Conventional wisdom holds that the emigration of highly skilled workers depletes local human capital developing countries. But when the very prospect of emigration induces people to invest more in their education, the effects might not be so negative. Michael Clemens analyzes a unique natural quasi-experiment in the Republic of Fiji Islands, where political shocks have provoked one of the largest recorded exoduses of skilled workers from a developing country. He uses rich census and administrative microdata to show that high rates of emigration by tertiary-educated Fiji Islanders not only raised investment in tertiary education in Fiji, but also raised the stock of tertiary-educated people in Fiji - net departures.
To watch this seminar, click here, and scroll down to the "video transcript" link.
To read the associated paper, click here.
(seminar at Stanford University on March 15, 2011)