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on Education |
| By: | Kramarz, Francis (CREST-INSEE); Machin, Stephen (University College London); Ouazad, Amine (CREST-INSEE) |
| Abstract: | This study develops an analytical framework for evaluating the respective contributions of pupils, peers, and school quality in affecting educational achievement. We implement this framework using rich data from England that matches pupils to their primary schools. The dataset records all English pupils and their test scores in Key Stage 1 (age 7) and Key Stage 2 (age 11) national examinations. The quality of the data source, coupled with our econometric techniques, allows us to assess the respective importance of different educational inputs. We can distinguish school effects, that affect all pupils irrespective of their year and grade of study, from school-grade-year effects. Identification of pupil effects separately from these school-grade-year effects is achieved because students are mobile across schools. Peer effects are identified assuming variations in school-grade-year group composition in adjacent years are exogenous. We estimate three different specifications, the most general allowing Key Stage 2 results to be affected by the Key Stage 1 school(-grade-year) at which the pupil studied. We discuss the validity of our various exogeneity assumptions. Estimation results show statistically significant pupil ability, school and peer effects. Our analysis suggests the following ranking: pupils' ability and background are more important than school time-invariant inputs. Peer effects are significant, but small. |
| Keywords: | education, peer effects, school effects, school quality |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3866&r=edu |
| By: | Kisswani, Khalid |
| Abstract: | The Great Depression is a prime example of a macroeconomic crisis that produced adverse economic and social effects in all spheres of life. The theoretical arguments about the real effects of the Great Depression on education vary. The first is that of economic hardships, which might force individuals eligible to go to school to work for their sustenance. The second argument is that high unemployment would reduce the opportunity cost of going to school, making going to school the best other viable alternative. Following these theoretical notions, this paper explores the impact of the Great Depression on education, on race (whites and blacks) and gender (males and females), during the period from 1930 to 1940. Furthermore, this paper examines the effects of state employment indices on the average education (at the mean). The results (using individual census data from 1960) show some evidence that the Great Depression affected education of whites born between 1911 and 1915. However, the results show no evidence that the variation in state employment indices affected the decision of schooling on the average (mean), but it affected the education of white males at the top of the distribution (90% percentile). |
| Keywords: | Great Depression; education; employment indices |
| JEL: | I21 I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12302&r=edu |
| By: | Grönqvist, Erik (IFAU); Vlachos, Jonas (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | Teachers are increasingly being drawn from the lower parts of the general ability distribution, but it is not clear how this affects student achievement. We track the position of entering teachers in population-wide cognitive and non-cognitive ability distributions using school grades and draft records from Swedish registers. The impact on student achievement caused by the position of teachers in these ability distributions is estimated using matched student-teacher data. On average, teachers’ cognitive and non-cognitive social interactive abilities do not have a positive effect on student performance. However, social interactive ability turns out to be important for low aptitude students, whilst the reverse holds for cognitive abilities. In fact, while high performing students benefit from high cognitive teachers, being matched to such a teacher can even be detrimental to their lower performing peers. Hence, the lower abilities among teachers may hurt some students, whereas others may even benefit. High cognitive and non-cognitive abilities thus need not necessarily translate into teacher quality. Instead, these heterogeneities highlight the importance of the studentteacher matching process. |
| Keywords: | Cognitive and non-cognitive ability; Teacher quality: Student achievement |
| JEL: | H40 I21 J40 |
| Date: | 2008–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0779&r=edu |
| By: | RICCI Francesco; ZACHARIADIS Marios |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ler:wpaper:09.02.278&r=edu |
| By: | Belzil, Christian (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris); Hansen, Jörgen (Concordia University); Kristensen, Nicolai (Aarhus School of Business) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we formulate and estimate a structural model of post-schooling training that explicitly allows for possible complementarity between initial schooling levels and returns to training. Precisely, the wage outcome equation depends on accumulated schooling and on the incidence of training. The effect of training on wage growth depends on individual permanent endowments as well as on education. We find evidence of statistically significant complementarity, i.e. the higher educated receive the highest return to the MBA-type training considered here. |
