title: The impact of cultural diversity on firm innovation: evidence from Dutch micro-data

authors: Ozgen, Ceren

subjects: immigration

abstract: An important question for firms and policy makers is whether the recruitment of foreign workers can boost innovation. Migration studies have demonstrated positive economic impacts of cultural diversity on productivity and innovation at the regional level, but the impacts at firm level are less well known. Merging data from four different sources, provided by Statistics Netherlands, we construct and analyze a unique linked employer-employee micro dataset of 4582 firms that includes qualitative information on firm innovation. We consider both the number of immigrants these firms employ and their cultural diversity. Potential endogeneity of migrant employment is addressed by an instrumental variables approach that accounts for the past geographic distribution of immigrants and the past culinary diversity of the municipality the firm is located in. We find robust evidence that firms employing relatively more migrants are less innovative. However, there is evidence of integration in that this effect is generally less strong or even absent for second generation immigrants. Moreover, firms employing a more diverse foreign workforce are more innovative, particularly in terms of product innovations. The benefits of diversity for innovation are more apparent in sectors employing relatively more skilled immigrants.

text: The impact of cultural diversity on firm innovation: evidence from Dutch micro-data An important question for firms and policy makers is whether the recruitment of foreign workers can boost innovation. Migration studies have demonstrated positive economic impacts of cultural diversity on productivity and innovation at the regional level, but the impacts at firm level are less well known. Merging data from four different sources, provided by Statistics Netherlands, we construct and analyze a unique linked employer-employee micro dataset of 4582 firms that includes qualitative information on firm innovation. We consider both the number of immigrants these firms employ and their cultural diversity. Potential endogeneity of migrant employment is addressed by an instrumental variables approach that accounts for the past geographic distribution of immigrants and the past culinary diversity of the municipality the firm is located in. We find robust evidence that firms employing relatively more migrants are less innovative. However, there is evidence of integration in that this effect is generally less strong or even absent for second generation immigrants. Moreover, firms employing a more diverse foreign workforce are more innovative, particularly in terms of product innovations. The benefits of diversity for innovation are more apparent in sectors employing relatively more skilled immigrants.

year: 2013

title: Long-run pass-through from the exchange rate to import prices in African countries

authors: Holmes, Mark J.

subjects: exchange rate pass-thought

abstract: This paper investigates the extent of pass-through from the nominal exchange rate to import prices for a sample of nineteen African countries. The methodology is based on panel data cointegration testing. Using annual data extending back to 1971, long-run pass-through can be best described as a fairly balanced combination of local-currency and producer-currency pricing. However, this paper offers additional insight from a moving window approach that indicates declining long-run pass-through, accompanied by decreasing inflation, occurring since the mid-1990s.

text: Long-run pass-through from the exchange rate to import prices in African countries This paper investigates the extent of pass-through from the nominal exchange rate to import prices for a sample of nineteen African countries. The methodology is based on panel data cointegration testing. Using annual data extending back to 1971, long-run pass-through can be best described as a fairly balanced combination of local-currency and producer-currency pricing. However, this paper offers additional insight from a moving window approach that indicates declining long-run pass-through, accompanied by decreasing inflation, occurring since the mid-1990s.

year: 2006

title: Imagining our own approaches

authors: Smith, Linda Tuhiwai

abstract: I spent some formative years of my life either in the back of museums or their basements helping my father, a scholar of Māori Studies, and keeping myself out of trouble. In the late 1960s I had one small job in the library basement of the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, typing new labels for the captains’ log books of ships that were sailing during the American Revolution. I read most of those journals that consisted of pages and pages of wind directions with the rare glimpse of an encounter with another ship or a list of supplies. Why were we there in Salem when we came from Aotearoa, New Zealand? We were there because Salem was the home base for ships that sailed into the Pacific and returned home with collections of materials from the various Pacific Islands countries they visited. My father was studying elaborately carved items from the Marquesa Islands that looked very much like Māori designs.

text: Imagining our own approaches I spent some formative years of my life either in the back of museums or their basements helping my father, a scholar of Māori Studies, and keeping myself out of trouble. In the late 1960s I had one small job in the library basement of the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, typing new labels for the captains’ log books of ships that were sailing during the American Revolution. I read most of those journals that consisted of pages and pages of wind directions with the rare glimpse of an encounter with another ship or a list of supplies. Why were we there in Salem when we came from Aotearoa, New Zealand? We were there because Salem was the home base for ships that sailed into the Pacific and returned home with collections of materials from the various Pacific Islands countries they visited. My father was studying elaborately carved items from the Marquesa Islands that looked very much like Māori designs.

year: 2015