The Role of Immigrants, Emigrants, and Locals in the Historical Formation of Knowledge Agglomerations

Viktor Stojkoski, Philipp Koch and Cesar Hidalgo

No 2231, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: Did migrants help make Paris a center for the arts and Vienna a beacon of classical music? Or was the rise of these knowledge agglomerations a sole consequence of local actors? Here, we use data on the biographies of more than 22,000 famous historical individuals born between the years 1000 and 2000 to estimate the contribution of famous immigrants, emigrants, and locals to the knowledge specializations of European regions. We find that the probability that a region develops a specialization in a new activity (physics, philosophy, painting, music, etc.) grows with the presence of immigrants with knowledge on that activity and of immigrants specialized in related activities. We also find that the probability that a region loses one of its existing areas of specialization decreases with the presence of immigrants specialized in that activity and in related activities. In contrast, we do not find robust evidence that locals with related knowledge play a statistically significant role in a region entering or exiting a new specialization. These findings advance our understanding of the role of migration in the historical formation of knowledge agglomerations. nations.

Keywords: migration; knowledge spillovers; relatedness; economic history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N13 N93 O15 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-11, Revised 2022-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-geo, nep-his, nep-int, nep-sbm and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egu:wpaper:2231

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