| Keywords: | dynamic programming, dynamic treatment effects, skill complementarity, random coefficients |
| JEL: | I2 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3882&r=edu |
| By: | Konstantinos Angelopoulos; Jim Malley; Apostolis Philippopoulos |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we quantitatively assess the welfare implications of alternative public education spending rules. To this end, we employ a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model in which human capital externalities and public education expenditures, financed by distort- ing taxes, enhance the productivity of private education choices. We allow public education spending, as share of output, to respond to various aggregate indicators in an attempt to minimize the market imperfection due to human capital externalities. We also expose the economy to varying degrees of uncertainty via changes in the variance of total factor productivity shocks. Our results indicate that, in the face of increasing aggregate uncertainty, active policy can signi.cantly outperform passive policy (i.e. maintaining a constant public educa- tion to output ratio) but only when the policy instrument is successful in smoothing the growth rate of human capital. |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gla:glaewp:2008_37&r=edu |
| By: | Bressoux, Pascal (Université de Grenoble); Kramarz, Francis (CREST-INSEE); Prost, Corinne (EHESS, Paris) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of different teacher and class characteristics on third graders' outcomes. It uses a feature of the French system in which some novice teachers start their jobs before receiving any training. Three categories of teachers are included in the sample: experienced teachers, trained novice teachers and untrained novice teachers. To identify the effects, we use administrative mistakes in forecasting the number of teachers. We find that trained and untrained novice teachers are assigned to similar classes, whereas experienced teachers have better students located in better environments. Hence, in order to match similar students and classes, we focus on pupils with novice teachers and discard those with experienced teachers. In addition, we show that the same sample can be used to estimate the causal effect of class size on students' outcomes. Our findings are: (1) teachers' training substantially improves students' test scores in mathematics; (2) this training effect does not rely on different teaching practices, but mainly on subject matter competence; untrained teachers who majored in sciences at university improve their students' achievement as much as trained teachers do; (3) the class size effect is substantial and significant; class size does not seem to be correlated with instructional practices; (4) teachers' training does not improve the scores of initially low-achieving students and classes; on the contrary, a smaller class is more beneficial to low-achieving students within classes and to all students in low-achieving classes. |
| Keywords: | teachers' training, class size |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3871&r=edu |
| By: | Belzil, Christian (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris); Poinas, François (CNRS, GATE) |
| Abstract: | We estimate a flexible dynamic model of education choices and early career employment outcomes of the French population. Individuals are allowed to choose between 4 options: continue to the next grade, accept a permanent contract, accept a temporary contract, or withdraw from the labor force (a residual state). Our analysis focuses on the comparison between French Second-Generation Immigrants whose parents are born in Africa and French-natives. We find that schooling attainments explain around two thirds of the differences in access to early career employment stability. However, one third cannot be linked to observed investment in human capital. |
| Keywords: | schooling attainments, second-generation immigrants, fixed term employment |
| JEL: | I2 J15 J24 J41 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3877&r=edu |
| By: | Francis Vella (Georgetown University); Lídia Farré (Universidad de Alicante); Roger Klein (Rutgers University) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the return to education using a sample drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79). Rather than accounting for the endogeneity of schooling through the use of instrumental variables we employ a parametric version of the Klein and Vella (2006a) estimator. This estimator bypasses the need for instruments by exploiting features of the conditional second moments of the errors. As the Klein and Vella (2006a) procedure is semi-parametric it is computationally demanding. We illustrate how to greatly reduce the required computation by parameterizing the second moments. Accounting for endogeneity increases the estimate of the return to education by 5 percentage points, from 7.6% to 12.7%. |
