Emigration Prospects and Human Capital in the Developing Countries: The Possibility of the Qualitative Brain Gain

In this paper we study the net effect of high-skilled emigration. Hence, we elaborate a simple theoretical model that studies the net effect of high-skilled emigration. The result showed that the emigration in the case where the fraction of human capital that emigrates is inferior to the critical level (equal to the difference between one and the elasticity of brain gain with respect to emigration), as well as in the case of the strong selectivity adopted, the emigration has the possibility to create a quantitative and qualitative brain gain. Indeed, to determine the net effect of brain drain we propose a new method that decomposes the gross investment of human capital into two components: the net domestic incentive effect and the net quantitative brain drain effect. Through This decomposition we can determine the net quantitative effect that arrives from the interior situation and the one arriving from the prospects effect. Finally, we tempt to define the indicator of the qualitative effect of this phenomenon. The empirical results showed that the emigration has an important effect on the human capital investment. Thus, the majority of countries have the possibility to register a net quantitative gain. Nevertheless, little of countries only have the possibility to record a qualitative brain gain.