I was listening to Dan Ariely's podcast a while back and one of the topics was on the hidden benefit of brain drains. The theory goes like this. Only a few hig

I was listening to Dan Ariely's podcast a while back and one of the topics was on the hidden benefit of brain drains. The theory goes like this. Only a few highly educated people have the opportunity to emigrate, say 1 out of 10 college graduates. But the benefit of emigrating is so huge, improving well being by 10x or 20x, more people will still pursue higher education even though they may not actually have the chance to emigrate. So although 1 out of 10 top people end up leaving for the United States or Europe, the developing nation will still net gain the 9 out of 10 educated people that couldn't emigrate who will help improve the nation overall.