Seminar Vol. 141

Title: Migrant Diversity and Regional Innovation: Evidence from China

Speaker: Mengmeng Guo, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics

Time: April 15th, 2019 13:30–14:45

Venue: Conference Room 106B, Zhonghui Building (IESR, JNU College of Economics)

About the speaker:

Mengmeng Guo is an Associate Professor at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE), China. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Humboldt University of Berlin in 2012. Mengmeng Guo's research interests are Applied Econometrics and Environmental Economics. She has published widely in such international journals as Emerging Markets Review, Journal of Forecasting, Statistics and Computing, Review of Development Economics, and Journal of Sports Economics. 

Abstract:

The diversity brought by migrants and the corresponding influence have attracted widespread interest. Combining the provincial-level patenting and migration data, this paper investigates the relationship between migrant diversity and the regional innovation in China. Specifically, we construct a panel data of provincial migrant diversity measured by different diversity indices. Our findings indicate that the cultural diversity of migrants has a positive impact on the regional innovation. Moreover, the effects display significant heterogeneity across different industries and occupations. The results are robust to different measures of culture diversity as well as after addressing possible endogeneity issues.