Do migrant and business networks promote international royalty receipts? Evidence from the US

This study examines how migration and business networks affect the trade in intellectual property using bilateral data on the U.S. and OECD member countries. The analyses are distinct in that they comprehensively examine network effects by combining previous works on tangible trade-migration relationships together with the literature on trade-FDI relationships. We show that intellectual property exports are positively related to the number of immigrants residing in the U.S. and the U.S. direct investment stocks in trading partners. However, they do not have any relationships with U.S. emigrants and FDI inflows to the U.S. The result suggests that network effects vary depending on the direction of cross-border factor movements.