The International Mobility of Talent: Types, Causes, and Development Impact (WIDER Studies in Development Economics)

Entrepreneurs, technical experts, professionals, international students, writers, and artists are among the most highly mobile people in the global economy today. These talented elite often originate from developing countries and migrate to industrial economies. Many return home with new ideas, experiences, and capital useful for national development, whilst others remain to produce quality goods and services that are useful everywhere in the global economy.

The economic potential of globalization is ultimately dependent on the international mobility of highly talented individuals that transfer knowledge, new technologies, ideas, business capacities, and other creative capabilities. Developing countries and advanced economies may both gain from this mobility if it is effectively and smartly managed. This volume, with original contributions from outstanding international experts in the subject, provides a novel analysis of the main determinants and development impact of talent mobility in the global economy.

Andrés Solimano, a Chilean-Italian national, holds a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is currently Regional Advisor at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC). He is also Director of the project on The International Mobility of Talent with the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) in Finland and UN-ECLAC in Santiago. Formerly Country Director at the World Bank in Washington DC and Executive Director for Chile and Ecuador on the Boards of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and affiliated institutions, he has published numerous books and authored articles on growth, development, globalization, economic reform, income distribution, international migration, and macroeconomics in professional journals and the media.