EVOLUTION OF INCOME DISPARITIES AND MIGRATION WITHIN ROMANIA: BRAIN DRAIN OR BRAIN GAIN ?

This paper carries out an internal analysis of convergence and migration in Romania at county level over the period 1995-2008. The econometric technique applied is the two-way fixed effects panel data model which controls for spatial dependence between neighboring counties. The main results show that migration was oscillatory, sigma-divergence was accompanied by beta-convergence, and the country was submitted to a brain gain phenomenon in which lagging counties were favored by migration and increased their growth at the expense of leading counties which slow down growth. This brain gain effect is associated with positive migration effect and rising beta-convergence, meaning that migrants were mainly heterogeneous