Leaning from multinational companies through hiring: An empirical investigation.

Labor mobility is mechanism for transfer the technology and innovation from multinational firms (MNEs) to non-multinational firms (non-MNEs). In this paper, we use a unique employer-employee data set in Sweden to provide individual-firm match dataset. Using the special research framework, we provide empirical evidence that hiring workers from MNEs can lead to knowledge spillover to non-MNEs and convert to innovation, even after controlling the region, industry and year effect, individuals’ and firms’ characteristics. We find hiring workers from a domestic MNEs generates stronger spillover effects compare to foreign MNEs and higher-educated workers are better able to transfer the knowledge.