The International Mobility of Talent and Innovation: New Evidence and Policy Implications

The international mobility of talented individuals is a key part of globalization. In the quest to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, many governments have sought to attract skilled migrants from abroad, inciting both a global competition for talent and concerns about the displacement of domestic workers. This important new work investigates why skilled individuals migrate and how they shape innovation around the world. Using patent data from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), it charts patterns of high-skilled migration worldwide. In addition, contributions by leading migration scholars review the latest research insights, discuss new approaches to studying high-skilled migration and present fresh evidence on the causes and consequences of greater talent mobility. This book will prove invaluable to policymakers seeking to understand how migration policy choices affect innovation outcomes as well as academic researchers interested in the migration-innovation nexus.

Carsten Fink is Chief Economist of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva. Before joining WIPO, he was Professor of International Economics at the Universität St Gallen, Switzerland and held visiting scholar positions at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris. Prior to his academic appointments, Professor Fink worked for more than ten years at the World Bank.

Ernest Miguelez is Researcher at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), attached to Université Montesquieu, Bordeaux IV. He received his Ph.D. from the Universitat de Barcelona in 2013. He previously held a research economist position at the World Intellectual Property Organization.