TY - JOUR
T1 - Return migration, human capital accumulation and the brain drain
AU - Dustmann, Christian
AU - Fadlon, Itzhak
AU - Weiss, Yoram
N1 - Funding Information:
This research has been financially supported by the Austrian, German, Korean, and Norwegian governments through the Multi-donor Trust Fund on Labor Markets, Job Creation, and Economic Growth administered by the World Bank's Social Protection and Labor unit. Financial support from the NORFACE research programme on Migration in Europe - Social, Economic, Cultural and Policy Dynamics is also acknowledged. We thank participants in the applications workshop at the University of Chicago, John Kennan, Jean Marc Robin, Avi Weiss and an anonymous referee for their comments on previous drafts.
PY - 2011/5
Y1 - 2011/5
N2 - In this paper we present a model that explains migrations as decisions that respond to where human capital can be acquired more efficiently, and where the return to human capital is highest. The basic framework is a dynamic Roy model in which a worker possesses two distinct skills that can be augmented by learning by doing. There are different implicit prices, in different countries and different rates of skill accumulation. Our analysis contributes to the literature on the selection of immigrants and return migrants by offering a richer framework that may help to accommodate selection of emigrants and return migrants that are not immediately compatible with the one-dimensional skill model. Our analysis also has implications for the debate on brain drain and brain gain. In the two skills model presented here, return migration can lead to a mitigation of the brain drain, or even the creation of a "brain gain", where those who return bring the home country augmented local skills.
AB - In this paper we present a model that explains migrations as decisions that respond to where human capital can be acquired more efficiently, and where the return to human capital is highest. The basic framework is a dynamic Roy model in which a worker possesses two distinct skills that can be augmented by learning by doing. There are different implicit prices, in different countries and different rates of skill accumulation. Our analysis contributes to the literature on the selection of immigrants and return migrants by offering a richer framework that may help to accommodate selection of emigrants and return migrants that are not immediately compatible with the one-dimensional skill model. Our analysis also has implications for the debate on brain drain and brain gain. In the two skills model presented here, return migration can lead to a mitigation of the brain drain, or even the creation of a "brain gain", where those who return bring the home country augmented local skills.
KW - Brain drain
KW - Comparative advantage
KW - Human capital accumulation
KW - Return migration
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79951722813&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2010.04.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2010.04.006
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AN - SCOPUS:79951722813
VL - 95
SP - 58
EP - 67
JO - Journal of Development Economics
JF - Journal of Development Economics
SN - 0304-3878
IS - 1
ER -