TY  - CHAP
TI  - The Mechanisms of International Brain Circulation - A Conceptual Framework and Some Empirical Evidence
AB  - This paper deals with the issue of what mechanisms drive international circulation of highly qualified scientific workers. Since this type of labor is shown to be of great importance for the development and prosperity of economically advanced regions and countries, the question of what drives their mobility is of great relevance. In our paper we develop a conceptual model and test hypotheses derived therefrom. The conceptual model uses two major component: the traditional gravity model of spatial interaction and aspects of knowledge production. From this conceptual model we derive hypotheses concerning the timing of mobility, differences between expatriates and returnees, and the spatial pattern of interactions. As far as the spatial pattern is concerned, our main conclusion is that we expect an inverse U-shape relation with distance rather than a linear decline as in the standard gravity model.

These hypotheses are tested in the empirical part of the paper. We use data from a survey of highly-cited researchers that we conducted. In the empirical analysis we find support for our hypotheses, although some of the support is rather weak.
AF  - 57th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International
PP  - Denver
UR  - http://www.narsc.org
PY  - 2010-11-01
AU  - Trippl, Michaela 
AU  - Maier, Gunther 
ER -