The impact of patent protection on R&D. Evidence using export markets

Joel Blit, Mikal Skuterud and Jue Zhang
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Joel Blit: Department of Economics, University of Waterloo
Jue Zhang: Department of Economics, University of Waterloo

No 17011, Working Papers from University of Waterloo, Department of Economics

Abstract: We examine the effect of changes in skilled-immigrant population shares in 98 Canadian cities between 1981 and 2006 on per capita patents. The Canadian case is of interest because its `points system’ for selecting immigrants is viewed as a model of skilled immigration policy. Our estimates suggest that the impact of increasing the share of university-educated immigrants on patenting rates is smaller than the impact that both native-borns have in Canada and immigrants have in the U.S.. The modest contribution of Canadian immigrants to innovation is largely explained by the fact that only about one-third of Canadian STEM-educated immigrants find employment in STEM jobs (relative to two-fifths of the Canadian-born and one-half of immigrants in the U.S.). Consistent with this, we find a large and significant effect of STEMeducated immigrants when we also condition on STEM employment. Our results suggest potential benefits from giving employers a role in the selection of skilled immigrants.

JEL-codes: J18 J61 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig, nep-sbm and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wat:wpaper:17011

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