Migration, communities-on-the-move and international innovation networks: An empirical analysis of Spanish regions

Anna D'Ambrosio, Sandro Montresor (), Mario Davide Parrilli () and Francesco Quatraro

Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis LEI & BRICK - Laboratory of Economics of Innovation "Franco Momigliano", Bureau of Research in Innovation, Complexity and Knowledge, Collegio Carlo Alberto. WP series from University of Turin

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of migration on innovation networks between regions and foreign countries. We posit that immigrants (emigrants) act as a transnational knowledge bridge between the host (home) regions and their origin (destination) countries, reinforcing their networking in innovation and facilitating their co-inventorship. We argue that the social capital of both the hosting and the moving communities reinforces such a bridging role, along with the already recognised effect of language commonality and migrants’ human capital. By combining patent data with national data on residents and electors abroad, we apply a gravity model to the co-inventorship between Spanish provinces (NUTS3 regions) and a number of foreign countries, in different periods of the last decade. Both immigrants and emigrants are found to affect this kind of innovation networking. The social capital of both the moving and the hosting communities actually moderate this impact in a positive way. The effect of migration is stronger for more skilled migrants and with respect to non-Spanish speaking countries, pointing to a language-bridging role of migrants. Overall, individual and community aspects combine in accounting for the impact of migration on international innovation networks.

Pages: pages 42
Date: 2017-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-eur, nep-ino, nep-int, nep-mig, nep-sbm, nep-soc, nep-tid and nep-ure
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Related works:
Journal Article: Migration, communities on the move and international innovation networks: an empirical analysis of Spanish regions (2019)
Working Paper: Migration, communities-on-the-move and international innovation networks: An empirical analysis of Spanish regions (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uto:labeco:201701

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