The role of immigrants, emigrants and locals in the historical formation of European knowledge agglomerations

Philipp Koch, Viktor Stojkoski and Cesar Hidalgo
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Philipp Koch: TSE-R - TSE-R Toulouse School of Economics – Recherche - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, EcoAustria Inst Econ Res, Vienna, Austria

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Abstract: Did migrants make Paris a mecca for the arts and Vienna a beacon of classical music? Or was their rise a pure consequence of local actors? We use data on more than 22,000 historical individuals born between the years 1000 and 2000 to estimate the contribution of famous immigrants, emigrants and locals to the knowledge specialisations of European regions. We find that the probability that a region develops or keeps specialisation in an activity (based on the birth of famous physicists, painters, etc.) grows with both the presence of immigrants with knowledge about that activity and immigrants with knowledge in related activities. In contrast, we do not find robust evidence that the presence of locals with related knowledge explains entries and/or exits. We address some endogeneity concerns using fixed-effects models considering any location–period–activity-specific factors (e.g., the presence of a new university attracting scientists).

Keywords: Migration; Knowledge spillovers; Relatedness; Economic history; Economic complexity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-11-27
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Published in Regional Studies, 2023, 57 (11), pp.1-15. ⟨10.1080/00343404.2023.2275571⟩

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Related works:
Journal Article: The role of immigrants, emigrants and locals in the historical formation of European knowledge agglomerations (2024)
Working Paper: The Role of Immigrants, Emigrants, and Locals in the Historical Formation of European Knowledge Agglomerations (2023)
Working Paper: The role of immigrants, emigrants and locals in the historical formation of European knowledge agglomerations (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04361658

DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2023.2275571

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