Can Intellectual Property Rights Protection Generate Brain Gain from International Migration?

Abstract

This paper studies the interaction between international migration and intellectual property rights (IPR) in determining innovation performance of developing countries. Although emigration may directly cause brain drain, it generates a ‡ow of knowledge acquired by emigrants abroad back to their home countries, which could be better absorbed under sound IPR institutions. IPRs thus work as a moderating factor to overcome brain drain by creating the conditions to better absorb potential gains from migration. Using a panel dataset of emerging and developing countries, we establish a positive correlation between emigration and innovation when IPRs are su¢ ciently strong.

Intellectual property rights and diaspora knowledge networks: Can patent protection generate brain gain from skilled migration?

“…The RHS of Equation(27) reveals that protecting IPRs increases the number of workers in the innovation sector who can bene…t from diaspora by enlarging [G(z 2 ) G(z 1 )].…”