Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/crm/wpaper/1627.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Remittances and the Brain Drain: Evidence from Microdata for Sub-Saharan Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Julia Bredtmann

    (RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung)

  • Fernanda Martínez Flores

    (RWI, Ruhr)

  • Sebastian Otten

    (University College London)

Abstract
Research on the relationship between high-skilled migration and remittances has been limited by the lack of suitable microdata. We create a unique cross-country dataset by combining household surveys from five Sub-Saharan African countries that enables us to analyze the effect of migrants’ education on their remittance behavior. Having comprehensive information on both ends of the migrant-origin household relationship and employing household fixed effects specifications that only use within-household variation for identification allows us to address the problem of unobserved heterogeneity across migrants’ origin households. Our results reveal that migrants’ education has no significant impact on the likelihood of sending remittances. Conditional on sending remittances, however, high-skilled migrants send significantly higher amounts of money to their households left behind. This effect holds for the sub-groups of internal migrants and migrants in non-OECD countries, while it vanishes for migrants in OECD destination countries once characteristics of the origin household are controlled for.

Suggested Citation

  • Julia Bredtmann & Fernanda Martínez Flores & Sebastian Otten, 2016. "Remittances and the Brain Drain: Evidence from Microdata for Sub-Saharan Africa," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1627, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    • Handle: RePEc:crm:wpaper:1627
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cream-migration.org/publ_uploads/CDP_27_16.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Gibson & David McKenzie, 2011. "Eight Questions about Brain Drain," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 107-128, Summer.
    2. Jean-Paul Azam & Flore Gubert, 2006. "Migrants' Remittances and the Household in Africa: A Review of Evidence," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 15(2), pages 426-462, December.
    3. Dustmann, Christian & Fadlon, Itzhak & Weiss, Yoram, 2011. "Return migration, human capital accumulation and the brain drain," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 58-67, May.
    4. Albert Bollard & David McKenzie & Melanie Morten & Hillel Rapoport, 2011. "Remittances and the Brain Drain Revisited: The Microdata Show That More Educated Migrants Remit More," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 25(1), pages 132-156, May.
    5. Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of the Economics of Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4, June.
    6. Beine, Michel & Docquier, Frédéric & Oden-Defoort, Cecily, 2011. "A Panel Data Analysis of the Brain Gain," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 523-532, April.
    7. Batista, Catia & Lacuesta, Aitor & Vicente, Pedro C., 2012. "Testing the ‘brain gain’ hypothesis: Micro evidence from Cape Verde," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 32-45.
    8. Licuanan, Victoria & Omar Mahmoud, Toman & Steinmayr, Andreas, 2015. "The Drivers of Diaspora Donations for Development: Evidence from the Philippines," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 94-109.
    9. Albert Bollard & David McKenzie & Melanie Morten, 2010. "The Remitting Patterns of African Migrants in the OECD-super- †," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 19(5), pages 605-634, November.
    10. Docquier, Frédéric & Rapoport, Hillel & Salomone, Sara, 2012. "Remittances, migrants' education and immigration policy: Theory and evidence from bilateral data," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 817-828.
    11. Joachim De Weerdt & Kalle Hirvonen, 2016. "Risk Sharing and Internal Migration," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(1), pages 63-86.
    12. Laetitia Duval & Francois-Charles Wolff, 2010. "Remittances matter: longitudinal evidence from Albania," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 73-97.
    13. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5126 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport, 2012. "Globalization, Brain Drain, and Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(3), pages 681-730, September.
    15. Di Maria, Corrado & Lazarova, Emiliya A., 2012. "Migration, Human Capital Formation, and Growth: An Empirical Investigation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 938-955.
    16. Nadeem U. Haque & Se-Jik Kim, 1995. "“Human Capital Flight”: Impact of Migration on Income and Growth," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 42(3), pages 577-607, September.
    17. de Brauw, Alan & Mueller, Valerie & Woldehanna, Tassew, 2013. "Motives to Remit: Evidence from Tracked Internal Migrants in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 13-23.
    18. Jamal Bouoiyour & Amal Miftah, 2015. "Why do migrants remit? Testing hypotheses for the case of Morocco," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-20, December.
    19. Dean Yang, 2011. "Migrant Remittances," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(3), pages 129-152, Summer.
