Spanish Emigration; A Panel Data Analysis

international migration is a topic of vital importance, as Spanish population abroad has increased 56% from 2002 to 2013, with currently circa 2.3 million Spanish citizens living abroad. Since this crisis hit Spain in 2008, GDP pc growth plummeted, inequality increased and unemployment reached 26.9% in 2013, with some sources registering up to 400,000 emigrants per year. Although non-nationals emigration outweighs nationals’ emigration, the second has caught more attention, generating alarm of a possible “brain drain” and “lost generation”. I study this phenomenon using a gravity model that contains data of emigration flows from Spain to 60 destination countries from 2002 to 2013, finding that relative GDP per capita, distance, population, relative unemployment and relative inequality all play a significant role in these flows. However, welfare variables and others referring to relations between countries are mainly not significant.