| 1. |
- Andersson, David E., PhD, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
-
Mass Migration, Cheap Labor, and Innovation
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Journal of Economic History. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0022-0507 .- 1471-6372. ; 78:2, s. 623-623
-
Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Migration is often depicted as a major problem for struggling developing countries,as they may lose valuable workers and human capital. Yet, its effects on sendingregions are ambiguous and depend crucially on local market responses and migrantselection. This paper studies the effects of migration on technological innovation insending communities during one of the largest migration episodes in human history:the Age of Mass Migration (1850–1913). Using novel historical data on Sweden, whereabout a quarter of its population migrated, we find that migration caused an increasein technological patents in sending municipalities. To establish causality, we use aninstrumental variable design that exploits severe local growing season frost shocks to-gether with within-country travel costs to reach an emigration port. Exploring possiblemechanisms, we suggest that increased labor costs, due to low-skilled emigration, in-duced technological innovation.
|
|
| 2. |
- Andersson, David E., et al.
(författare)
-
Mass Migration, Cheap Labor, and Innovation
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Journal of Economic History. - 0022-0507 .- 1471-6372. ; 78:2, s. 623-623
-
Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
|
|
| 3. |
|
|
| 4. |
- Andersson, David, et al.
(författare)
-
Making a Market : Infrastructure, Integration, and the Rise of Innovation
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Review of Economics and Statistics. - : MIT Press. - 0034-6535 .- 1530-9142. ; 105:2, s. 258-274
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We exploit exogenous variation arising from the historical rollout of the Swedish railroad network across municipalities to identify the impacts of improved transport infrastructure on innovative activity. A network connection led to a local surge in patenting due to an increased entry and productivity of inventors. As the railroad network expanded, inventors in connected areas began to develop ideas with applications outside the local economy, which were subsequently sold to firms along the network. Our findings suggest that reductions in communication and transportation costs were an important driver of the historical emergence of a market for ideas.
|
|
| 5. |
- Andersson, David, et al.
(författare)
-
Mass Migration and Technological Change
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Journal of the European Economic Association. - : Oxford Academic. - 1542-4766 .- 1542-4774. ; 20:5, s. 1859-1896
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper studies the effect of emigration on technological change in sending locations after one of the largest migration events in human history, the mass migration from Europe to the United States in the 19th century. To establish causality, we adopt an instrumental variable strategy that combines local growing-season frost shocks with proximity to emigration ports. Using data on patents, we find that emigration led to an increase in innovative activity in sending localities. Using data on capital and labor inputs in agriculture and industry, we find evidence of an increased capital intensity related to new technologies in both sectors. We argue that these results are consistent with theories of induced (labor-saving) innovation due to high labor costs following emigration.
|
|
| 6. |
- Berger, Thor, et al.
(författare)
-
Collaboration and Connectivity : Historical Evidence from Patent Records
- 2023
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Why has collaboration become increasingly central to technological progress? We document the role of lowered travel costs by combining patent data with the rollout of the Swedish railroad network in the 19th and early-20th century. Inventors that gain access to the network are more likely to produce collaborative patents, which is partly driven by long-distance collaborations with other inventors residing along the emerging railroad network. These results suggest that the declining costs of interacting with others is fundamental to account for the long-term increase in inventive collaboration.
|
|
| 7. |
- Berger, Thor, et al.
(författare)
-
Collaboration and connectivity : Historical evidence from patent records
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Journal of Urban Economics. - : Elsevier. - 0094-1190 .- 1095-9068. ; 139
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Why has collaboration become increasingly central to technological progress? We document the role of lowered travel costs by combining patent data with the rollout of the Swedish railroad network in the 19th and early -20th century. Inventors that gain access to the network are more likely to produce collaborative patents, which is partly driven by long-distance collaborations with other inventors residing along the emerging railroad network. These results suggest that the declining costs of interacting with others is fundamental to account for the long-term increase in inventive collaboration.
|
|
| 8. |
- Berger, Thor, et al.
(författare)
-
DP18147 Inventors among the “Impoverished Sophisticate”
- 2023
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper examines the identity and origins of Swedish inventors prior to World War I drawing on the universe of patent records linked to census data. We document that the rise of innovation during Sweden’s industrialization can largely be attributed to a small industrial elite belonging to the upper-tail of the economic, educational, and social status distribution. Analyzing children’s opportunities to become an inventor, we show that inventors were disproportionately drawn from privileged family backgrounds. However, among the middle- and working-class children that managed to overcome the barriers to entry, innovation was a path to upward mobility.
|
|
| 9. |
- Ejermo, Olof, et al.
(författare)
-
Home, Sweet Home: Returns to Returning in the Age of Mass Migration
- 2022
-
Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Studying migrants from Sweden to the United States, we provide new evidence on return migration during the Age of Mass Migration. Focusing on a sample of migrants and stayers observed in childhood, we document limited effects on income and occupational upgrading, but large effects on wealth. Male returnees held about twice as much wealth as stayers and about 40 percent more than staying brothers. These effects were likely driven by accumulated savings overseas, rather than inheritance or an income premium back home. For female returnees, wealth effects are of similar magnitude, but appear to be realized primarily through marriage.
|
|
| 10. |
- Karadja, Mounir, et al.
(författare)
-
A response to Pettersson-Lidbom’s “Exit, Voice and Political Change: Evidence from Swedish Mass Migration to the United States – a Comment”
- 2020
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In a comment to Karadja & Prawitz (2019), henceforth KP, Per Pettersson-Lidbom (2020), henceforth P-L, argues that the main results in KP are severely biased. He argues that KP's results are biased due to non-classical measurement error in emigration and due to confounders related to the instrument. In this response, we show that P-L's reasoning regarding measurement error bias contradicts the results from his proposed test. More generally, P-L's results cannot exclude alternative and arguably more likely explanations. We present two straightforward tests that both indicate that measurement error does not bias KP's results. Second, we argue that KP controls for confounders in a standard way given the identication strategy. Including fixed effects at the level of the exogenous cross-sectional variation, as P-L does, severely limits the available identifying variation and decreases precision. Nevertheless, we document that KP's results are robust to non-linear frost shock controls, including fixed effects for groups of similar frost shocks. In addition, we show that our results are robust to altering regional fixed effects or dropping them altogether, in contrast to what is suggested by P-L.
|
|