    20. Cox, Donald & Eser, Zekeriya & Jimenez, Emmanuel, 1998. "Motives for private transfers over the life cycle: An analytical framework and evidence for Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 57-80, February.
    21. Riccardo Faini, 2007. "Remittances and the Brain Drain: Do More Skilled Migrants Remit More?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 21(2), pages 177-191, May.
    22. repec:dau:papers:123456789/14964 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Dustmann, Christian & Glitz, Albrecht, 2011. "Migration and Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 327-439, Elsevier.
    24. Maëlan Le Goff & Sara Salomone, 2016. "Remittances and the Changing Composition of Migration," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 513-529, April.
    25. Albert Bollard & David McKenzie & Melanie Morten, 2009. "The Remitting Patterns of African Migrants in the OECD," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0921, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    26. Tigran A. Melkonyan & David A. Grigorian, 2011. "Microeconomic Implications of Remittances in an Overlapping Generations Model with Altruism and a Motive to Receive Inheritance," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(8), pages 1026-1044, March.
    27. Laetitia Duval & Francois-Charles Wolff, 2010. "Remittances matter: longitudinal evidence from Albania," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 73-97.
    28. Rapoport, Hillel & Docquier, Frederic, 2006. "The Economics of Migrants' Remittances," Handbook on the Economics of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, in: S. Kolm & Jean Mercier Ythier (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Giving, Altruism and Reciprocity, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 17, pages 1135-1198, Elsevier.
    29. Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of the Economics of Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 3, June.
    30. Giulia Bettin & Andrea F. Presbitero & Nikola L. Spatafora, 2017. "Remittances and Vulnerability in Developing Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 1-23.
    31. Hoddinott, John, 1994. "A Model of Migration and Remittances Applied to Western Kenya," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(3), pages 459-476, July.
    32. Mattoo, Aaditya & Neagu, Ileana Cristina & Özden, Çaglar, 2008. "Brain waste? Educated immigrants in the US labor market," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 255-269, October.
    33. Yoko Niimi & Caglar Ozden & Maurice Schiff, 2010. "Remittances and the Brain Drain: Skilled Migrants Do Remit Less," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 97-98, pages 123-141.
    34. G. Regmi & C. Tisdell, 2002. "Remitting Behaviour of Nepalese Rural-to-Urban Migrants: Implications for Theory and Policy," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 76-94.
    35. Leah Vanwey, 2004. "Altruistic and contractual remittances between male and female migrants and households in rural Thailand," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(4), pages 739-756, November.
    36. Adams Jr., Richard H., 2009. "The Determinants of International Remittances in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 93-103, January.
    37. Dustmann, Christian & Mestres, Josep, 2010. "Remittances and temporary migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 62-70, May.
    38. André Gröger & Yanos Zylberberg, 2016. "Internal Labor Migration as a Shock Coping Strategy: Evidence from a Typhoon," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 123-153, April.
    39. World Bank, 2016. "World Development Indicators 2016," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 23969.
    40. Agarwal, Reena & Horowitz, Andrew W., 2002. "Are International Remittances Altruism or Insurance? Evidence from Guyana Using Multiple-Migrant Households," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 2033-2044, November.
    41. Beine, Michel & Docquier, Frederic & Rapoport, Hillel, 2001. "Brain drain and economic growth: theory and evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 275-289, February.
    42. repec:adr:anecst:y:2010:i:97-98:p:06 is not listed on IDEAS
    43. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Susan Pozo, 2006. "Remittances as insurance: evidence from Mexican immigrants," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(2), pages 227-254, June.
    44. Osili, Una Okonkwo, 2007. "Remittances and savings from international migration: Theory and evidence using a matched sample," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 446-465, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Manuela CHETUE Komguep & Luc NDEFFO Nembot, 2021. "Why Do Employment Policies Fail to Reduce Unemployment in Sub-Saharan Africa? Looking towards the brain drain," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(2), pages 615-633.
    2. Abdulloev Ilhom & Epstein Gil S. & Gang Ira N., 2020. "Migration and Forsaken Schooling in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-27, January.
    3. Joseph B. Ajefu & Joseph O. Ogebe, 2021. "The effects of international remittances on expenditure patterns of the left‐behind households in Sub‐Saharan Africa," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 405-429, February.
