The ties that bind and transform: knowledge remittances, relatedness and the direction of technical change

Brain drain or brain bank? The impact of skilled emigration on poor-country innovation

Valentina Di Iasio and Ernest Miguelez

Journal of Economic Geography, 2022, vol. 22, issue 2, 423-448

Abstract: This study investigates whether high-skilled migration in a sample of OECD countries fosters technological diversification in the migrants’ countries of origin. We focus on migrant inventors and study their role as vectors of knowledge remittances. Further, we particularly analyze whether migrants spark related or unrelated diversification back home. To account for the uneven distribution of knowledge and migrants within the host countries, we break down the analysis at the metropolitan area level. Our results suggest that migrant inventors have a positive effect on the home countries’ technological diversification, particularly for developing countries and technologies with less related activities around—thus fostering unrelated diversification.

Keywords: Migration; inventors; diversification; technical change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 O31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: The ties that bind and transform: knowledge remittances, relatedness and the direction of technical change (2021)
Working Paper: The ties that bind and transform: knowledge remittances, relatedness and the direction of technical change (2021)
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