Globalization of scientific and engineering talent: international mobility of students, workers, and ideas and the world economy

This paper documents the five main ways in which globalization of scientific and engineering has proceeded: (1) expansion of mass higher education worldwide; (2) growth in number of international students; (3) immigration of scientists and engineers; (4) non-immigration trips: academic visitors, conferences; (5) greater international co-authorship and co-patenting. It is argued that by accelerating the rate of technological change and speeding the adoption of best practices around the world, these developments should benefit advanced and developing countries but that they threaten the comparative advantage of advanced countries in high-tech sectors and the edge that their citizens have in access to the highest quality university education and jobs; and risk creating greater divisions between modern and traditional sectors in developing countries. How economies around the world take advantage of the benefits and minimize the costs of globalization of knowledge will be a major determinant of economic progress.