Is mobility of technical personnel a source of R&D spillovers?
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Date
2001-03Metadata
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- Discussion papers (SAM) [666]
Abstract
Labor mobility is often considered to be an important source of knowledge
externalities, making it difficult for firms to appropriate returns to R&D investments.
In this paper, I argue that inter-firm transfers of knowledge embodied
in people should be analyzed within a human capital framework. Testing such a
framework using a matched employer-employee data set, I find that the technical
staff in R&D-intensive firms pays for the knowledge they accumulate on the job
through lower wages in the beginning of their career. Later they earn a return on
these implicit investments through higher wages. This suggests that the potential
externalities associated with labor mobility, at least to some extent, are internalized in the labor market.
Publisher
Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. Department of EconomicsSeries
Discussion paper2001:5