Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP6717
Authors: Dan Bendavid
Abstract: This paper provides a comparative examination of how public universities in two countries, the United States and Israel, have evolved over the past few decades - and how differences between the two have culminated in a rate of academic brain drain from the latter to the former that is unparalleled in the western world. The number of Israelis in the top 40 American departments in physics, chemistry, philosophy, computer science and economics, as a percentage of their remaining colleagues in Israel, is over twice the overall academic emigration rates (at all levels) from European countries. Signs of what is currently occurring in Israel have already begun to appear in other developed countries as well, though on a completely different scale - still - making the country an important case study that other countries should study, understand and prepare against a similar eventuality.
Keywords: brain drain; higher education; migration
JEL Codes: A11; F22; H52; H83; I23; J31; J61; O15
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Decline in the number of senior faculty positions in Israeli universities since 1973 (I29) | Academic brain drain (I25) |
| Academic brain drain (I25) | Decrease in the caliber of faculty remaining in Israel (D29) |
| Differential investment in higher education between the United States and Israel (I23) | Disparities in academic resources and opportunities (I24) |
| Disparities in academic resources and opportunities (I24) | Academic brain drain (I25) |