Severe shortages of health personnel provide a justification for the international community to support developing countries in their efforts to retain medical workers through improved local conditions. Our new research shows that aid for health as well as general efforts to foster economic growth indeed lead to lower migration of medical workers. The effects are modest, however, suggesting that foreign assistance can only play a minor role in mitigating the medical brain drain.

Concerns about medical brain drain

Debates on the extent to which developing countries suffer from a brain drain often focus on the emigration of locally scarce health personnel. The emigration of high-skilled workers in general, and medical workers in particular, can be considered as a loss of human capital, often (although perhaps not always) negatively influencing the welfare of those who remain in the source countries (e.g. Adovor et al 2021; Bhagwati and Hamada 1974).

Over 40 percent of Member States of the World Health Organisation (WHO) report to have fewer than 10 medical doctors per 10,000 population, and over 55 percent report to have fewer than 40 nursing and midwifery personnel per 10, 000 population (WHO 2020). To put this into perspective, the corresponding OECD averages are 35 (for medical doctors) and 96 (for nurses), respectively. Empirical studies have shown that the emigration of doctors is associated with high HIV death rates; child mortality; and an insufficient number of medical workers to meet local health care needs, pointing to a medical brain drain (see Chauvet et al. 2013; Bhargava and Docquier 2008; Astor et al. 2005). The existing research literature also points to instances where emigration prospects for medical workers provide incentives for investment in education that are sufficiently high to bring about a net welfare gain for the country of origin (e.g. Abarcar and Theoharides 2020; Kangasniemi et al. 2007).

This is a part of a blog post published by Mauro Lanati and Rainer Thiele.