Is Inter-firm Labor Mobility a Channel of Knowledge Spillovers? Evidence from a Linked Employer-Employee Panel

Maliranta MikaMohnen PierreRouvinen Petri

An employer-employee panel is used to study whether the movement of workers across firms is a channel of unintended diffusion of R&D-generated knowledge. Somewhat surprisingly, hiring workers from others’ R&D labs to one’s own does not seem to be a significant spillover channel. Hiring workers previously in R&D to one’s non-R&D activities, however, boosts both productivity and profitability. This is interpreted as evidence that these workers transmit knowledge that can be readily copied and implemented without much additional R&D effort.

Publication info

Series
Discussion Papers no. 1116
Date
2008
Keywords
labor mobility, R&D spillovers, profitability, linked employer-employee data
JEL
D62,J24,J62,L25,O31
Pages
26
Price
10 €
Availability of print version
Language
English