Productivity gains from migration: Evidence from inventors

Gabriele Pellegrino, Orion Penner, Etienne Piguet and Gaétan de Rassenfosse
Additional contact information
Orion Penner: Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne
Etienne Piguet: University of Neuchatel

Working Papers from Chair of Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy

Abstract: This paper studies the relationship between migration and the productivity of high-skilled workers, as captured by inventors listed in patent applications. Using machine learning techniques to identify inventors across patents uniquely, we are able to track the worldwide migration patterns of nearly one million individual inventors. Migrant inventors account for more than ten percent of inventors worldwide. The econometric analysis seeks to explain the recurring finding in the literature that migrant inventors are more productive than non-migrant inventors. We find that migrant inventors become about thirty-percent more productive after having migrated. The disambiguated inventor data are openly available.

Keywords: inventor; productivity; skilled migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J61 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2023-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-big, nep-eff, nep-ino, nep-int, nep-lab, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Journal Article: Productivity gains from migration: Evidence from inventors (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iip:wpaper:20

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