Should I Stay or Should I Go…North? First Job Location of U.S. Trained Doctorates 1957-2005

Abstract

Based on a survey of graduating PhD students in the U.S., we study the determinants of location of their first jobs. We consider how locating in Canada versus the U.S. for all graduates is influenced by both their background and time­-varying factors that affect international mobility. We also study the choice of European graduates between North America and returning to Europe. We find that in many cases macro factors have the expected effect of choices after controlling for biases for home, which depend upon background variables in expected ways.Doctoral Education, International Mobility, Brain Drain