Supply or Demand, Make or Buy: Two Simple Frameworks for Thinking About a State-Level Brain Drain Policy

This article lays out two broad criteria for crafting a particular brain drain policy at the state level. The first, which we are calling “supply or demand,” asks whether a state experiencing brain drain is below average in high-tech labor demand or above average in high-tech labor supply (the latter concept measured by university enrollments). It is argued that the answer to this question matters a great deal to the policy response. The article then proposes a second, related framework for crafting brain drain policies, which is used widely in the world of business. This is whether a state should “make” or “buy” its own high-tech workers. Benchmarking data and a new review of state policy programs are then used to compare what states are doing with what they ought to be doing in light of their particular situations.