Towards a Socio‐Economics of the Brain Drain and Distributed Human Capital

Abstract

This paper derives from our joint interest in understanding how scientific mobility affects developing countries. Many authors have addressed the topic previously, both from an economic and from a sociological perspective. However, recent literature evinces dissatisfaction with both analytical frameworks and the framing of public policies addressing the brain drain problematic. This paper is a contribution to understanding the historical and theoretical foundations of the "brain drain" debate. We aim to improve conceptual clarity regarding the itinerancy of human beings and the mobilization of human capital. We develop a critical review of the economics of the brain drain, highlighting the work of some key early thinkers and pointing out the way in which subsequent work has taken up selected aspects of their approaches leaving other challenges aside. We then consider the diaspora networks literature, which is characterized as taking a "connectionist" approach to the brain drain. We identify two fundamental problems: the sidelining of complementarity and context dependency as basic properties of human capital; and a failure to adequately disentangle the concepts of human resources for science and technology (HRST) and human capital in academic and policy discourse about the brain drain.

Framing brain drain: between solidarity and skills in European labor mobility

“…The article contributes to the study of the international political economy (IPE) of migration and labor mobility in several ways. At least since Saxenian's (2007) study on 'the new Argonauts' (technically skilled entrepreneurs from primarily India, China and Taiwan that travel back and forth between Silicon Valley and their home countries), there has been a growing appreciation within IPE of 'brain circulation' as a powerful economic force for development of peripheral regions (Cañibano & Woolley, 2015;Graham, 2014;Pellerin & Mullings, 2013;Phillips, 2009). Brain circulation carries political risks, however, especially if it leads to personnel or skills shortages in politically sensitive sectors such as health, where studies have analyzed the social and political repercussions of the neoliberal and transnational restructuring of care provision (LeBaron, 2010;Woodward, 2005;Yeates, 2009).…”

Ethic Leadership Trigger for Talents

“…That means they are attracted by a challenging and competitive environment [19]. Among the issues identified as motivations for talents to leave their native place and work abroad are "the sidelining of complementarity and context dependency" and luck of clarifying the concept of employee in science and technology [4].…”

How to Reverse the Italian Brain Drain: A Master Class from Australia

“…Secondly, the term “brain drain” is associated with a variety of qualifications linked to economic and social theories (Cañibano and Woolley, : 4). Numerical qualifications of the brain drain, as hinted at earlier, seek to evaluate the balance between the number of highly skilled individuals that have left in comparison to those who are entering, and they have, in general, little significance (Cañibano and Woolley, : 12; Koser and Salt, ; Morano‐Foadi, : 212). They also bring an undertone of economic nationalism that might be both economically short sighted and ethically questionable (Cañibano and Woolley, : 2).…”

“…Numerical qualifications of the brain drain, as hinted at earlier, seek to evaluate the balance between the number of highly skilled individuals that have left in comparison to those who are entering, and they have, in general, little significance (Cañibano and Woolley, : 12; Koser and Salt, ; Morano‐Foadi, : 212). They also bring an undertone of economic nationalism that might be both economically short sighted and ethically questionable (Cañibano and Woolley, : 2). However, the article's aims are first to show the Italian problematic legal framework that fosters the imbalance in the circulation or flux of highly qualified individuals “to and from” Italy, and second, to suggest pilot schemes that might inspire a change in legislation and/or new policies.…”