Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GOTaM Cities (GOTaM Cities - Geography Of Talents in Metropolitan Cities)
Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2021-08-31
In the context of a growing knowledge economy the competitiveness of countries, regions and cities is crucially affected by their ability to nurture and attract talented workers.
The access to a diverse set of skills via high skilled immigrants could boost the innovative sectors needed for economic growth. Therefore it is important to provide robust evidence on the economic effects of High Skilled Immigration (HSI) in order to justify policies for their attraction
Overall, GOTaM aimed at understanding how global talents are attracted to cities and how they impact on their innovative performance and prosperity.
The project aims also at providing training and career opportunities to the Marie Curie fellow and allow a two-way knowledge transfer between him and the host institution (i.e Bocconi University).
As far as research goals are concerned, Gotam achieved the following specific objectives:
• GOTaM investigated the effects of high skilled migration on innovation and technological diversification of cities (see Diodato, Morrison and Petralia 2021).
• GOTaM investigated both the short and long term effects of high skilled migration (e.g. Miguelez and Morrison, 2021; Diodato, Morrison, Petralia, 2021)
• GOTaM analysed the impact of high skilled migration in different geographical contexts (i.e. US, European regions) (see Diodato, Morrison and Petralia, 2021; see Miguelez and Morrison, 2021).
• GOTaM built a unique source of data to test the impact of high skilled migration on innovation (see Diodato, Morrison, Petralia, 2021; Campo, Mendola, Morrison and Ottaviano, 2020).
• GOTaM built robust methodologies to identify high skilled migration in patent documents.
During the project the fellow also acquired relevant skills in data managing and programming. The project gave the fellow the opportunity to further expand his research network thanks to the organisation of workshops and special sessions at conferences. In particular he was exposed to a varied community of scholars in the field of management (eg. prof. Choudury) and economics of innovation (prof. MacGarvie).
The access to a diverse set of skills via high skilled immigrants could boost the innovative sectors needed for economic growth. Therefore it is important to provide robust evidence on the economic effects of High Skilled Immigration (HSI) in order to justify policies for their attraction
Overall, GOTaM aimed at understanding how global talents are attracted to cities and how they impact on their innovative performance and prosperity.
The project aims also at providing training and career opportunities to the Marie Curie fellow and allow a two-way knowledge transfer between him and the host institution (i.e Bocconi University).
As far as research goals are concerned, Gotam achieved the following specific objectives:
• GOTaM investigated the effects of high skilled migration on innovation and technological diversification of cities (see Diodato, Morrison and Petralia 2021).
• GOTaM investigated both the short and long term effects of high skilled migration (e.g. Miguelez and Morrison, 2021; Diodato, Morrison, Petralia, 2021)
• GOTaM analysed the impact of high skilled migration in different geographical contexts (i.e. US, European regions) (see Diodato, Morrison and Petralia, 2021; see Miguelez and Morrison, 2021).
• GOTaM built a unique source of data to test the impact of high skilled migration on innovation (see Diodato, Morrison, Petralia, 2021; Campo, Mendola, Morrison and Ottaviano, 2020).
• GOTaM built robust methodologies to identify high skilled migration in patent documents.
During the project the fellow also acquired relevant skills in data managing and programming. The project gave the fellow the opportunity to further expand his research network thanks to the organisation of workshops and special sessions at conferences. In particular he was exposed to a varied community of scholars in the field of management (eg. prof. Choudury) and economics of innovation (prof. MacGarvie).
The work carried out during the project was in line with the above-mentioned goals of the project.
During the first period the fellow focused on reviewing the state of art of the scientific literature on migration and innovation and the relevant methodologies used for data analysis in this field.
At the same time the fellow undertook formal training in in data management, in particular in coding with different languages (R, Python). Several months of the project have been dedicated to extract historical patent data and clean them. On the one side the fellow has worked on building an historical dataset of migrant inventors, on the other side has explored new opportunities to link it with US census data.
These efforts have produced a dataset on migrant inventors, which has been used to carry out empirical research on the link between migration and innovation (see Diodato, Morrison, Petralia, 2021; Campo, Mendola, Morrison and Ottaviano, 2020).
The scientific results of the project has been disseminated in a number of ways. So far Gotam has produced 4 main outputs which have taken the form of scientific articles published in international peer reviewed journals.
Below a list of already published (and accepted) works:
- Diodato, D., Morrison, A. and S. Petralia, (2021) “Migration and invention in the age of mass migration”, Journal of Economic Geography https://doi-org/10.1093/jeg/lbab032
- Ernest Miguelez & Andrea Morrison, 2021. "Migrant Inventors as Agents of Technological"," IREA Working Papers 202114, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Jul 2021 https://ideas.repec.org/p/ira/wpaper/202114.html , accepted in Journal of Technology Transfer
- Breschi, S., Lawson, C., Lissoni, F., Morrison, A., & Salter, A. (2020). “STEM migration, research, and innovation”. Research Policy, 49(9).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2020.104070
- Campo F., M. Mendola, A. Morrison, G. Ottaviano (2020) “Cultural Diversity and Immigrant Inventors in the Age of Mass Migration”, CEPR DP 4662-159248446. R&R Journal of the European Economic cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=14916 accepted in the Journal of the European Economic Association
The work conducted during the project has been widely disseminated as follows:
- the fellow organised special sessions on the topic of Migration and Innovation at the Geography of Innovation Conference in Stavanger January 2020.
- The scientific findings of the project were presented at several conferences and workshops: Aisre in L’Aquila 2020, Geography of Innovation in Stavanger 2020; Utrecht University 2020;
- the fellow organised a GOTAM workshop with the participation of prestigious international keynote speakers on 18 May 2020 (online due to the pandemic situation).
