1887

OECD Regional Development Papers

Papers from the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities of the OECD cover a full range of topics including regional statistics and analysis, urban governance and economics, rural governance and economics, and multi-level governance. Depending on the programme of work, the papers can cover specific topics such as regional innovation and networks, sustainable development, the determinants of regional growth or fiscal consolidation at the subnational level.

English

Migration and regional innovation in Australia

This paper provides evidence on the impact of international migrants on regional innovation. The study combines administrative individual-level data covering all Australian residents with data on intellectual property rights applications such as patents, trademarks, and design rights. The analysis uses a standard shift-share instrument based on past migrant settlements to identify the causal effects of migration on innovation. Its four main findings are the following: First, on average, a one percentage point increase in the regional employment share of higher-educated migrants relative to total employment leads to a 4.8% rise in regional patent applications in the medium run (five years). Second, while migrants of all skill and education levels have a positive impact on patenting, those in scientific occupations have the largest effect. Third, regions with lower levels of patenting benefit relatively more from increases in migration compared to those with higher patenting levels. Fourth, there is no effect of migration on trademarks or design rights applications.

English

Keywords: Australia, Innovation, regions
JEL: R10: Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics / General Regional Economics / General; O34: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth / Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights / Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital; R23: Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics / Household Analysis / Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics: Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population; Neighborhood Characteristics
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