Related to our discussion a couple of weeks ago about immigration for high-tech workers, Katherine Mangu-Ward cites a study illustrating one way that a “brain drain” can be good for the country from which the brains drain:
Imagine, if you will, foreign movie makers who come to California. They are much more likely to make excellent movies there–or even to make movies at all, really–and more of their countrymen will get to watch them when they appear, especially if their countrymen have few qualms about bootlegs.
The authors, economists Peter J. Kuhn and Carol McAusland, write that those who remain behind “benefit because ‘their’ brains produce ‘better’ knowledge (such as more effective medicines, more entertaining movies, or more effective software) abroad than if they had remained at home.” This is particularly true in situations where a discrepancy between protections for intellectual property at home and abroad makes it easy for residents of the innovators’ countries of origin to enjoy the fruits of their labors with low transaction costs.
Personally, I find the notion that someone should be forced to live in an impoverished country solely so that his countrymen can benefit from his presence morally repugnant. But even if you buy that premise, it’s not at all clear that liberal immigration of high-skilled workers is, on net, harmful to poor countries. And liberal immigration is undeniably beneficial to the world as a whole.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
Comments on this entry are closed.