The Elite Brain Drain

Abstract

We collect data on the movement and productivity of elite scientists. Their mobility is remarkable: nearly half of the world's most-cited physicists work outside their country of birth. We show they migrate systematically towards nations with large R & D spending. Our study cannot adjudicate on whether migration improves scientists' productivity, but we find that movers and stayers have identical h-index citations scores. Immigrants in the UK and US now win Nobel Prizes proportionately less often than earlier. US residents' h-indexes are relatively high. We describe a framework where a key role is played by low mobility costs in the modern world. Copyright © The Author(s). Journal compilation © Royal Economic Society 2009.

Document type: Book

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The different versions of the original document can be found in:

• http://ftp.iza.org/dp4005.pdf

• http://hdl.handle.net/10419/35595

• http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2193/1/WRAP_Oswald_Elite.pdf