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FORGET talk of a brain drain. New Zealand has shared a brain "exchange" with the rest of the world in the past 40 years, a Treasury report concludes.
But it confirms that almost 400,000 New Zealanders have left for Australia in that time, many of them skilled.
There were three significant waves of emigration beginning in the mid-1970s. Their numbers and skills have been offset by immigrants from other regions, mainly Asia.
"Over the long term, we can see a [brain] exchange," Treasury Analyst Wai Kin Choy said.
"And on the skills side... the people arriving from the rest of the world tend to be at least as skilled as those leaving."
In their working paper, Mr Choy and Treasury deputy secretary Peter Bushnell look at whether closer economic ties between countries lead to skilled people being drawn to the economist of the larger and richer partners.
The Treasury researchers estimate New Zealand has gained a net 115,000 long-term migrants from all countries since 1960.
About half those who have left New Zealand since 1992 are regarded as high-skilled - well above the 37 per cent of the New Zealand population in that category. The skills of New Zealanders leaving for Australia more closely matched the overall population.
"However, a common [trans-Tasman] labour market has not led to brain drain," the report says. "Paradoxically, the effect has been to increase the numbers of lower-skilled migrants from New Zealand [to Australia] and those with higher skills who are older or are not within the approved occupational groupings."
The paper notes the imbalance in migration between New Zealand and Australia has led to tension about welfare costs and common criteria for migrants from third countries.
New Zealand agreed to a new trans-Tasman migration and welfare eligibility deal in February, requiring New Zealanders moving to Australia to apply for permanent residence before becoming eligible for welfare and other benefits. Previously, they got permanent residence automatically after living in Australia for two years.