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Should individuals migrate before acquiring education or after? A new model of Brain Waste vs. Brain Drain

  • Elise S. Brezis EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: March 26, 2019

Abstract

Should individuals migrate before acquiring education or after? In order to analyze the optimality of the timing of migration, I develop a model of migration, which combines the two migration decisions into a unique model – the decisions about where to get an education and about where to work. The main reason for having a unified model is that investment in human capital cannot be disjoined from the decision about work. This paper shows that brain drain is usually an optimal solution. But, when we incorporate “brain waste” and “return migration”, then it is optimal to migrate when young.

JEL Classification: F22; I23; J24

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Jean-Pascal Benassy, Stefano Bianchini, Joel Hellier and Thierry Verdier; as well as participants at the IMISCOE conference; at the Barcelona workshop on urban economics; at seminars in the AMCB Center, and in Strasbourg University; as well as the referee and the Editor for their helpful comments.

Appendix

Proof of the Proposition

I.

Under which condition do we get that BSBF?

  1. If wS > wF

    Then this is obvious.

  2. If wF > wS.

    Then, under Condition I, we get that BSBF.

II.

Under which condition do we get that AFBF?

If: (PoPY)+wF(QFαQSα)>(TFTS)Condition II

Then, we get that AFBF.

So either due to condition I, or to condition II, BF is not optimal.

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Published Online: 2019-03-26

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