 Rethinking the brain drain: Dynamics and transitionInternational Review of Economics & Finance, 2013, vol. 28, issue C, 19-25 Abstract: This paper injects a time dimension into the static, instantaneous adjustment model of Stark (2004). The paper assumes that in response to the incentive conferred by the prospect of migration, the average level of human capital – the source of a productivity-enhancing externality – changes gradually rather than immediately. This might seem to imply that, contrary to what is claimed in Stark (2004), the welfare of the workers who do not migrate, and who early on in the transition period adjust their level of human capital in response to the prospect of migration, declines because these workers do not face a higher average level of human capital. Rather surprisingly, however, the paper finds that the welfare result of Stark (2004) is robust to the relaxation of his assumption of instantaneous adjustment: even “pioneer” workers, who form more human capital in an environment in which the prevailing average level of human capital is approximately at the pre-migration level, are strictly better off when there is a prospect of migration than when there is not. Keywords: Human capital formation; Migration; Brain drain; Externalities; Dynamics; Social welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reveco:v:28:y:2013:i:c:p:19-25 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2013.05.004 Access Statistics for this article International Review of Economics & Finance is currently edited by H. Beladi and C. Chen More articles in International Review of Economics & Finance from Elsevier |
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