Ability drain: size, impact, and comparison with brain drain under alternative immigration policies

Maurice Schiff

Journal of Population Economics, 2017, vol. 30, issue 4, No 9, 1337-1354

Abstract: Abstract Ability drain’s (AD) impact seems economically significant, with 30% of US Nobel laureates since 1906 being immigrants, and immigrants or their children founding 40% of Fortune 500 companies. Nonetheless, while brain drain (BD) and gain (BG) have been studied extensively, AD has not. I examine migration’s impact on ability (a), education (h), and productive human capital or “skill” s =s(a, h), for source country residents and migrants under (a) the points system (PS) which accounts for h and (b) the “vetting” system (VS) which accounts for s (e.g., US H-1B program). The findings are as follows: (i) Migration reduces (raises) residents’ (migrants’) average ability, with an ambiguous (positive) impact on average education and skill, and net skill drain, SD, likelier than net BD; (ii) these effects increase with ability’s inequality or variance, are greater under VS than PS, and hurt source countries; (iii) the model and two empirical studies suggest average AD ≥ BD for educated US immigrants, with real income about twice the home country income; and (iv) SD holds for any BD and for a very small AD (7.4% of our estimate). Policy implications are provided.

Keywords: Migration; Points system; Vetting system; Ability drain; Brain drain; Brain gain; F22; J24; J61; O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Related works:
Working Paper: Ability Drain: Size, Impact, and Comparison with Brain Drain under Alternative Immigration Policies (2017)
Working Paper: Ability Drain: Size, Impact, and Comparison with Brain Drain under Alternative Immigration Policies (2016)
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DOI: 10.1007/s00148-017-0644-1

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