Documenting the Brain Drain of «la Crème de la Crème»: Three Case-Studies on International Migration at the Upper Tail of the Education Distribution

Frédéric Docquier, Université Catholique de Louvain
Hillel Rapoport, Bar-Ilan University

Abstract. Most of the recent literature on the effects of the brain drain on source countries consists of theoretical papers and cross-country empirical studies. In this paper we complement the literature through three case studies on very different regional and professional contexts: the African medical brain drain, the exodus of European researchers to the United States, and the contribution of the Indian diaspora to the rise of the IT sector in India. While the three case studies concern the very upper tail of the skill and education distribution, their effects of source countries are contrasted: clearly negative in the case of the exodus of European researchers, clearly positive in the case of the Indian diaspora’s contribution to putting India on the IT global map, and mixed in the case of the medical brain drain out of Africa.

JEL Codes: F22, J24, O15

Keywords: Brain drain, international migration, African medical brain drain, European brain drain, Indian diaspora