| Keywords: | return to education, heteroskedasticity, endogeneity |
| JEL: | J31 C31 |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivi:wpasad:2008-16&r=edu |
| By: | Alison L. Booth; Melvyn B. Coles |
| Abstract: | This paper considers how asymmetric tax treatment, where labour market earnings are taxed but household production is untaxed, aspects educational choice and labour supply. We show that taxes on labour market earnings can generate a large (non-marginal) switch to home production and the ensuing deadweight losses are large. Using a cross-country panel, we find that gender differences in labour supply responses to tax policy can explain differences in aggregate labour supply and years of education across countries. |
| Keywords: | Increasing returns; tax policy; gender; labour supply; education |
| JEL: | H24 H3 J22 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:591&r=edu |
| By: | António B. Moniz (IET, FCT-Universidade Nova de Lisboa); Tobias Woll (IET, FCT-Universidade Nova de Lisboa) |
| Abstract: | In this working paper is presented information on the Portuguese labour market developed with the support of the European project WORKS-“Work organisation and restructuring in the knowledge society”. Is still a on the process article and thus commentaries are welcome. The structure is based on the following topics: a) The employment policy (Time regimes - time use, flexibility, part-time work, work-life balance -, and the work contracts regimes – wages, contract types, diversity); b) Education and training (skilling outcomes, rules on retraining and further training, employability schemes, transferability of skills); c) Equal opportunities (relevance of equal opportunity regulation for restructuring outcomes, the role of gender and age regulation); d) Restructuring effects (policy on transfer of personnel, policy on redundancies, and participation or voice in restructuring). |
| Keywords: | labour market; gender; work organisation; knowledge society; employment policy; Education |
| JEL: | E24 J21 J31 J48 J68 J82 M12 M54 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieu:wpaper:02&r=edu |
| By: | Akee, Randall K. Q. (IZA); Yuksel, Mutlu (IZA) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine whether where one acquires their human capital matters in earnings regressions. We focus on a nationally-representative US data set and find that there is little difference between a measure of total years of education and measures for US and foreign-based years of education. There is a large difference, however, in where total experience is acquired: US-based experience commands a higher return to wages and is statistically highly significant. The measures used in this analysis must be inferred based on the year of migration to the US. Using an immigrant-specific data set, the New Immigrant Survey which contains explicit information on the human capital acquired in the US and abroad, we confirm these results. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, schooling, rates of return |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3897&r=edu |
| By: | Thomas J. Kane; Douglas O. Staiger |
| Abstract: | We used a random-assignment experiment in Los Angeles Unified School District to evaluate various non-experimental methods for estimating teacher effects on student test scores. Having estimated teacher effects during a pre-experimental period, we used these estimates to predict student achievement following random assignment of teachers to classrooms. While all of the teacher effect estimates we considered were significant predictors of student achievement under random assignment, those that controlled for prior student test scores yielded unbiased predictions and those that further controlled for mean classroom characteristics yielded the best prediction accuracy. In both the experimental and non-experimental data, we found that teacher effects faded out by roughly 50 percent per year in the two years following teacher assignment. |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14607&r=edu |
| By: | David L. Anderson (Queen's University); John Tresler (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine, in some depth, the research practices of New Zealand’s academic economists. To date, virtually all published work in this area has focussed on the overall productivity of the country’s economics departments. However, such rankings give little information on the research performance of various sub-groups of economists. In order to address this situation, we utilize descriptive statistics to assess research output by academic rank, gender, educational attainment, and publication source. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the performance of individual researchers. |
| Keywords: | economics departments; department rankings; research output; economics research |
| JEL: | A10 A14 C81 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:08/20&r=edu |
