Is Inter-firm Labor Mobility a Channel of Knowledge Spillovers? Evidence from a Linked Employer-Employee Panel

Mika Maliranta (), Pierre Mohnen () and Petri Rouvinen

No 1116, Discussion Papers from The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy

Abstract: ABSTRACT : An employer-employee panel is used to study whether the movement of workers across firms is a channel of unintended diffusion of R&D-generated knowledge. Somewhat surprisingly, hiring workers from others’ R&D labs to one’s own does not seem to be a significant spillover channel. Hiring workers previously in R&D to one’s non-R&D activities, however, boosts both productivity and profitability. This is interpreted as evidence that these workers transmit knowledge that can be readily copied and implemented without much additional R&D effort.

Keywords: labor mobility; R&D spillovers; profitability; linked employer-employee data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D62 J24 J62 L25 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-ipr, nep-knm, nep-lab and nep-ure
Date: Written 2008-01-11

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Working Paper: Is Inter-Firm Labor Mobility a Channel of Knowledge spillovers? Evidence from a Linked Employer-Employee Panel (2008)
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