Medical Worker Migration and Origin-Country Human Capital: Evidence from U.S. Visa Policy

2021/11/03 by Paolo Abarcar, Caroline Theoharides · 35 citations
Health Professions · Medicine · Nursing · Social Sciences · #Business #Demographic economics #Economic growth #Economics #Employment and Welfare Studies #Geography #Global Health Workforce Issues #Graduation (instrument) #Human capital #Labour economics #Licensure #Medicine #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Nursing #Stock (firearms)

paper · doi:10.1162/rest_a_01131

published in The Review of Economics and Statistics 106(1), 20-35 (The MIT Press)

openalex publication_date 2021/11/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/19

Abstract

Abstract We exploit changes in U.S. visa policies for nurses to measure the origin-country human capital response to international migration opportunities. Combining data on all migrant departures and postsecondary institutions in the Philippines, we show that nursing enrollment and graduation increased substantially in response to greater U.S. demand for nurses. The supply of nursing programs expanded. Nurse quality, measured by licensure exam pass rates, declined. Despite this, for each nurse migrant, nine additional nurses were licensed. New nurses switched from other degree types but graduated at higher rates than they would have otherwise, increasing the human capital stock in the Philippines.

Citations

• Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis
• Globalization, Brain Drain, and Development
• No Man Left Behind: Effects of Emigration Prospects on Educational and Labour Outcomes of Non-migrants
• Networks in the Modern Economy: Mexican Migrants in the U. S. Labor Market
• Global Skill Partnerships: a proposal for technical training in a mobile world
• Brain Drain and Human Capital Formation in Developing Countries: Winners and Losers
• Testing the ‘brain gain’ hypothesis: Micro evidence from Cape Verde
• HIV Pandemic, Medical Brain Drain, and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Bartik Instruments: What, When, Why, and How

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• Human capital flight [wikipedia]

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