Stefano Breschi

Migration and innovation: a survey of recent studies

Once the preserve of research in development economics, the study of highly skilled migration has recently attracted the interest of innovation scholars. The production of targeted data on migrant scientists, doctoral students and inventors is an important complement to official statistics. Highly skilled migrants have been found to exert a positive effect on destination countries, as measured by productivity, patenting or scientific publications. As for the impact on source countries of this migration, the US-centrism of the literature has biased research towards its migration source countries, such as China, India and other East Asian countries, all of which are developing countries. We know much less about migration to the USA from other developed countries, such as the European ones. Overall, the empirical evidence on inventors indicates that a diaspora network effect exists within receiving countries: inventors with the same ethnicity have a high propensity to collaborate among each other. But evidence on positive spillovers for their origin countries (brain gain) is mixed. Finally, more attention needs to be paid to intra-company migration and the role of multinationals. Although the first purpose of such intra-company international mobility is to transfer skills/knowledge to the headquarters/subsidiaries, with some externalities to the host economies, this topic remains a grey area in the literature of migration and innovation.

European Policy Favouring Networks in ICT

Innovation Networks in Industries provides an extensive study in the fields of industry structure, firm strategy and public policy through the use of network concepts and indicators. It also elucidates many of the complexities and challenges involved.

Knowledge Search and Strategic Alliance: Evidence from the Electronics Industry

Innovation Networks in Industries provides an extensive study in the fields of industry structure, firm strategy and public policy through the use of network concepts and indicators. It also elucidates many of the complexities and challenges involved.

Return Migrants’ Self-selection: Evidence for Indian Inventor

Based on an original dataset linking patent data and biographical information for a large sample of US immigrant inventors with Indian names and surnames, specialized in ICT technologies, we investigate the rate and determinants of return migration. For each individual in the dataset, we both estimate the year of entry in the United States, the likely entry channel (work or education), and the permanence spell up to either the return to India or right truncation. By means of survival analysis, we then provide exploratory estimates of the probability of return migration as a function of the conditions at migration (age, education, patenting record, migration motives, and migration cohort) as well as of some activities undertaken while abroad (education and patenting). We find both evidence of negative self-selection with respect to educational achievements in the US and of positive self-selection with respect to patenting propensity. Based on the analysis of time-dependence of the return hazard ratios, return work migrants appear to be negatively self-selected with respect to unobservable skills acquired abroad, while evidence for education migrants is less conclusive.

Inventor data for research on migration and innovation

This paper discusses the existing literature on migration and innovation, with special emphasis on empirical studies based on patent and inventor data. Other sources of micro-data are examined, too, for comparative purposes. A pilot database, based on patent filings at the European Patent Office is presented. It contains information on individual inventors, including their country of residence and of origin. Preliminary evidence suggests that immigrant inventors contribute to innovation not only in the US, but also in selected European countries, where they often rank among the most productive individuals. Data on returnee inventors to selected countries of origin suggest the phenomenon to be of limited scale, and highly subject to errors of measurement.