Replication data for: German Jewish Émigrés and US Invention

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Petra Moser; Alessandra Voena; Fabian Waldinger

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Datasets			10/11/2019 07:33:PM
readme-replication.pdf	application/pdf	333.3 KB	10/11/2019 03:33:PM
regression_codes.do	text/plain	16.8 KB	10/11/2019 03:33:PM
summary_stats_codes.do	text/plain	13.2 KB	10/11/2019 03:32:PM

Project Description

Summary: Historical accounts suggest that Jewish émigrés from Nazi Germany revolutionized US science. To analyze the émigrés' effects on chemical innovation in the United States, we compare changes in patenting by US inventors in research fields of émigrés with fields of other German chemists. Patenting by US inventors increased by 31 percent in émigré fields. Regressions which instrument for émigré fields with pre-1933 fields of dismissed German chemists confirm a substantial increase in US invention. Inventor-level data indicate that émigrés encouraged innovation by attracting new researchers to their fields, rather than by increasing the productivity of incumbent inventors.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
      L65 Chemicals; Rubber; Drugs; Biotechnology; Plastics
      N62 Economic History: Manufacturing and Construction: U.S.; Canada: 1913-
      O31 Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
      O34 Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital

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V1 [2019-10-11]

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