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The patenting performance of second-generation immigrants in Sweden: differentiated by parents’ region of origin

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  • Zheng, Yannu

    (CIRCLE, Lund University)

Abstract

Children of immigrants inherit human capital attainment from their parents that impact on their innovative performance. Some of this stem from their migrant parents’ positive and negative selection traits, part from their physical or cognitive proximity of country of origin to the host society. In this paper, I examine how second-generation immigrants (with at least one foreign-born parent), taking into consideration their parents’ region of origin, perform in inventive activity compared with native Swedes (with two native-born parents) and how this is related to their parents’ background. The study is based on a new Swedish database of inventors, which matched with the entire population between 1985 and 2007. The results show that, in terms of probability of becoming an inventor and number of forward citations to their patents, second-generation immigrants with non-Nordic European backgrounds perform better than native Swedes. Their better performance is related to the positive selection of their foreign-born parents and a certain distance of proximity to Sweden. The study indicates that there is a trade-off effect between the selection and proximity of foreign-born parents on second-generation immigrants’ patenting performance, but that differs between groups. For second-generation immigrants with other Nordic backgrounds, their less well performance is mainly attributed to their lower education level, which is further related to their less positively selected parents. However, for second-generation immigrants with one native-born parent and one parent from another non-European country, their large distance of proximity to Sweden seems to impede their performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Zheng, Yannu, 2016. "The patenting performance of second-generation immigrants in Sweden: differentiated by parents’ region of origin," Papers in Innovation Studies 2016/11, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2016_011
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    File URL: http://wp.circle.lu.se/upload/CIRCLE/workingpapers/201611_zheng.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Native Swedes; Foreign-born; Innovation; Human capital; Selection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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