Description:
High-skilled emigration is an emotive
issue that in popular discourse is often referred to as
brain drain, conjuring images of extremely negative impacts
on developing countries. Recent discussions of brain gain,
diaspora effects, and other advantages of migration have
been used to argue against this, but much of the discussion
has been absent of evidence. This paper builds upon a new
wave of empirical research to answer eight key questions
underlying much of the brain drain debate: 1) What is brain
drain? 2) Why should economists care about it? 3) Is brain
drain increasing? 4) Is there a positive relationship
between skilled and unskilled migration? 5) What makes brain
drain more likely? 6) Does brain gain exist? 7) Do
high-skilled workers remit, invest, and share knowledge back
home? and 8) What do we know about the fiscal and production
externalities of brain drain?