兩岸的人才競爭，這議題近年來每隔一陣子就會被拿出來討論一下，電子媒體或是平面媒體也都做了專題探討。因為地理、歷史、種族或語言的關係，台灣的人才受到中國吸引。從經濟因素其實很好理解－－一個較大的市場當然能提供更多的機會與報酬。如果中國的姚明和台灣的王建民都沒有去美國，他們能有如此高的收入嗎？
前幾天在經濟學人上看到一篇預言，說中國可望在2027年取代美國，成為全球最大的經濟體。我想：對有著十三億人口的中國而言，成為世界最大的經濟體只是遲早的事。看看美國經濟發展，與其大企業成長的歷史，我們幾乎可以預見未來中國會有許多強大的企業，中國的喜好與傳統也會漸漸的為世界所接受。該預言並說到，未來的中國將會愈來愈像今日的美國，而未來的美國也會變得較像今日的中國，是偏有趣的文章。
美商往往認為美國就是全世界。以前總認為那是美國人的自大與無知，但是工作幾年後卻發現，這種自大的態度其實是反映著事實：美國是全世界最大的市場，在美國成功後，其他的市場的成績都可以說是額外的紅利(bonus)罷了。未來中國的企業也可能會有這種心態，雖然中國的國家形像與富裕和美好的生活還有段距離。但是一旦在中國市場成功後，其他的市場的收益實際上也就是額外的紅利了。
中國這麼大的市場誘因怎麼不吸引人呢？況且對台灣人而言，中國的進入障礙不高。下面一篇紐約時報的報導，是關於法國的人才不斷的受美國吸引，而離開法國前往新大陸去闖天下的報導。所以說「兩岸的人才競爭」這個問題不僅僅發生在台灣海峽兩岸，也同樣發生在大西洋兩岸，與地中海兩岸；歐洲的菁英受到美國的吸引，而北非的精英也受到歐洲的吸引。
November 21, 2010
French Professors Find Life in U.S. Hard to Resist
By MAÏA DE LA BAUME
PARIS — Academics are increasingly leaving France for the United States, which carries the risk of a “brain drain” in France, according to a report this month by an independent study group.
The report, by the Institut Montaigne, a leading independent research group in Paris, found that academics constitute a much larger percentage of French émigrés to the United States today than 30 years ago. According to the report, between 1971 and 1980, academics represented just 8 percent of the departing population; between 1996 and 2006, they represented 27 percent of the departing population.
“The acceleration of French scientific emigration to the United States is recent and worrisome,” said the report, called “Gone for good? The expatriates of French higher education in the United States.”
Of the 2,745 French citizens who obtained a doctorate in the United States from 1985 to 2008, 70 percent settled there, the study found.
The number of French scientists who leave France for the United States remains limited, but the exodus of the country’s most talented scientists could hurt the economy, the report suggested.
“Those who leave France are the best, the most prolific and the best integrated on an international scale,” said the report, which surveyed about a hundred French researchers and professors who studied in France’s top universities and elite schools like the École Normale Supérieure and the École Polytechnique.
Many of France’s best biologists and economists can now be found in the United States. According to a study in 2007 by the École des Mines that looked at the 100 best economists in the world, according to the amount of their work published from 1990 and 2000, four of the six top French researchers in economics had left France for the United States.
“Biology and economics are poorly recognized in France,” said Thomas Philippon, a French economist who began teaching finance at New York University Stern School of Business in 2003. “But the problem also comes from the fact that the French labor market doesn’t value Ph.D. theses.”
The Institut Montaigne study concluded that, for the most talented French economics students, studies in the United States are an “obligatory step” toward a doctorate.
Two of France’s best-known economists teach in the United States at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and obtained their doctorates there. One of them, Olivier Blanchard, is also the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. The other economist, Esther Duflo, received the John Bates Clark Medal in 2010, which is one of most prestigious awards in economics. Dr. Duflo was granted tenure at 29 years old, making her one of the youngest professors to receive tenure at the university.
The emigrant trend is more recent among French biologists, but their numbers have grown significantly. “Biology is an extremely competitive field,” said Gérard Karsenty, a professor of genetics and and development at Columbia University in New York.
“The notion of competition, the acceptance of competition is more in harmony with the American culture than the French and Latin one,” he added.
The brain drain in French academia has been observed in other arenas, as well. The field of musical composition, for example has been hurt by the trend, and composers are few, training offers scarce and jobs rare. “We are in the process of killing contemporary music in France,” said an unidentified composer cited in the report.
Today, many French academics working in the United States say their choice to leave their country was largely motivated by an American system “where universities are larger, richer and more flexible than in France,” said Dr. Philippon, the professor at New York University.
Mr. Karsenty, the biologist, said: “Scientific education in the U.S. embraces the philosophy of science, which is a solitary and competitive field.”
The French lifestyle, which puts a higher value on quality of living and less emphasis on competition and getting ahead, is no longer sufficient to keep talented researchers in France, many scientists said. In a country where science is often viewed as cut off from society, French universities do little to glorify their researchers, they said, and offer working conditions that are often mediocre.
“The freedom that academics garner in France is invaluable,” said Rava da Silveira, a physicist who teaches neuroscience at the École Normale Supérieure and collaborates with researchers at Princeton, Harvard, and Stanford, “but with it comes a deplorable waste of talent. People interact much less through informal discussions, and there is little team spirit or consultation, in particular between faculty and students.”
Upon moving to France after nine years in the United States, Dr. da Silveira said, his salary was cut by about two-thirds.
Like many other researchers, he agreed that the rigidity of the French higher education system and a lack of financing, infrastructure and administrative help have prevented France’s scientific talents from reaching their full potential in France.
For Pierre-André Chiappori, a professor of economics at Columbia who is mentioned in the report, the American model is unique, and U.S. universities are havens of knowledge, the likes of which cannot be found in France.
“If the United States attracts some of the best researchers in France, it is also true that a lot of them become better in the United States,” Dr. Chiappori was quoted as saying. “My only regret, in that matter, is that I should have come earlier.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/world/europe/22iht-educSide22.html
中文節錄翻譯：http://search.nioerar.edu.tw/edu_message/data_image/DC/2010/0074C.PDF
The story was taken from The New York Times, which is not involved with nor endorses the production of this blog. The copyright remains with The New York Times Comapny and the author.
The Forbidden City, Beijing, China taken by Frank 2005.8.17
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