Domestic Regulation and Global Movement of Skilled Professionals : A Case Study of Indian Professionals in the United States
Changes in demographics and patterns of investment in human capital are creating opportunities for international trade in professional services. As populations in rich countries age, developing countries are seeing an increase in the proportion of...
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| Format: | Policy Note |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2006/06/16359005/india-domestic-regulation-global-movement-skilled-professionals-case-study-indian-professionals-united-states http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12933 |
| Summary: | Changes in demographics and patterns of
investment in human capital are creating opportunities for
international trade in professional services. As populations
in rich countries age, developing countries are seeing an
increase in the proportion of working-age people. At the
same time, the richest countries are investing
proportionally less than middle income countries in
engineering and technical human capital. In India, the
largest developing country exporter of skilled services, the
supply of educated manpower has been rising rapidly. In the
U.S., the largest single importer of skilled services demand
for reasonably-priced, skilled workers like doctors,
engineers, accountants and other high skilled professions is
outpacing domestic supply. The movement of professionals
across countries faces explicit barriers, such as
restrictive visa regimes, and implicit impediments in the
form of regulatory requirements to obtain qualifications,
training and experience and licenses even when a service
provider is already qualified and licensed in another
jurisdiction. This paper focuses on the implicit
impediments. Domestic regulations such as licensing and
qualification requirements and procedures have a profound
effect on services trade, but their analysis has proved
elusive. Sifting the legitimate from the protectionist is
far from straightforward. Nevertheless, we take a first
step in this analysis, focusing on how regulatory
requirements and procedures impact on Indian doctors,
engineers, architects and accountants when they wish to
practice their profession in the United States. |
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