Dr. Changhui Kang(Professor, Chung-ang University)

KSP: An Examination of Brain Drain in Romania

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Facts on Brain Drain from Romania

▶<Figure 2> Stock of Romanian Migrants

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Facts on Brain Drain from Romania

▶<Table 1> Stock of Romanian Migrants by Destination

Country/Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010Italy 69.999 82.985 95.039 177.812 248.849 297.570 342.200 625.278 678.534 847.533 813.037Spain 33.044 68.561 137.834 206.395 312.099 397.270 510.983 706.164 762.163 784.834 810.471Hungary 144.150 145.200 146.457 148.535 152.700 155.364 170.430 196.094 202.231 198.229 189.055Israel 124.128 120.909 117.334 113.754 110.434 106.942 103.742 100.246 96.924 96.385 182.099United States 113.855 140.647 156.080 163.759 139.373 169.113 154.958 169.977 172.476 177.035 171.253Germany 317.000 318.000 209.000 168.000 386.000 134.911Canada 60.165 82.645 96.209Austria 31.200 39.149 41.990 44.691 46.613 47.840 48.198 53.415 57.567 60.456 56.932United Kingdom 16.000 26.000 39.000 55.000 53.081Belgium 6.216 7.662 8.718 9.459 10.628 12.628 15.322 20.374 26.154 30.641 21.634Sweden 11.776 11.954 12.172 12.343 12.536 12.748 12.910 15.214 17.352 18.532 16.184

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Facts on Brain Drain from Romania

▶<Figure 4> Migration of Tertiary-Edu. People: 1990 and 2000

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Facts on Brain Drain from Romania

▶<Figure 5> Migration of Tertiary-Edu. People by Gender, 2000

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Facts on Brain Drain from Romania

▶<Figure 6> Medical Brain Drain, 2004

Bosni

a and

Herzego

vinaEst

oniaGree

ce

Roman

ia

Serbia

and M

onten

egro

Hunga

ryPol

andLat

via

Czech

Republi

c

Slova

kiaTur

key

Lithuan

ia

Portug

al

Alban

ia

Slove

nia

Moldov

a

Ukraine

Belar

us00

02

04

06

08

10

12

14

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Economic Impacts of Brain Drain

▶Negative impacts by early studies in 1970-80’s

- Reduction in the absolute size of skilled labor.

- Occupational shortages in certain sectors and professions (e.g., teachers, engineers, physicians, nurses).

- An increase in the technological gap b/w developing and devel-oped countries.

- A loss of domestic educational investments for those high-edu-cated and high-skilled.

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Economic Impacts of Brain Drain

▶Important assumptions of early studies

- No uncertainty regarding future migration oppor-tunities for the educated.

- A complete disconnection between emigrants and their country of origin.

- Neither return migration nor remittances

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Statistics on Return Migration

▶Return Relative to Gross Migration Flows (OECD), 1990-2000

Roman

ia

Alban

ia

Bulga

riaCze

chEst

onia

Hunga

ryLat

via

Lithuan

iaPol

and

Avg.

ex. R

M0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

1.20

1.40

1.60

0.41

0.72

Return/Gross

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Economic Impacts of Brain Drain

▶Potentially positive impacts by recent studies

- Migration possibility encouraging human capital formation.

- Temporary migration resulting in return migration (ex. the Hsinchu Science Park of Taiwan).

- Remittances.

- Diaspora and network effects (ex. India’s IT sector). - Business and scientific networks and technology diffusion.

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Empirical Evidence on Ultimate Impacts

▶Beine, Docquier and Rapoport (2001, JDE; 2007, EJ)

- BDR (2001) analyze a cross-section of 37 developing coun-tries. BDR (2007) looks into a cross-section of 127 develop-ing countries.

- A net positive impact of skilled migration prospects on gross human capital levels.

- Simulation: Countries combining relatively low levels of HC and low skilled emigration rates are likely to experience a net gain.

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Empirical Evidence on Ultimate Impacts

▶Beine, Docquier and Rapoport (2001, JDE; 2007, EJ)

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Empirical Evidence on Ultimate Impacts

▶The optimal rate of migration displays an inverse U-shaped relationship with the source-country level of devel-opment.

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Policy Recommendations

▶Policies promoting positive impacts of BD

- Promote return migration.

- Ways to increase network effects.

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Development Status Relative to the U.S.

▶Development Status Relative to the U.S. (unit: per capita GDP, ppp)

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 20100.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

KoreaRomania

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Korea’s Experiences

▶Korea’s Policies in 1970-80s:

- Various restrictions on students studying abroad through 1970s.

- But, in 1981 studying abroad was liberalized.

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Korea’s Experiences

▶<Figure 6> Number o Koreans Ph.D’s

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Korea’s Experiences

▶Unique Features:

- Various incentives were provided for those returning.

Ex. The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in 1966; The Korea Development Institute (KDI) in 1971.

- Active involvement of U.S.-trained scholars in government policy makings.

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Korea’s Experiences