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Brain Drain or Gain

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Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics

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Abstract

Due to self-selection and skill-selective immigration policies, highly educated individuals exhibit much greater propensity to emigrate internationally than the less educated. Although skill-biased emigration has long been viewed as detrimental to the growth potential of the sending country, recent studies emphasize the fact that it also induces economic benefits. This chapter reviews the existing literature on brain drain and development, documents global selection patterns, and provides updated estimates of the (net) effect of skill-biased emigration on human capital formation, human capital accumulation, and macroeconomic performance for almost every country in the world. The quantitative analysis suggests that skill-biased emigration can be beneficial for human development and economic growth in most countries at the bottom of the income distribution as well as in some middle-income countries.

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Acknowledgments

Responsible Section Editor: Klaus F. Zimmermann. The authors acknowledge financial support from the EOS program of the Flemish (FWO) and French-speaking (FRS-FNRS) communities of Belgium (convention 30784531 on “Winners and Losers from Globalization and Market Integration: Insights from Micro-Data”). The chapter has also benefited from valuable comments of the editors. The chapter was presented online at the GLO Handbook Workshop Migration at the 2021 EBES 37 conference. There is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LISER, Luxembourg Institute of Social and Economic Research, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    Frédéric Docquier

  2. University of Rennes 1, Rennes, France

    Stefanija Veljanoska

Authors
  1. Frédéric Docquier
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  2. Stefanija Veljanoska
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Correspondence to Frédéric Docquier .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. UNU-MERIT & Princeton University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Klaus F. Zimmermann

Section Editor information

  1. Center for Population, Development and Labour Economics at UNU – MERIT, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Klaus F. Zimmermann

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Docquier, F., Veljanoska, S. (2022). Brain Drain or Gain. In: Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_114-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_114-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57365-6

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