Brain Drain in Sub-Saharan Africa

: Winners or Losers? Evidence from recent data

Abstract

SSA appears to be the second most affected region of the world by
brain drain behind Caribbean; size of brain drain in SSA has been increasing
overtime from 14.2% in 1980 to 17.4% in 2010. Moreover, it was more than
2 times the size in developing countries globally and more than 3 times the
size at the world level. This study evaluates the net economic consequences
of brain drain to determine whether SSA countries are net winners or net
losers and then, how the net effect evolves overtime in a static comparative
perspective. We show that SSA as a whole is a net winner but with gains
declining overtime; at regional level, Southern and Western Africa are net
winners with net gains declining overtime while Middle and Eastern Africa
started net winners but end up net losers. We also show that there are more
winners than losers, but the number of losers has been increasing (from 4 in
1980 to 20 countries in 2010) and the winners decreasing. Futhermore, we
hightlight the persistence of losses in the sense that once a country becomes
a net loser, it remains in that situation. Finally, We show that threshold size
of BD in SSA is structurally explained by the increasing pattern of losses
and decreasing pattern of gains with respect to the size of brain drain. This
threshold stands between 20% and 25%.

Date of Award	31 May 2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Namur
Supervisor	David De La Croix (Supervisor) & Stephanie Weynants (Co-Supervisor)