Publications
Publications
- October 2024
- Journal of Development Economics
Global Mobile Inventors
By: Dany Bahar, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ernest Miguelez and Sara Signorelli
Abstract
The number of Global Mobile Inventors (GMIs), inventors moving across borders during their
career, has increased more than tenfold over the past two decades, and the corridors of mobility
have shifted towards a growing presence of emerging markets. We document that GMIs that have
patented in a given technology before moving are 70% more likely to be among the pioneering
inventors in that technology once they arrive at destination, which we interpret as evidence
of knowledge diffusion across borders. Returnees, which are typically inventors from emerging
markets that go back after having spent some time in the US and other advanced economies,
are twice as likely to file pioneering patents once returned than migrants when arriving abroad.
Finally, we find that the more central the GMIs in the network of inventors during the early
stages of the technology life-cycle at destination, the faster the technology-specific knowledge is
absorbed by local inventors.
Keywords
Citation
Bahar, Dany, Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ernest Miguelez, and Sara Signorelli. "Global Mobile Inventors." Art. 103357. Journal of Development Economics 171 (October 2024).