High-Skill Emigration: Is Willingness to Leave a Country Linked with Its Government Performance?

Abstract

High-Skill Emigration, also called “Brain Drain”, is among the most debated migration policy issues. While origin countries lose talent, many destination countries gain highly skilled human capital. Although many studies of this issue have focused on the relationship between labor markets and motivation to migrate, much less research has been done on the relationship between a country’s governance and emigration, especially of the highly-skilled. In an attempt to fill this gap in the literature, this paper uses micro-level and macro-level data from 18 Latin-American countries to determine whether the use of bribes to access public services and perception of government effectiveness have any impact on people’s willingness to stay or leave. Findings indicate that having paid a bribe, having been a victim of a crime and perception of government effectiveness in the home country impact willingness to leave of the highly-skilled.