Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Catch-Up Growth Based On International Talent Mobility In An Idea-Based World, Yu Quan, Hian Teck Hoon

Research Collection School Of Economics

We show how catch-up growth can result when immigrant ties of talented people to their home countries facilitate technology diffusion from world technological leaders to developing countries. The aspect of immigrant link we focus on is knowledge spillover through various programs of international exchange to draw upon the expertise of the individuals who have migrated—a type of externality effect on the home country. In our model, we distinguish between public technology and private technology, both of which differ across countries. The size of the talent pool in each country determines the number of skilled workers and indigenous technology levels. The …