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‘BRAIN DRAIN’ OR ‘BRAIN CIRCULATION’: EVIDENCE FROM OECD'S INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND R&D SPILLOVERS
Author(s) -
Le Thanh
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
scottish journal of political economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.4
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1467-9485
pISSN - 0036-9292
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9485.2008.00468.x
Subject(s) - brain drain , cointegration , economics , circulation (fluid dynamics) , panel data , human capital , international economics , technology transfer , monetary economics , economic geography , macroeconomics , international trade , development economics , econometrics , economic growth , physics , thermodynamics
This paper empirically investigates whether labour mobility can transfer technology across borders based on the panel cointegration method. Estimates of specifications on a cross‐section of 19 OECD countries during 1980–1990 lend strong support to this thesis. Data indicate that international labour movement may help transfer technology across borders in both directions: from donor countries to host countries and vice versa. This suggests that migration may more likely create a ‘brain circulation’ rather than a ‘brain drain’. In addition, human capital has a significant impact on the research and development (R&D) diffusion process as it enhances a country's capacity to learn from a foreign technology base.