Cognitive Mobility: Labor Market Responses to Supply Shocks in the Space of Ideas

62 Pages Posted: 15 Dec 2012 Last revised: 13 May 2023

See all articles by George J. Borjas

George J. Borjas

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Kirk Doran

University of Notre Dame

Date Written: December 2012

Abstract

Knowledge producers conducting research on a particular set of questions may respond to supply and demand shocks by shifting resources to a different set of questions. Cognitive mobility measures the transition from one location to another in idea space. We examine the cognitive mobility flows unleashed by the influx of Soviet mathematicians into the United States after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The data reveal that American mathematicians moved away from fields that received large numbers of Soviet émigrés. Diminishing returns in specific research areas, rather than beneficial human capital spillovers, dominated the cognitive mobility decisions of knowledge producers.

Suggested Citation

Borjas, George J. and Doran, Kirk, Cognitive Mobility: Labor Market Responses to Supply Shocks in the Space of Ideas (December 2012). NBER Working Paper No. w18614, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2189732

George J. Borjas (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) ( email )

79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
617-495-1393 (Phone)
617-495-9532 (Fax)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Kirk Doran

University of Notre Dame ( email )

361 Mendoza College of Business
Notre Dame, IN 46556-5646
United States

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