Anebriated posted:
IZA Discussion Paper No. 3921
January 2009
ABSTRACT
How Much Does Immigration Boost Innovation?*
"We measure the extent to which skilled immigrants increase innovation in the United States
by exploring individual patenting behavior as well as state-level determinants of patenting.
The 2003 National Survey of College Graduates shows that immigrants patent at double the
native rate, and that this is entirely accounted for by their disproportionately holding degrees
in science and engineering. These data imply that a one percentage point rise in the share of
immigrant college graduates in the population increases patents per capita by 6%. This could
be an overestimate of immigration's benefit if immigrant inventors crowd out native inventors,
or an underestimate if immigrants have positive spill-overs on inventors. Using a 1940-2000
state panel, we show that immigrants do have positive spill-overs, resulting in an increase in
patents per capita of 9-18% in response to a one percentage point increase in immigrant
college graduates. We isolate the causal effect by instrumenting the change in the share of
skilled immigrants in a state with the state's predicted increase in the share of skilled
immigrants. We base the latter on the 1940 distribution across states of immigrants from
various source regions and the subsequent national increase in skilled immigrants from these
regions."
the dreaded liberal bias of reality?
http://ftp.iza.org/dp3921.pdf <----- pdf
are you trying to say that facts are liberally biased?
