challenges to globalization analyzing the economics.pdf

This PDF is a selection from a published volume from the National Bureau of Economic Research Volume Title: Challenges to Globalization: Analyzing the Economics Volume Author/Editor: Robert E. Baldwin and L. Alan Winters, editors Volume Publisher: University of Chicago Press Volume ISBN: 0-262-03615-4 Volume URL: /books/bald04-1 Conference Date: May 24-25, 2002 Publication Date: February 2004 Title: The Brain Drain: Curse or Boon? A Survey of the Literature Author: Simon Commander, Mari Kangasniemi, L. Alan Winters URL: /chapters/c9540 7 The Brain Drain: Curse or Boon? A Survey of the Literature Simon Commander, Mari Kangasniemi, and L. Alan Winters 7.1 Introduction The term “brain drain” appears to have gained wide usage in the late 1960s when growth in the migration of skilled personnel from developing to developed countries accelerated.1 The developed countries, by attract- ing scarce skilled labor, were widely held to be pursuing policies that were costly to developing countries, both in the short and longer run. The costs were not only in terms of output and employment, but also—depending on the way in which education was financed—through additional fiscal costs associated with public subsidies to education. A variety of policy propos- als, mostly centered around taxation, were floated, although none were ul- timately implemented. Part of this may be attributed to likely difficulties with implementation—measurement problems (including temporary mi- gration and migration linked to education enrolment in developed coun- tries) and ambiguities with respect to the welfare consequences. Many of the same issues and debates have undergone a recent revival. This paper has been prepared for the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and the Studies fõrbundet Nãringsliv och Samhãll