Editors of the World Bank's book say policies may be needed to raise the incomes of professionals in their home countries.Others, including Professor Kapur and Professor McHale, who is an economist at the business school of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, suggest that new ways be found to compensate the hardest-hit countries for their losses. They also say rich countries should consider setting up time-limited visas that would allow professionals to work for a few years before taking their expertise, and savings, back home.
Developing Lands Hit Hardest by 'Brain Drain' - New York Times
If I listen hard, I can hear the value of my Queen's degree dropping. McHale's is a terrible idea, and here's why: educated, capable people leave their homes because there are better opportunities elsewhere. In other words, the market for their skills is more competitive abroad than at home. The conditions that trap poor countries in poverty (a lack of democracy, a lack of individual and political freedom, repression of independent institutions, no stable rule of law, labor and capital controls, artificial market distortions or restraints) are what prevents emigrants from obtaining appropriate compensation for their skills in their homelands. Compensating these countries for their losses creates a perverse incentive to maintain these conditions, since, combined with remittances, it creates a quicker path to hard currency inflows than reforming their economies and societies.
The only long-term fix would be to let this exodus of talent create a shortage which would, in turn, put upward pressure on compensation for these talents. As compensation goes up, the outflow should slow and then stop.
I weep for my alma mater.
