Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/103764 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
Kiel Working Paper No. 1956
Publisher: 
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Kiel
Abstract: 
We develop a theoretical model of human skill formation and emigration. Additionally to existing brain drain models, we partly endogenize the heterogeneity of the individuals, by introducing aspirations. Emigration of an individual will result in a migration experience, which increases the migrant's aspirations. This will induce her to invest more in the education of her children back home. We find that this aspirations effect increases the average skill level in the society for a given migration rate. We show that the optimal migration rate that maximizes the post-migration skill-rate of the population is higher if we allow for the aspirations effect of migration. We use panel data from Indonesia to demonstrate that a migration experience has an aspirations increasing effect and calibrate our model accordingly. Our results suggest that there are potentially more countries than previously assumed which benefit from migration.
Subjects: 
migration
brain gain
aspirations
education
JEL: 
D03
F22
I25
J61
O15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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