When they leave declining firms, highly skilled, high-tech workers are also more likely to leave struggling american regions

Given the increasing trend towards knowledge-based economies, it is important for policymakers to understand how the emergence of new technologies can impact job creation and worker displacement. Melissa Haller examines data on inventors from 110 firms from the United States Patent and Trademark Office to analyze the relationship between firm closures and patenting workers and finds that while more productive and well-connected inventors have an easier time finding patenting re-employment, they are also more likely to move, contributing to a local brain drain.