| By: | Mario Piacentini (University of Geneva) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the presence of a network externality which might explain the persistence of low schooling achievements among internal migrants. We test empirically whether young migrants schooling decisions are affected by the presence of covillagers at destination, using data on life-time histories of migration and education choices from a rural region of Thailand. Different modelling approaches are used to account for the self-selection of young migrants, for potential endogeneity of the network size, and for unobserved heterogeneity in individual preferences. The size of the migrant network is found to negatively affect the propensity of young migrants to pursue schooling while in the city. This finding suggests that policies seeking to minimise stratification in enclaves might have a socially multiplied impact on schooling participation, and, ultimately, affect the socio-economic mobility of the rural born. |
| Keywords: | education, networks, migration |
| JEL: | I21 L14 O15 |
| Date: | 2008–10–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csl:devewp:265&r=edu |
| By: | Seung Mo Choi (School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University) |
| Abstract: | Quantitative features on human capital externalities are not fully understood. This paper measures the social returns on human capital that arise from learning externalities, through the calibration of a growth model. The calibration uses an equilibrium condition that equates private returns on physical capital and on human capital. Results suggest that learning externalities contribute substantially to human capital production. In a benchmark model, the social value of human capital is about 37% higher than the private value. The social rate of return on human capital is 2 to 4% points higher than the private rate of return, 8%. |
| Keywords: | Growth, Human Capital, Learning Externalities |
| JEL: | J24 O41 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wsu:wpaper:choi-1&r=edu |
| By: | Grimpe, Christoph; Hussinger, Katrin |
| Abstract: | Literature has identified formal and informal channels in university technology transfer. While formal technology transfer typically involves a legal contract on a patent or on collaborative research activities, informal transfer channels refer to personal contacts and hence to the tacit dimension of knowledge transfer. Research is, however, scarce regarding the interaction of formal and informal transfer mechanisms. In this paper, we analyze whether these activities are mutually reinforcing, i.e. complementary. Our analysis is based on a comprehensive dataset of more than 2,000 German manufacturing firms. We perform direct and indirect tests for the complementarity of formal and informal technology transfer. Our results confirm a complementary relationship: using both transfer channels contributes to higher innovation performance. The management of the firm should therefore strive to maintain close informal relationships with universities to realize the full potential of formal technology transfer. |
| Keywords: | University technology transfer, complementarity, innovation performance |
| JEL: | L24 O31 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:7422&r=edu |
| By: | Knockaert, M.; Clarysse, B.; Wright, M.; Lockett, A. (Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study which VC firm and investment manager related factors drive the VC’s attitude towards academic spin-out investing by taking an agency and human capital perspective. In order to do so, we use a unique hand-collected dataset involving 68 investment managers working at early stage VCs in Europe who were interviewed and provided us with information on the fund characteristics and their human capital. First, the results show that academic spin-out investors work to a large extent at publicly funded VCs that often engage in a very hands-on type of post-investment behaviour. Second, the results show that human capital is associated with the willingness of the investment manager to invest in academic spin-outs. Investment managers that had worked in an academic environment and thus have similar human capital compared to the academic founders were more inclined to invest in academic spin-outs. Other specific human capital, such as technical education, and general human capital were not found to be associated with the investment manager’s interest in academic spin-out investing, except for the amount of entrepreneurial experience that negatively affected the attitude towards academic spin-outs. |
| Date: | 2008–10–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vlg:vlgwps:2008-22&r=edu |
| By: | Ana Rute Cardoso; Paulo Guimarães; Klaus F. Zimmermann |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the early research performance of PhD graduates in labor economics, addressing the following questions: Are there major productivity differences between graduates from American and European institutions? If so, how relevant is the quality of the training received (i.e. ranking of institution and supervisor) and the research environment in the subsequent job placement institution? The population under study consists of labor economics PhD graduates who received their degree in the years 2000 to 2005 in Europe or the USA. Research productivity is evaluated alternatively as the number of publications or the quality-adjusted number of publications of an individual. When restricting the analysis to the number of publications, results suggest a higher productivity by graduates from European universities than from USA universities, but this difference vanishes when accounting for the quality of the publication. The results also indicate that graduates placed at American institutions, in particular top ones, are likely to publish more quality-adjusted articles than their European counterparts. This may be because, when hired, they already have several good acceptances or because of more focused research efforts and clearer career incentives. |
