Work

German Jewish Émigrés and US Invention

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: Historical accounts suggest that Jewish émigrés from Nazi Germany revolutionized U.S. science.To analyze the émigrés' effects on chemical innovation in the U.S. we compare changes in patenting by U.S. inventors in research fields of émigrés with fields of other German chemists.Patenting by U.S. inventors increased by 31 percent in émigré fields.Regressions that instrument for émigré fields with pre-1933 fields of dismissed German chemists confirm a substantial increase in U.S. invention.Inventorlevel data indicate that émigrés encouraged innovation by attracting new researchers to their fields, rather than by increasing the productivity of incumbent inventors.

Source: American Economic Review

DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.10.3222

Authors: Petra Moser, Alessandra Voena, Fabian Waldinger

Institutions: National Bureau of Economic Research, Stanford University, University of Chicago, University of Warwick

Language: English

Topic: Intellectual Property and Patents

Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Science Foundation, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Economic and Social Research Council, Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Awards: G6671297155, G8486141788