Institutional Development: Skill Transference Through a Reversal of Human Capital Flight or Technical Assistance

Abstract

We examine the issue of technical assistance versus brain drain repatriation as alternative strategies for transferring scarce skills to a skill-poor economy. Technical assistance relies mainly on expatriate skills and labour from the host country, while brain drain repatriation seeks to effect a return of skills that might have been lost in migration. We show that, even in the simplest setting with imperfect information, a surprisingly rich menu of responses is obtained. Copyright 2007 The Authors Journal compilation 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd