Principles of Collective Learning
Chapter 6 part 2: Spatial Knowledge Diffusion
Channels
What are the channels mediating knowledge
spillovers?
Networks Migration
Remember?
Breschi, Stefano, and
Francesco Lissoni.
"Knowledge networks
from patent
data." Handbook of
quantitative science and
technology research.
Springer, Dordrecht,
2004. 613-643.
LLS is a
Local geographic
Unit in Italy
Breschi, Stefano, and
Francesco Lissoni. "Knowledge
networks from patent
data." Handbook of
quantitative science and
technology research. Springer,
Dordrecht, 2004. 613-643.
Breschi, Stefano, and Francesco Lissoni. "Knowledge networks from patent data." Handbook of quantitative science and technology research. Springer,
Dordrecht, 2004. 613-643.
Breschi, Stefano, and Francesco Lissoni. "Knowledge networks from patent data." Handbook of quantitative science and
technology research. Springer, Dordrecht, 2004. 613-643.
Breschi, Stefano, and
Francesco Lissoni.
"Knowledge networks from
patent data." Handbook of
quantitative science and
technology research.
Springer, Dordrecht, 2004.
613-643.
Singh, Jasjit. "Collaborative networks as determinants of knowledge diffusion patterns." Management science 51.5 (2005): 756-770.
Singh, Jasjit. "Collaborative
networks as determinants of
knowledge diffusion
patterns." Management
science 51.5 (2005): 756-770.
Ronen et al. PNAS 2014
Ronen et al. PNAS 2014
Ronen et al. PNAS 2014
Ronen et al. PNAS 2014
Ronen et al. PNAS 2014
PRINCIPLES OF COLLECTIVE LEARNING
Social Learning Channels
&
The Importance of Social Learning
Moser, P., Voena, A., & Waldinger, F. (2014). German Jewish émigrés and US invention. American Economic
Review, 104(10), 3222-3255.
Moser, P., Voena, A., & Waldinger, F. (2014). German Jewish émigrés and US invention. American Economic
Review, 104(10), 3222-3255.
Moser, P., Voena, A., & Waldinger, F. (2014). German Jewish émigrés and US invention. American Economic
Review, 104(10), 3222-3255.
“These data indicate that the arrival
of German Jewish émigrés increased
US invention by attracting a new
group of domestic US inventors
to the fields of émigrés, rather than
by increasing the productivity of
incumbent US scientists.”
Moser, P., Voena, A., & Waldinger, F. (2014). German Jewish émigrés and US invention. American Economic
Review, 104(10), 3222-3255.
Borowiecki, Karol Jan. "Good reverberations? Teacher influence in music composition since
1450." Journal of Political Economy 130, no. 4 (2022)
Learning Based on Skills and Success
EXPERIMENT WITH Investment Game (16 rounds)
MBA Students
Two Treatments:
Independent Allocations
Allocations and Returns Published
Each Round in an Anonymous List
Results:
In second treatment, people simply mimicked best performers.
People in the second treatment got much closer to the optimum strategy.
Henrich, Secret of Our Success. Chapter 4
Prestige
dark, same domain
light, cross-domain
Similarity
Same Sex Models
Same Ethnicity Models
Etc.
PRINCIPLES OF COLLECTIVE LEARNING
Migration
Parsons, Christopher, and Pierre‐Louis Vézina. "Migrant networks
and trade: The Vietnamese boat people as a natural
experiment." The Economic Journal 128.612 (2018): F210-F234.
Parsons, Christopher, and Pierre‐Louis Vézina. "Migrant networks and
trade: The Vietnamese boat people as a natural experiment." The
Economic Journal 128.612 (2018): F210-F234.
Parsons, Christopher,
and Pierre‐Louis
Vézina. "Migrant
networks and trade:
The Vietnamese boat
people as a natural
experiment." The
Economic
Journal 128.612
(2018): F210-F234.
Parsons, Christopher, and Pierre‐Louis Vézina. "Migrant networks and trade: The Vietnamese boat
people as a natural experiment." The Economic Journal 128.612 (2018): F210-F234.
Migrants are known vectors of knowledge flows
• Agrawal, A., Cockburn, I. & McHale, J. Gone but not forgotten: knowledge flows, labor mobility, and enduring social relationships. J Econ Geogr 6, 571–591 (2006).
• Balconi, M., Breschi, S. & Lissoni, F. Networks of inventors and the role of academia: an exploration of Italian patent data. Research Policy 33, 127–145 (2004).
• Breschi, S. & Lissoni, F. Knowledge networks from patent data. in Handbook of quantitative science and technology research 613–643 (Springer, 2004).
• Singh, J. Collaborative Networks as Determinants of Knowledge Diffusion Patterns. Management Science 51, 756–770 (2005).
• Moser, P., Voena, A. & Waldinger, F. German Jewish émigrés and US invention. American Economic Review 104, 3222–3255 (2014).
