Academic

Teson on the Brain Drain

By Lawrence Solum

Fernando R. Teson (Florida State University College of Law) has posted Brain Drain (San Diego Law Review, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2008) on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

It is generally assumed that the brain drain (the emigration of skilled citizens from poor countries to rich countries) is a bad thing that needs to be reversed or curbed. In this article I argue against this received view. First, relying on state-of-the-art economic research, I show that the empirical case against the brain drain is flawed. The expectation of emigration in poor countries raises the returns on education, which often causes a brain gain. Second, I show that the normative case against the brain drain is untenable. Critics of the brain drain assume a weak notion of self-ownership (something like Rawls's "collective ownership of talents"). I show that this notion, assuming arguendo that it applies to worldly resources, is inapplicable to natural assets. And finally, taxing the foreign-earned income of the skilled emigrant would amount to unjust double taxation. The upshot is that the state does not own its talented citizens and has therefore no justice-based claim over their talent-generated income (with the possible exception of taxing for the provision of genuine public goods.)

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on January 20, 2009 (boomark / email).