How Big is the Brain Drain?

By William Carrington, Enrica Detragiache

July 1, 1998

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William Carrington, and Enrica Detragiache. How Big is the Brain Drain?, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 1998) accessed November 7, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

The brain drain from developing countries has been lamented for many years, but knowledge of the empirical magnitude of the phenomenon is scant owing to the lack of systematic data sources. This paper presents estimates of emigration rates from 61 developing countries to OECD countries for three educational categories constructed using 1990 U.S. Census data, Barro and Lee’s data set on educational attainment, and OECD migration data. Although still tentative in many respects, these estimates reveal a substantial brain drain from the Caribbean, Central America, and some African and Asian countries.

Subject: Aging, Education, Migration, Population and demographics

Keywords: Africa, Aging, Asia and Pacific, Brain drain, Central America, Central American country, Gulf state, Human capital, International labor migration, Migrants to the United States, Migration, Migration rate, North America, OECD country, South America, Tertiary education, United States definition, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

27
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 1998/102
Stock No:

WPIEA1021998
ISBN:

9781451948424
ISSN:

1018-5941

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