Brain drain and job dissatisfaction. Evidence from a developing country

Luciana Méndez Errico and Sofía Santín ()
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Sofía Santín: Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Economía

No 23-18, Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) from Instituto de Economía - IECON

Abstract: We study the extent to which individuals' reported job dissatisfaction could drive brain drain in a developing country, taking Uruguay as a case study. We focus on a particular group of highly skilled workers, those holding a PhD and working in research, due to their relevance for development. This group has not been previously addressed in the literature on brain drain. We build on previous literature and address causality by estimating seemingly unrelated equations with instrumental variables. Our results point to a negative causal relationship between job satisfaction and a researcher's desire to emigrate. We also find that researchers embedded in international academic networks are more prone to report an intention to emigrate. Our policy recommendations are in line with those aiming to increase pecuniary and non-pecuniary aspects of the job, and to implement complex policies of international collaboration with researchers living abroad in order to at least partially offset brain drain.

Keywords: brain drain; migration; human capital; subjective well-being; Uruguay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J24 J28 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2023-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12008/41951

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ulr:wpaper:dt-18-23

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