The Brain Gain: The Impact of Immigration on American Innovation, with Rebecca Diamond

Immigrants’ contributions to America include culture, cuisine — and groundbreaking ideas. “No one is that surprised that immigrants play a disproportionate role in innovation,” says Rebecca Diamond, a professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business. But, she notes, “Innovation in itself is an elusive thing to measure.” By studying patents, Diamond has revealed new insights into the important role immigrants play in fueling innovation. Diamond explains more in this episode of If/Then: Business, Leadership, Society.

Today, foreign-born Americans make up around 10% of the population of the United States. Yet, as Diamond found in her research, immigrants are responsible for 24% of recent U.S. patents. What’s more, she explains, these immigrant inventors serve as catalysts for their native-born collaborators, pushing them to be more creative. Altogether, Diamond says, “You find that 36% of all innovation can be attributed to immigrants.”

“That’s a big number,” Diamond says. This finding not only highlights immigrants’ outsize contribution to the U.S. economy but also provides a glimpse into the teamwork that generates new ideas. “The way to have successful innovation is not to just put smart people in a room by themselves and tell ’em to think hard,” she says. “It’s to collaborate and work together and create new ideas through the synergies of their knowledge.”

Immigration is a contentious political issue. Diamond notes that “any policies that would limit or lower the number of immigrants coming to the U.S. for these super high-skill innovative jobs would have a large effect on future innovation.” As this episode of If/Then explores, for America to remain a source of new ideas that contribute to economic growth and technological progress, we’ve got to understand the vital link between immigration and innovation.

Key Takeaways:

• Outsize impact: Immigrant inventors register more patents than native-born Americans. While only 10% of U.S. citizens are immigrants, immigrants are responsible for 24% of recent patents.
• The collaboration connection: Immigrants positively influence the productivity of their American collaborators.
• The global knowledge network: Immigrants are more likely to cite foreign patents and are more likely to be cited by patents produced abroad. 

More Resources:

Rebecca Diamond is the Class of 1988 Professor of Economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

1. A New Look at Immigrants’ Outsize Contribution to Innovation int he U.S. 
2. Voices of Stanford GSB faculty, Rebecca Diamond

If/Then is a podcast from Stanford Graduate School of Business that examines research findings that can help us navigate the complex issues we face in business, leadership, and society.

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