Ethnic Innovation and U.S. Multinational Firm Activity

C. Fritz Foley and William Kerr

No 17336, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper studies the impact that immigrant innovators have on the global activities of U.S. firms by analyzing detailed data on patent applications and on the operations of the foreign affiliates of U.S. multinational firms. The results indicate that increases in the share of a firm's innovation performed by inventors of a particular ethnicity are associated with increases in the share of that firm's affiliate activity in their native countries. Ethnic innovators also appear to facilitate the disintegration of innovative activity across borders and to allow U.S. multinationals to form new affiliates abroad without the support of local joint venture partners. Thus, this paper points out that immigration can enhance the competitiveness of multinational firms.

JEL-codes: F22 F23 J44 J61 O31 O32 O33 O57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ino, nep-knm, nep-mig, nep-sbm and nep-tid
Note: ITI LS PR
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Published as With William R. Kerr, “Ethnic Innovation and U.S. Multinational Activity,” Management Science , Vol. 59, No. 7, pp. 1529-1544, 2013.

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