: A significant proportion of the physician and nurse workforce in the U.S. is constituted of professionals from other countries. These health professionals play an important role in the U.S. health care system. However, emigration can place significant strains on the health care system in their home countries. Despite the importance of health professional migration for health care systems in the U.S. and other countries, there is a paucity of evidence on the size and characteristics of the migratory flows. The proposed study would utilize a country-level panel data set to examine the patterns of migration of health professionals to the United States. Factors including income, political climate, integration of economic markets, and working conditions that could influence the volume of migration of health professionals to the United States will be analyzed for the period 1994 to 2000. The findings will be used to construct an economic model of migration patterns for physicians and nurses, compare these patterns to other professions such as natural scientists and service workers, and determine which countries deviate most from the expected emigration patterns. ? ?