• Waldinger, F. Peer Effects in Science: Evidence from the Dismissal of Scientists in Nazi Germany. The Review of Economic Studies 79, 838–861 (2012).
• Waldinger, F. Quality matters: The expulsion of professors and the consequences for PhD student outcomes in Nazi Germany. Journal of political economy 118, 787–831 (2010).
• Ganguli, I. Immigration and ideas: what did Russian scientists “bring” to the United States? Journal of Labor Economics 33, S257–S288 (2015).
• Borjas, G. J. & Doran, K. B. Cognitive mobility: labor market responses to supply shocks in the space of ideas. Journal of Labor Economics 33, S109–S145 (2015).
• Azoulay, P., Liu, C. C. & Stuart, T. E. Social influence given (partially) deliberate matching: Career imprints in the creation of academic entrepreneurs. American Journal of
Sociology 122, 1223–1271 (2017).
• Collins, H. M. The TEA Set: Tacit Knowledge and Scientific Networks. Science Studies 4, 165–185 (1974).
• Parsons, C. & Vézina, P.-L. Migrant Networks and Trade: The Vietnamese Boat People as a Natural Experiment. Economic Journal (2017).
• Scoville, W. C. The Huguenots and the diffusion of technology. I. Journal of Political Economy 60, 294–311 (1952).
• Scoville, W. C. The Huguenots and the diffusion of technology. II. Journal of Political Economy 60, 392–411 (1952).
• Kerr, W. R. The Gift of Global Talent: How Migration Shapes Business, Economy & Society. (Stanford University Press, 2018).
• Lissoni, F. & Miguelez, E. Migration and Innovation: Learning from Patent and Inventor Data. Journal of Economic Perspectives 38, 27–54 (2024).
• Autant-Bernard, C. Science and knowledge flows: evidence from the French case. Research policy 30, 1069–1078 (2001).
Who Migrates?
“5.4 percent of college-educated workers
migrate, compared with 1.8 percent of those
with high school diplomas and 1.1 percent of
those with lower education levels.”
“one in ten inventors active during the 2000s
was a citizen of a country different from the one
in which he or she was working.”
“31 percent of Nobel Prizes in chemistry,
medicine, physics, and economic sciences
have been awarded to scientists working
outside of their countries of birth (203 of 661
individuals).”
The Gift of High Skilled Migration
“…about 40 percent of Fortune 500
companies in America were founded by
immigrants or their children”
“..immigrants account for half of the
founders of America’s unicorns”
“since 1901, immigrants account for 33
percent of U.S.-based awardees of the Nobel
Prize (107 of 330).”
“During the first third of the twentieth century,
13 percent of Nobel Prizes went to scientists
working in America, and immigrants accounted
for about one-third of those U.S.-based
recipients. Since 1970, more than 65 percent of
the awards have”
“…immigrants who came to America for
study or employment are more likely to file
a patent, publish a scientific paper, start a
company, and earn higher wages than are
American-born college graduates.”
“Immigrants account for about 17 percent of
America’s college-educated workforce, a
significant increase from their 7 percent share
in 1980” (immigrants are 14.4% of US pop)
“Looking specifically at science and
engineering, about 29 percent of the country’s
college-educated workforce in these areas is
foreign born, and that share rises to 52 percent
when we isolate those who hold doctorates.”
“…international students earn about 40% of
U.S. STEM doctoral degrees….. [and]
more than 50 percent in engineering and
computer science.”
“Immigrants account for about 17 percent of
America’s college-educated workforce, a
significant increase from their 7 percent share
in 1980” (immigrants are 14.4% of US pop)
“Looking specifically at science and
engineering, about 29 percent of the country’s
college-educated workforce in these areas is
foreign born, and that share rises to 52 percent
when we isolate those who hold doctorates.”
The Sources of Global Talent
“China and India expected to hold 60
percent of young STEM-degree holders in
2030.”
“Circa 1975, only 1 percent of the U.S.-based patents from large
companies involved an overseas inventor, but this share exceeded 13
percent in 2018. Excluding patents that have only a single inventor,
one out of five U.S.-based teams now includes an overseas member.”
“Inventors outside of the U.S. are 50 percent more likely to cite
U.S.-based members of their ethnicity.”
“The global migration of talented women has grown by more than 150
percent since 1990, and women now represent more than half of all
skilled migrants.”
“In this paper, we argue that the
ability of a firm to recognize the
value of new, external information,
assimilate it, and apply it to
commercial ends is critical to its
innovative capabilities. We label
this capability a firm's absorptive
capacity and suggest that it is
largely a function of the firm's level
of prior related knowledge.”
Cohen, W. M., & Levinthal, D. A. (1990). Absorptive capacity: A new
perspective on learning and innovation. Administrative science
quarterly, 35(1), 128-152.
Masaru Ibuka
(1908-1997)