The Contribution of International Graduate Students to US Innovation

By G. Chellaraj, Keith E. Maskus, Aaditya Mattoo. 2008

281 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The impact of international students in the United States on innovative activity is estimated using a model of idea generation. Results indicate that the presence of foreign graduate students has a significant and positive impact on both future patent applications and future patents awarded to university and non-university institutions. Our central estimates suggest that a 10% increase in the number of foreign graduate students would raise patent applications by 4.5%, university patent grants by 6.8% and non-university patent grants by 5.0%. Thus, reductions in foreign graduate students from visa restrictions could significantly reduce US innovative activity. Increases in skilled immigration also have a positive, but smaller, impact on patenting.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Management of Technology and Innovation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1d46a004dbd5c18668be49f2f71d7c8e19442a35

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

1. Max Nathan
2. William R. Kerr
3. W. Lincoln
4. Peter Nijkamp
5. Jacques Poot
6. J. Hunt
7. Ceren Ozgen
8. F. Montobbio

In Management of Technology and Innovation

1. Max Nathan
2. W. Lincoln
3. F. Montobbio
4. Ceren Ozgen
5. Jacques Poot
6. William R. Kerr
7. J. Hunt
8. Peter Nijkamp

Citations in the corpus

• Cultural Diversity and Plant‐Level Productivity (2015, background): “Other studies at the establishment or firm level mostly focus on other outcomes such as patenting activities (see Ozgen et al. 2011, Audretsch et al. 2010, Chellaraj et al. 2008), thereby contributing to the related discussion how diversity affects innovation (also see Niebuhr 2010 and Nathan 2011).”
• The wider economic impacts of high-skilled migrants: a survey of the literature for receiving countries (2013, unknown): “Stephan and Levin (2001), Chellaraj et al. (2008) and Wadhwa et al. (2008) highlight the contributions of Indian-American and Chinese-American scientists to US science, particularly foreign graduate students.”
• Immigration and Innovation in European Regions (2011, methodology): “Chellaraj et al. (2008) use US time series data to show that an increase in foreign students”
• Skilled Immigration and Innovation: Evidence from Enrolment Fluctuations in us Doctoral Programmes (2012, unknown): “Other recent studies document that patent applications in the US are correlated with foreign-student enrolments at the aggregate national level (Chellaraj et al., 2008) and with post-doctoral enrolments at the university level (Gurmu et al., 2010).”
• The innovative performance of firms in heterogeneous environments: the interplay between external knowledge and internal absorptive capacities (2018, result): “This preliminary unconditional correlation resonates with earlier studies that attributed a positive innovation impact to the mobility of knowledgeable individuals (e.g. Faggian and McCann, 2006; Chellaraj et al., 2008; Hunt and Gauthier-Loiselle, 2009).”
• Same difference? Minority ethnic inventors, diversity and innovation in the UK (2015, background): “Since the 1980s minority communities, particularly those of South/East Asian origin, have played increasingly important roles in US science and technology sectors (Stephan and Levin, 2001; Chellaraj et al., 2008; Stuen et al., 2012).”
• Skilled migration and innovation in European industries (2019, background): “…argues that skilled migration contributes directly to research activities and innovation (e.g. Kerr and Lincoln, 2010; Hunt, GauthierLoiselle, 2010; Chellaraj et al., 2008; No and Walsh, 2010; Stephan and Levin, 2001; Bosetti et al. 2015) and the second one underlines the role of ethnic and…”
• Which Immigrants Are Most Innovative and Entrepreneurial? Distinctions by Entry Visa (2011, background): “5 On immigration and patenting, see also Morgan, Kruytbosch, and Kannankutty (2003), Peri (2007), and Chellaraj, Maskus, and Mattoo (2008).”
• Impact of Migration on Economic and Social Development: A Review of Evidence and Emerging Issues (2011, background): “Data from the United States show that one percent increase in the share of migrant university graduates increase the number of patent applications and grants issued per capita (Chellaraj et al. 2008, Hunt & Gauthier-Loiselle 2008).”
• The Supply Side of Innovation: H‐1B Visa Reforms and U.S. Ethnic Invention (2010, background): “Chellaraj, Maskus, and Mattoo (2008) also find strong crowding-in effects when using time series variation.”