| Keywords: | graduate programs; research productivity |
| JEL: | A23 J44 A11 A14 A10 |
| Date: | 2008–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:autbar:760.08&r=edu |
| By: | Aschhoff, Birgit; Sofka, Wolfgang |
| Abstract: | Valuable knowledge emerges increasingly outside of firm boundaries, in particular in public research institutions and universities. The question is how firms organize their interactions with universities effectively to acquire knowledge and apply it successfully. Literature has so far largely ignored that firms may combine different types of interactions with universities for optimizing these knowledge sourcing strategies. We argue conceptually that firms need diverse (broad) and highly developed (deep) combinations of various interactions with universities to maximize returns from these linkages. Our empirical investigation rests upon a survey of more than 800 firms in Germany. We find that both the diversity and intensity of interactions with universities propel innovation success. However, broadening the spectrum of interactions is more beneficial with regard to innovation success. In an exploratory step we go beyond breadth and depth of interactions by identifying four distinct patterns of interaction. Our findings show that formal forms of interaction (joint/contract) research provide the best balance between joint knowledge development and value capture. |
| Keywords: | Technology transfer, industry-science links, open innovation, university knowledge |
| JEL: | C30 D83 O32 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:7441&r=edu |
| By: | Edler, Jakob; Fier, Heide; Grimpe, Christoph |
| Abstract: | University technology transfer has attracted considerable attention in the literature with a focus on the institutions, the agents involved in technology commercialisation or the differentiation between formal and informal technology transfer mechanisms. There has, however, been little systematic research on how the mobility of university scientists influences their propensity to engage in technology transfer activities and, particularly, on how mobility influences the locus of such activities. This paper therefore analyses the link between university scientists’ technology transfer activities and their international mobility patterns. We characterise scientist mobility along the two dimensions ‘frequency’ and ‘intensity’ resulting in an individual mobility pattern. We argue that the mobility pattern as well as the scientist’s personal characteristics affects the likelihood whether a transfer of technology occurs to a firm in the scientist’s home and/or host country. Based on a sample of more than 500 German university scientists, our results indicate that a substantial share of scientists engages in technology transfer both to the home as well as to the host country. There are, however, considerable differences regarding the factors influencing the locus of technology transfer. |
| Keywords: | scientist mobility, university technology transfer, internationalisation |
| JEL: | J61 O33 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:7424&r=edu |
| By: | Pierre Azoulay; Joshua S. Graff Zivin; Jialan Wang |
| Abstract: | We estimate the magnitude of spillovers generated by 161 academic "superstars" onto their collaborators' research output. These life scientists died while still being actively engaged in science, thus providing an exogenous source of variation in the structure of their collaborators' coauthorship networks. Following the death of a superstar, we find that collaborators experience, on average, a lasting 5 to 10% decline in their quality-adjusted publication rates. By exploring interactions of the treatment effect with a wide range of star, coauthor and star/coauthor dyad characteristics, we seek to adjudicate between plausible mechanisms that might explain this finding. Taken together, our results suggest that spillovers are circumscribed in ideas space, but not in physical or social space. Superstar extinction reveals the boundaries of the scientific field to which the star contributes -- the "invisible college." |
| JEL: | O3 O31 O43 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14577&r=edu |
