The Economics of Diversity: Innovation, Productivity, and the Labour Market

Ceren Ozgen

No 14344, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The empirical evidence on the economic impacts of diversity is mixed. Many studies in the literature present context dependent and data driven results which are challenging to reconcile with each other. This paper offers a systematic synthesis of the empirical findings on the economic impacts of diversity on innovation, productivity, and the labour market. It presents a structured framework which takes the spatial scale of the analysis in the papers as a reference to understand the inconsistency of some previous predictions and the varying magnitudes of the diversity impact. The empirical findings reconcile more meaningfully when diversity effects are documented discretely at the regional, firm and individual levels. The paper further sets out an agenda for future research and links the findings for policy relevance.

Keywords: migration; cultural diversity; innovation; knowledge production function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J15 J24 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2021-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa, nep-eff, nep-ino, nep-lma, nep-mig, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Surveys, 2021, 35 (4), 1168-1216

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Journal Article: The economics of diversity: Innovation, productivity and the labour market (2021)
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