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

Catia Batista, Aitor Lacuesta () and Pedro Vicente

No 5048, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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 may improve the average probability of completing intermediate secondary schooling by 8pp for individuals who do not migrate before age 16. Strikingly, this same 10pp increase may raise the probability of completing intermediate secondary schooling by 11pp for an individual whose parents were both non migrants when the educational decision was made. 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.

Keywords: brain drain; Cape Verde; sub-Saharan Africa; effects of emigration in origin countries; international migration; human capital; brain gain; household survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J24 O12 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2010-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published - published in: Journal of Development Economics, 2012, 97 (1), 32-45

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp5048.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Testing the ‘brain gain’ hypothesis: Micro evidence from Cape Verde (2012)
Working Paper: Testing the 'Brain Gain' Hypothesis: MIcro Evidence from Cape Verde (2009)
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:iza:izadps:dp5048

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().