Immigration and Innovation

David Maré, Richard Fabling and Steven Stillman

No 5686, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We combine firm-level innovation data with area-level Census data to examine the relationship between local workforce characteristics, especially the presence of immigrants and local skills, and the likelihood of innovation by firms. We examine a range of innovation outcomes, and test the relationship for selected subgroups of firms. We find a positive relationship between local workforce characteristics and average innovation outcomes in labour market areas, but this is accounted for by variation in firm characteristics such as firm size, industry, and research and development expenditure. Controlling for these influences, we find no systematic evidence of an independent link between local workforce characteristics and innovation.

Keywords: immigration; innovation; local labour market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 R30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2011-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-mig, nep-sbm, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published - published as 'Innovation and the Local Workforce' in: Papers in Regional Science, 2014, 93(1), 183–201

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Related works:
Working Paper: Immigration and Innovation (2011)
Working Paper: Immigration and Innovation (2011)
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