The Effect of (Mostly Unskilled) Immigration on the Innovation of Italian Regions

Massimiliano Bratti () and Chiara Conti ()
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Massimiliano Bratti: Università degli Studi di Milano

No 7922, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We use small Italian regions (i.e. provinces) to investigate the causal effect of foreign immigration on innovation during 2003-2008. Using instrumental variables estimation (based on immigrants' enclaves), we find that the overall stock of immigrants did not have any effect on innovation. However, decomposing the overall effect into the contributions of low- and high-skilled migrants shows that an increase of 1 percentage point in the share of low-skilled migrants on the population reduces patent applications by about 0.2%. By contrast, the impact of high-skilled immigrants on innovation is positive, in line with the previous literature, but cannot be precisely estimated.

Keywords: patent applications; innovation; immigration; regions; Italy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J2 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2014-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-pr~ and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Published - revised version published as "The effect of immigration on innovation in italy" in: Regional Studies, 2018, 52 (7), 934-947

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Working Paper: The Effect of (Mostly Unskilled) Immigration on the Innovation of Italian Regions (2014)
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