Drawing on fresh data, this book investigates why talented individuals migrate and how they shape innovation around the world.

The international mobility of talented individuals is a key part of globalization. In the quest to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, many governments have sought to attract skilled migrants from abroad, inciting both a global competition for talent and concerns about the displacement of domestic workers. This important new work investigates why skilled individuals migrate and how they shape innovation around the world. Using patent data from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), it charts patterns of high-skilled migration worldwide. In addition, contributions by leading migration scholars review the latest research insights, discuss new approaches to studying high-skilled migration and present fresh evidence on the causes and consequences of greater talent mobility. This book will prove invaluable to policymakers seeking to understand how migration policy choices affect innovation outcomes as well as academic researchers interested in the migration-innovation nexus

Entrepreneurs, technical experts, professionals, international students, writers, and artists are among the most highly mobile people in the global economy today. These talented elite often originate from developing countries and migrate to industrial economies. Many return home with new ideas, experiences, and capital useful for national development, whilst others remain to produce quality goods and services that are useful everywhere in the global economy. The economic potential of globalization is ultimately dependent on the international mobility of highly talented individuals that transfer knowledge, new technologies, ideas, business capacities, and other creative capabilities. Developing countries and advanced economies may both gain from this mobility if it is effectively and smartly managed. This volume, with original contributions from outstanding international experts in the subject, provides a novel analysis of the main determinants and development impact of talent mobility in the global economy.

This paper has two objectives. First, it describes a new database mapping migratory patterns of inventors, extracted from information included in patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. It explains in detail the information contained in the database and discusses the usefulness and reliability of the underlying data. Second, the paper provides a descriptive overview of inventor migration patterns, based on the information contained in the newly constructed database.

Drawing on analytical literature, the most recent data available, and policy inventories, this publication discusses the dimensions, significance, and policy implications of international flows of human resources in science and technology.

"Human talent is a key economic resource and a source of creative power in science, technology, business, arts and culture and other activities. Talent has a large economic value and its mobility has increased with globalization, the spread of new information technologies and lower transportation costs. Well educated and/or talented people are often more internationally mobile than unskilled workers. Immigrants with high human capital face more favorable immigration policies in receiving countries, typically high per capita income economies short of information technology experts, scientists, medical doctors and other types of talent. The purpose of this paper is to review analytical and policy issues related to the international mobility of talented individuals, examining the main types of talent who move internationally, their specific traits and characteristics and the implications of this mobility for source and destination countries and for global development.."--Abstract

The global race for talent is on, with countries and businesses competing for the best and brightest. Talented individuals migrate much more frequently than the general population, and the United States has received exceptional inflows of human capital. This foreign talent has transformed U.S. science and engineering, reshaped the economy, and influenced society at large. But America is bogged down in thorny debates on immigration policy, and the world around the United States is rapidly catching up, especially China and India. The future is quite uncertain, and the global talent puzzle deserves close examination. To do this, William R. Kerr uniquely combines insights and lessons from business practice, government policy, and individual decision making. Examining popular ideas that have taken hold and synthesizing rigorous research across fields such as entrepreneurship and innovation, regional advantage, and economic policy, Kerr gives voice to data and ideas that should drive the next wave of policy and business practice. The Gift of Global Talent deftly transports readers from joyous celebrations at the Nobel Prize ceremony to angry airport protests against the Trump administration's travel ban. It explores why talented migration drives the knowledge economy, describes how universities and firms govern skilled admissions, explains the controversies of the H-1B visa used by firms like Google and Apple, and discusses the economic inequalities and superstar firms that global talent flows produce. The United States has been the steward of a global gift, and this book explains the huge leadership decision it now faces and how it can become even more competitive for attracting tomorrow's talent. Please visit www.hbs.edu/managing-the-future-of-work/research/Pages/default.aspx to learn more about the book.