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Does Labour Mobility Foster Innovation? Evidence from Sweden

Author

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  • Braunerhjelm, Pontus

    (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology)

  • Ding, Ding

    (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology)

  • Thulin, Per

    (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology)

Abstract

By utilising a Swedish unique, matched employer-employee dataset that has been pooled with firm-level patent application data, we provide new evidence that knowledge workers’ mobility has a positive and strongly significant impact on firm innovation output, as measured by firm patent applications. The effect is particularly strong for knowledge workers that have previously worked in a patenting firm (the learning-by-hiring effect), but firms losing a knowledge worker are also shown to benefit (the diaspora effect), albeit more weakly. Finally, the effect is more pronounced when the joining worker originates in another region.

Suggested Citation

  • Braunerhjelm, Pontus & Ding, Ding & Thulin, Per, 2015. "Does Labour Mobility Foster Innovation? Evidence from Sweden," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 403, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0403
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    Cited by:

    1. Giesing, Yvonne & Laurentsyeva, Nadzeya, 2016. "Emigration and Firm Productivity: Evidence from the Sequential Opening of EU Labour Markets," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145850, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    2. Pontus Braunerhjelm & Magnus Henrekson, 2016. "An Innovation Policy Framework: Bridging the Gap Between Industrial Dynamics and Growth," International Studies in Entrepreneurship, in: David B. Audretsch & Albert N. Link (ed.), Essays in Public Sector Entrepreneurship, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 95-130, Springer.
    3. Pontus Braunerhjelm & Ding Ding & Per Thulin, 2016. "Labour as a knowledge carrier: how increased mobility influences entrepreneurship," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 41(6), pages 1308-1326, December.
    4. Yvonne Giesing & Nadzeya Laurentsyeva, 2017. "Firms Left Behind: Emigration and Firm Productivity," CESifo Working Paper Series 6815, CESifo.
    5. Fackler, Thomas A. & Giesing, Yvonne & Laurentsyeva, Nadzeya, 2020. "Knowledge remittances: Does emigration foster innovation?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(9).
    6. Ding, Ding, 2015. "Leaning from multinational companies through hiring: An empirical investigation," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 402, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    7. repec:ces:ifodic:v:15:y:2017:i:2:p:19337563 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Braunerhjelm, Pontus & Ding, Ding & Thulin, Per, 2017. "The Knowledge Spillover Theory of Intrapreneurship, Labour Mobility and Innovation by Firm Size," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 459, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    9. Grinza, Elena & Quatraro, Francesco, 2019. "Workers’ replacements and firms’ innovation dynamics: New evidence from Italian matched longitudinal data," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour mobility; knowledge diffusion; innovation; social networks;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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