- the fellow co-organised a workshop titled “Refugees’ crisis: economic and social impacts” for a wider audience of policy makers at the European Week of Regions and Cities (13 October 2020) (online due to the pandemic situation).
- the fellow presented the project at the Researchers’ Night (MeetMeTonight) in Milan, 27 September 2019, to a general audience of families, college students and ordinary people.
- the project has promoted a wide ranging initiative in partnership with other universities and national funding agencies titled “Migration, Globalization and the Knowledge Economy and Innovation” (www.tkc-anr.eu/index.php/series-organisers/).
During the first period the fellow focused on reviewing the state of art of the scientific literature on migration and innovation and the relevant methodologies used for data analysis in this field.
At the same time the fellow undertook formal training in in data management, in particular in coding with different languages (R, Python). Several months of the project have been dedicated to extract historical patent data and clean them. On the one side the fellow has worked on building an historical dataset of migrant inventors, on the other side has explored new opportunities to link it with US census data.
These efforts have produced a dataset on migrant inventors, which has been used to carry out empirical research on the link between migration and innovation (see Diodato, Morrison, Petralia, 2021; Campo, Mendola, Morrison and Ottaviano, 2020).
The scientific results of the project has been disseminated in a number of ways. So far Gotam has produced 4 main outputs which have taken the form of scientific articles published in international peer reviewed journals.
Below a list of already published (and accepted) works:
- Diodato, D., Morrison, A. and S. Petralia, (2021) “Migration and invention in the age of mass migration”, Journal of Economic Geography https://doi-org/10.1093/jeg/lbab032
- Ernest Miguelez & Andrea Morrison, 2021. "Migrant Inventors as Agents of Technological"," IREA Working Papers 202114, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Jul 2021 https://ideas.repec.org/p/ira/wpaper/202114.html , accepted in Journal of Technology Transfer
- Breschi, S., Lawson, C., Lissoni, F., Morrison, A., & Salter, A. (2020). “STEM migration, research, and innovation”. Research Policy, 49(9).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2020.104070
- Campo F., M. Mendola, A. Morrison, G. Ottaviano (2020) “Cultural Diversity and Immigrant Inventors in the Age of Mass Migration”, CEPR DP 4662-159248446. R&R Journal of the European Economic cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=14916 accepted in the Journal of the European Economic Association
The work conducted during the project has been widely disseminated as follows:
- the fellow organised special sessions on the topic of Migration and Innovation at the Geography of Innovation Conference in Stavanger January 2020.
- The scientific findings of the project were presented at several conferences and workshops: Aisre in L’Aquila 2020, Geography of Innovation in Stavanger 2020; Utrecht University 2020;
- the fellow organised a GOTAM workshop with the participation of prestigious international keynote speakers on 18 May 2020 (online due to the pandemic situation).
- the fellow co-organised a workshop titled “Refugees’ crisis: economic and social impacts” for a wider audience of policy makers at the European Week of Regions and Cities (13 October 2020) (online due to the pandemic situation).
- the fellow presented the project at the Researchers’ Night (MeetMeTonight) in Milan, 27 September 2019, to a general audience of families, college students and ordinary people.
- the project has promoted a wide ranging initiative in partnership with other universities and national funding agencies titled “Migration, Globalization and the Knowledge Economy and Innovation” (www.tkc-anr.eu/index.php/series-organisers/).
The outputs of this project shed light on the scientific and technological contribution of immigrants in the past and in contemporary times. Highlighting the long terms and positive implication of immigration can help to bring the public perception of migration more in line with current reality, one in which the most dynamic component of international migration flows consists of highly skilled and educated individuals, who play a key role in the global circulation of knowledge.
In particular, the hisotircal analysis presented in different output of the project can provide indirect insights for today’s policy and societal debates along two main dimensions:
• long vs short-term effects of immigration: the current attention of policy makers and the civil society at large is on the short-term effects of immigration. This project, by focusing on the medium and long-term effects of immigration, those that unfold over one or few decades, or even on a longer time span, showed that places that attracted immigrants performed better than
those who did not.
• selectivity vs openness in migration policy: current immigration policies are concerned with attracting only the most talented immigrants via skilled-bias selection mechanisms. This project, by analyzing the historical effects of immigration during a period of open immigration can show the hidden potential of unskilled immigrant, who eventually became also inventors.
The empirical findings on Euroepan regions are particularly relevant as they show that global talents, which are attracted predominatly by the US, can present an important source of innovation for Euroepan regions. This can provide insights for EU policy makers to facilitate intra-European mobility and facilitated international attraction of talents proceeding from third countries.
In particular, the hisotircal analysis presented in different output of the project can provide indirect insights for today’s policy and societal debates along two main dimensions:
• long vs short-term effects of immigration: the current attention of policy makers and the civil society at large is on the short-term effects of immigration. This project, by focusing on the medium and long-term effects of immigration, those that unfold over one or few decades, or even on a longer time span, showed that places that attracted immigrants performed better than
those who did not.
• selectivity vs openness in migration policy: current immigration policies are concerned with attracting only the most talented immigrants via skilled-bias selection mechanisms. This project, by analyzing the historical effects of immigration during a period of open immigration can show the hidden potential of unskilled immigrant, who eventually became also inventors.
The empirical findings on Euroepan regions are particularly relevant as they show that global talents, which are attracted predominatly by the US, can present an important source of innovation for Euroepan regions. This can provide insights for EU policy makers to facilitate intra-European mobility and facilitated international attraction of talents proceeding from third countries.