Elise S. Brezis


Professor of Economics


Curriculum vitae



Head, Forum Macro of Israel


Department of Economics


Bar-Ilan University, Israel



Should individuals migrate before acquiring education or after? A new model of Brain Waste vs. Brain Drain


Journal article


Elise S. Brezis
The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, vol. 19(2), De Gruyter, 2019 Mar, pp. 1-11


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APA
Brezis, E. S. (2019). Should individuals migrate before acquiring education or after? A new model of Brain Waste vs. Brain Drain. The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, 19(2), 1–11.

Chicago/Turabian
Brezis, Elise S. “Should Individuals Migrate before Acquiring Education or after? A New Model of Brain Waste vs. Brain Drain.” The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics 19, no. 2 (March 2019): 1–11.

MLA
Brezis, Elise S. “Should Individuals Migrate before Acquiring Education or after? A New Model of Brain Waste vs. Brain Drain.” The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, vol. 19, no. 2, De Gruyter, Mar. 2019, pp. 1–11.


Abstract

Should individuals migrate before acquiring education or after? In order to analyze the optimality of the timing of migration, I develop a model of migration, which combines the two migration decisions into a unique model – the decisions about where to get an education and about where to work. The main reason for having a unified model is that investment in human capital cannot be disjoined from the decision about work. This paper shows that brain drain is usually an optimal solution. But, when we incorporate “brain waste” and “return migration”, then it is optimal to migrate when young.

Keywords: brain drain, brain waste, higher education, migration, psychological costs, quality of education, return migration