| By: | William Collier; Francis Green; Young-Bae Kim; John Peirson |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the savings behaviour of natives and immigrants in Germany. It is argued that uncertainty about future income and legal status (in case of immigrants) is a key component in the determination of the level of precautionary savings. Using the German dataset, we exploit a natural experiment arising from a change in the nationality law in Germany to estimate the importance of precautionary savings. Using difference-in-differences approach, we find a significant reduction in savings and remittances for immigrants after the easing of citizenship requirements, compared to the pre-reform period. Our parametric specification shows that introduction of the new nationality law reduces the marginal propensity to save gap between natives and immigrants by up to 80%. These findings suggest that much of the differences in terms of the savings behaviour between natives and immigrants are driven by the savings arising from the uncertainties about future income and legal status rather than cultural differences. |
| Keywords: | Training; Education; Human capital; Profit, Skill |
| JEL: | J24 J1 L21 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:0822&r=edu |
| By: | Bruno S. Frey; Susanne Neckermann |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes awards as a means of motivation prevalent in the scientific community, but so far neglected in the economic literature on incentives, and discusses their relationship to monetary compensation. Awards are better suited than performance pay to reward scientific tasks, which are typically of a vague nature. They derive their value, for instance, from signaling research talent to outsiders. Awards should therefore be taken seriously as a means of motivating research that may complement, or even substitute for, monetary incentives. While we discuss awards in the context of academia, our conclusions apply to other principal-agent settings as well. |
| Keywords: | Awards; Money; Incentives; Academia; Research |
| JEL: | C93 J33 M52 |
| Date: | 2008–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cra:wpaper:2008-32&r=edu |
| By: | Amilon, Anna (SFI - Danish National Centre for Social Research); Persson, Inga (Lund University); Rooth, Dan-Olof (Kalmar University) |
| Abstract: | Although the share of female PhDs has increased explosively since the 1980s, little research has focused on the utilisation and remuneration of female versus male scientific human capital. Using rich Swedish cross-sectional register data on the stock of PhDs in 2004, this paper analyses to what extent men and women choose academic versus non-academic employment, and to what earnings differences these choices lead. Results show that women are significantly less likely than men to be academically employed in the natural sciences and medicine, whereas no significant gender differences prevail for the social sciences and the humanities. On average, women earn 15 per cent less than men, and the academically employed earn 24 per cent less than PhDs outside academia. Gender earnings differences are larger in the academic than in the non-academic labour market in the humanities and the natural sciences, whereas the opposite holds in the social sciences and medicine. |
| Keywords: | gender, earnings, scientific human capital |
| JEL: | J31 J70 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3878&r=edu |
| By: | Arundel, Anthony (UNU-MERIT); Bordoy, Catalina (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | It is a common perception that European public-funded research fails to commercialize their discoveries, in contrast to the perceived success of their American counterparts. This resulted in policies aimed at improving the commercialization of European publicly-funded research, including the establishment of Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). Recent surveys on the activities of these TTOs show that although European public-funded research lags behind the United States in patent applications and grants, they produce more start-ups, and have comparable results for the number of licenses executed. Steps to improve the international comparability of TTO surveys could provide useful new indicators for policy development. However, this will also require indicators for knowledge transfer through informal 'open science' methods. |
| Keywords: | Public R&D, Commericalization, Research Indicators, Open Science, Europe |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008075&r=edu |
| By: | Ajay Agrawal; Devesh Kapur; John McHale |
| Abstract: | The development prospects of a poor country depend in part on its capacity for innovation. The productivity of its innovators depends in turn on their access to technological knowledge. The emigration of highly skilled individuals weakens local knowledge networks (brain drain), but may also help remaining innovators access valuable knowledge accumulated abroad (brain bank). We develop a model in which the size of the optimal innovator diaspora depends on the competing strengths of co-location and diaspora effects for accessing knowledge. Then, using patent citation data associated with inventions from India, we estimate the key co-location and diaspora parameters; the net effect of innovator emigration is to harm domestic knowledge access, on average. However, knowledge access conferred by the diaspora is particularly valuable in the production of India's most important inventions as measured by citations received. Thus, our findings imply that the optimal emigration level may depend, at least partly, on the relative value resulting from the most cited compared to average inventions. |
| JEL: | O3 O33 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14592&r=edu |