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  4. October 2014
  5. German Jewish Émigrés and US Invention

German Jewish Émigrés and US Invention

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Abstract

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.

Citation

Moser, Petra, Alessandra Voena, and Fabian Waldinger. 2014. "German Jewish Émigrés and US Invention." American Economic Review, 104 (10): 3222-55. DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.10.3222

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

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