Inventor mobility and productivity in Italian regions

This paper describes the interregional and international mobility of inventors in Italy and estimates its impact on total factor productivity (TFP) at the regional level for the period 1996–2011. A new database of mobile inventors is constructed and, using a set of geographically based instruments to address endogeneity, it shows that inventor in- and outflows affect regional TFP growth. Moreover, the positive effects of the inventors’ mobility (inflow) between different applicants take more time to materialize (relative to movements within the same company). Finally, the negative effects of inventor outflows are mainly driven by mobility between applicants.