has been hampered by measurement problems. It is now recognised that the official figures significantly underestimate the extent of the brain drain phenomenon and its increase since the political changes in the mid-1990's. This paper, using data from various reliable sources, provides new statistical evidence on the size of the brain drain from South Africa. It compares two methods used to arrive at a more realistic picture of the South African brain drain. The paper reveals that the official figures are far below realistic estimates of the outflows and the mid-90's increase is much smaller than reported by these figures. A new perspective comes out of the multiple data comparison.

Keywords: South; Africa:; brain; drain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2000-07
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Working Paper Series by the Development Policy Research Unit, July 2000, pages 1-30

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http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7229 First version, 2000 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctw:wpaper:00040

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