Brain Drain from Turkey: An Investigation of Students’ Return Intentions

Nil Demet Güngör and Aysıt Tansel ()

No 701, ERC Working Papers from ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University

Abstract: The emigration of skilled individuals from Turkey attracted greater media attention and the interest of policymakers in Turkey, particularly after the experience of recurrent economic crises that have led to an increase in unemployment among the highly educated young. This study estimates a model of return intentions using a dataset compiled from an Internet survey of Turkish students residing abroad. The findings of this study indicate that, as expected, higher salaries offered in the host country and lifestyle preferences, including a more organized environment in the host country, increase the probability of student non-return. However, the analysis also points to the importance of prior return intentions and the role of the family in the decision to return to Turkey or stay overseas. It is also found that the compulsory service requirement attached to government scholarships increases the probability of student return. Turkish Student Association membership also increases return intentions. Longer stay durations, on the other hand, decrease the probability of return. These findings have important policy implications.

Keywords: Student non-return; brain drain; return intentions; Turkey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F20 F22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2007-01, Revised 2007-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa, nep-edu and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://erc.metu.edu.tr/en/system/files/menu/series07/0701.pdf First version, 2007 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Brain drain from Turkey: an investigation of students' return intentions (2008)
Working Paper: Brain Drain from Turkey: An Investigation of Students' Return Intentions (2006)
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:met:wpaper:0701

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ERC Working Papers from ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Erol Taymaz ().