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Brain Drain, R&D-Cost Differentials and the Innovation Gap*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

Fabio Mariani
Fabio Mariani*
Affiliation:
Paris School of Economics, Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne and IZA, Bonn.
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Summary

This paper aims at explaining why countries with comparable levels of education still experience notable differences in terms of R&D and innovation. High-skilled migration, ultimately linked to differences in R&D costs, might be responsible for the persistence of such a gap. In fact, in a model where human capital accumulation and innovation are strategic complements, we show that allowing labor outflows may strengthen educational incentives in the lagging economy if migration is probabilistic in nature, but at the same time reduces the share of innovative production. Income (growth) might be consequently affected, and a positive migration chance is very unlikely to act as a substitute for educational subsidies.

Résumé

Résumé

Ce papier se propose d'expliquer pourquoi certains pays, caractérisés par un system éducatif de niveau comparable, diffèrent de façon importante en termes d'innovation et d'R&D. La migration des travailleurs qualifiées, liée aux différents coûts de R&D, pourrait être responsable de cet écart. Dans un cadre théorique avec complémentarité stratégique entre accumulation de capital humain et innovation, on montrera que la possibilité d'émigrer augmente les incitations à s'éduquer dans le pays relativement moins développé. Au même temps, cette « fuite des cerveaux » nuit à l'innovation technologique. Par conséquent, la croissance pourrait en être affectée (négativement) et, contrairement à certains résultats établis par la littérature existante, la migration ne serait pas susceptible de remplacer les subsides à l'éducation.

Keywords

innovationéducationfuite de cerveauxF22O3I2J24InnovationEducationBrain drainF22O3I2J24
Type
Research Article
Information
Recherches Économiques de Louvain/ Louvain Economic Review , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , 2008 , pp. 251 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 2008 

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Footnotes

†

CES - Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne; 106-112, bd. de I'Hôpital, F-75013 Paris (France). Ph.: +33 (0)1 44078350; fax: +33 (0)1 44078231. E-mail: [email protected].

*

I want to thank David de la Croix for his guidance and for many useful comments on earlier drafts. I am also grateful to Antonio Minniti and Luca Panaccione for insightful discussions. Finally, several comments and suggestions provided by two anonymous referees proved extremely useful to improve the paper. All remaining errors are, of course, under my own responsibility. Financial support from the Belgian French-Speaking Community in the framework of the ARC Project “New Macroeconomic Perspectives on Development” (Grant ARC 03/08-302) is very gratefully acknowledged.

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