- Public Education and the Brain Drain Problem: Does more spending retain skilled workers?
Awards
Author(s):
Category:
Institution:
Region:
Winner Category:
Year:
Abstract:
- This paper analyses empirically whether increased government expenditure on education retains more skilled workers. Human capital accumulation is more challenging particularly for developing countries due to the increasing global mobility of skilled labour. Using the latest international migration dataset by level of education, this paper examines how education expenditure affects the two factors of brain drain – openness (defined as total migration ratio) and schooling gap (the relative education level between migrants and natives). Two estimation methods are used, OLS and FEE, for robustness of results. The paper also introduces a new variable in the literature, expenditure per student in PPP$, as a potential determinant for skilled emigration. The results find a negative correlation between education expenditure per student and openness and no significant effect on the schooling gap, resulting in a negative relationship with skilled emigration. When using continent fixed effects, the correlation weakens, suggesting that a more country specific analysis may be necessary to determine the effectiveness of retaining a larger share of skilled workers by investing in education.
Attached Documents: