Migration, Knowledge Diffusion and the Comparative Advantage of Nations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bahar, Dany; Rapoport, Hillel
• 署名单位: Brookings Institution; Paris School of Economics
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12450
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: F273-F305
• 关键词: international technology diffusion; foreign direct-investment; geographic localization; domestic firms; TRADE; networks; spillovers; FLOWS; PRODUCTIVITY; immigration

摘要

The diffusion of tacit knowledge involves direct human interactions. This implies that the international diffusion of knowledge should follow the pattern of international migration. We test this idea using cross-country productivity spillovers leading to new exports as proxy for knowledge diffusion. We find that a 10% increase in immigration from exporters of a given product is associated with a 2% increase in the likelihood that the host country starts exporting that good from scratch' in the next decade. The results appear stronger for highly-skilled migrants, qualitatively similar for emigrants and robust to instrumenting for migration in a gravity framework.