Abstract

Among its institutional aims, the University also has to contribute to create development in the geographical area where it operates. Such contribution arises from the development of human capital, which, once trained, should be employed in enterprises, in the PA, in the institutions. A geographical area failing to offer opportunities to highly-skilled individuals, leading them to forced migration in some cases, is destined to experience a progressive deterioration of its human capital and, in the long run, a progressive marginalisation of its role in the scenario always more focused on the major cultural, economic and financial centres of Europe and the world. The phenomenon of intellectual migration and the debate on its effects on the areas of origin and destination thus acquires an increasingly decisive feature in the processes of regional development of entire countries and geographical areas. This paper tries to offer a contribution to the debate on the measurement of the economic effects deriving from the migration of highly-skilled individuals, with particular reference to Italian internal migration.