German Jewish Emigres and US Invention

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Moser, Petra; Voena, Alessandra; Waldinger, Fabian
• 署名单位: Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Chicago; University of Warwick
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.10.3222
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 3222-3255
• 关键词: nazi germany; worlds-fairs; INNOVATION

摘要

Historical accounts suggest that Jewish emigres from Nazi Germany revolutionized US science. To analyze the emigres' effects on chemical innovation in the United States, we compare changes in patenting by US inventors in research fields of emigres with fields of other German chemists. Patenting by US inventors increased by 31 percent in emigre fields. Regressions which instrument for emigre fields with pre-1933 fields of dismissed German chemists confirm a substantial increase in US invention. Inventor-level data indicate that emigres encouraged innovation by attracting new researchers to their fields, rather than by increasing the productivity of incumbent inventors.