This paper analyses whether international migrants contribute to increasing technological advances in developing countries by inducing a transfer of productive knowledge from developed countries back to migrants’ home countries. Using the Economic Complexity Index as a proxy for the amount of productive knowledge embedded in each countries and bilateral migrant stocks of 20 OECD destination countries, we show that international migration is a strong channel of technological transmission. Diasporas foster the local adoption of new technologies by connecting high technology countries with low ones, reducing the uncertainty surrounding their profitability. Our empirical results support the hypothesis that technological transfers are more likely to occur out of more technologically advanced destinations and when emigration rates are particularly high. © 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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international migration emigration technology transfer OECD developing world technology adoption knowledge immigrant population