Is the phenomenon of multinational firms (MNCs) conducting distributed R&D across emerging markets related to the return migration of engineers and scientists from the U.S. to emerging markets? I hypothesize that local inventors at emerging market R&D centers of MNCs face constraints in securing...

We develop a model to analyze the determinants and effects of an endogenous imperfect transferability of human capital on natives and immigrants. The model reveals that high migration flows and high skill-transferability are mutually interdependent. Moreover, we show that high mobility within a...