Oil Rent and Brain Drain in the OPEC Oil Exporting Countries

Today many developing countries face the problem of brain drain that could be affected by oil rents in oil-exporting countries. Natural resources aggravate rentier behavior and affect the welfare of elites and finally increase brain drain. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nonlinear effects of oil rent on brain drain in oil-exporting countries (OPEC) during the period 2000-2016. For this purpose, the dynamic threshold panel method has been used. The results indicate the nonlinear effects of oil rents on brain drain. When the ratio of oil rents to gross domestic product is lower than 41.4%, the increase in oil rents has a positive significant impact on the brain drain in the OPEC countries and when the ratio of oil rents to gross domestic product greater than the threshold value, increasing oil rents will cause brain drain more than before.