In this paper, we provide new estimates of skilled workers' emigration rates for about 190 countries in 2000 and 170 countries in 1990, including both developing and industrial countries. Using various statistical sources, we revisit Carrington and Detragiache's measures by incorporating information on immigrants' educational attainment and country of origin from almost all OECD countries. Our database covers 92.7 percent of the OECD immigration stock. In absolute terms, we show that the largest numbers of highly educated migrants are from Europe, Southern and Eastern Asia and, to a lesser extent, Central America. Nevertheless, as a proportion of the potential educated labor force, the highest brain drain rates are observed in the Caribbean, Central America, Western and Eastern Africa. Repeating the exercise for 1990 and 2000 allows us to evaluate the changes in brain drain intensity. Western Africa, Eastern Africa and Central America experienced a remarkable increase in the brain drain during the past decade.JEL Classi…cation: F22, J61.
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