    4. Abdulloev Ilhom & Epstein Gil S. & Gang Ira N., 2020. "A Downside to the Brain Gain Story," Economics, Sciendo, vol. 8(2), pages 9-20, December.
    5. Abdulloev, Ilhom & Epstein, Gil S. & Gang, Ira N., 2020. "Job Status, International Migration and Educational Choice," GLO Discussion Paper Series 709, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Md Shahadath Hossain & Adesola Sunmoni, "undated". "Do Remittances Influence Household Investment Decisions? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2021-04, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    7. Mohammed A. M. Usman & Huseyin Ozdeser & Behiye Çavuşoğlu & Umar Shuaibu Aliyu, 2022. "On the Sustainable Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do Remittances, Human Capital Flight, and Brain Drain Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-20, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Björn NILSSON, 2019. "Education and migration: insights for policymakers," Working Paper 23ca9c54-061a-4d60-967c-f, Agence française de développement.
    2. Bettin, Giulia & Lucchetti, Riccardo & Pigini, Claudia, 2018. "A dynamic double hurdle model for remittances: evidence from Germany," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 365-377.
    3. Giulia Bettin & Riccardo Lucchetti, 2016. "Steady streams and sudden bursts: persistence patterns in remittance decisions," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(1), pages 263-292, January.
    4. Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport, 2012. "Globalization, Brain Drain, and Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(3), pages 681-730, September.
    5. Giulia Bettin & Riccardo Lucchetti & Claudia Pigini, 2016. "State dependence and unobserved heterogeneity in a double hurdle model for remittances: evidence from immigrants to Germany," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 127, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    6. Kaczmarczyk, Pawel, 2013. "Money for Nothing? Ukrainian Immigrants in Poland and their Remitting Behaviors," IZA Discussion Papers 7666, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Bettin, Giulia & Lucchetti, Riccardo & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2012. "Endogeneity and sample selection in a model for remittances," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 370-384.
    8. de Brauw, Alan & Mueller, Valerie & Woldehanna, Tassew, 2013. "Motives to Remit: Evidence from Tracked Internal Migrants in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 13-23.
    9. Giulia Bettin, 2012. "The remittance behaviour of African diaspora in Belgium," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(2), pages 157-157.
    10. Imene Guetat & Dorsaf Sridi, 2017. "Institutional quality effect on remittances in MENA region," Middle East Development Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 84-100, January.
    11. William Collier & Matloob Piracha & Teresa Randazzo, 2018. "Remittances and return migration," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 174-202, February.
    12. Laurent Bossavie & Çağlar Özden, 2023. "Impacts of Temporary Migration on Development in Origin Countries," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 38(2), pages 249-294.
    13. Ahmed, Junaid & Martinez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada, 2014. "What drives bilateral remittances to Pakistan? A gravity model approach," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 209, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    14. Meyer, Wiebke, 2012. "Motives for remitting from Germany to Kosovo," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 69, number 69.
    15. de Brauw, Alan & Mueller, Valerie & Woldehanna, Tassew, 2011. "Insurance motives to remit: Evidence from a matched sample of Ethiopian internal migrants," IFPRI discussion papers 1090, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    16. Giulia Bettin & Andrea F. Presbitero & Nikola L. Spatafora, 2017. "Remittances and Vulnerability in Developing Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 1-23.
    17. Sankar Mukhopadhyay & Miaomiao Zou, 2020. "Will Skill-Based Immigration Policies Lead to Lower Remittances? An Analysis of the Relations between Education, Sponsorship, and Remittances," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(3), pages 489-508, March.
    18. Diego Alberto Sandoval Herrera & María Fernanda Reyes Roa, 2012. "¿Por qué los migrantes envían remesas?: Repaso de las principales motivaciones microeconómicas," Borradores de Economia 10036, Banco de la Republica.
    19. Maëlan Le Goff & Sara Salomone, 2015. "Changes in Migration Patterns and Remittances: Do Females and Skilled Migrants Remit More?," Working Papers 2015-15, CEPII research center.
    20. Dustmann, Christian & Mestres, Josep, 2010. "Remittances and temporary migration," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 62-70, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    migration; remittances; skill level; brain drain; Sub-Saharan Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • F24 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Remittances
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:crm:wpaper:1627. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CReAM Administrator or Matthew Nibloe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cmucluk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.