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1
Comments on Foreign Students and the
international diffusion of scientific and
Technological knowledge/Megane MacGarvie

• EXTRA- DIME Conference
• Lausanne September 29-30 2006

• Stéphane Lhuillery
• CEMI - Collège du Management de la Technologie
• EPFL - École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

2
Overview

• Does scientific knowledge leak from US
  universities to countries from where PhDs come
  from?
• Does US universities capture some knowledge
  coming from countries from where their PhDs come
  from?

3
Hot topic

• Is the increasing number of foreign born US PhD a
  means to diffuse technology outside USA? (forward
  citation)
• Benefit to US technology? (backward citations)
• OK!
• but in another way of wondering Does inventors
  need a background that would be required once
  back in their native country?

4
On methodology

• Interesting symmetric methodology two way flows
• Works for north-north sets of countries
• Works for north south sets of countries
• Includes mobility aspects (new in the field of
  international tech flows literature)
• Careful about possible lags and alternative
  definitions
• Using USPTO data
• Focused on PhD as a representative sample for
  inventors

5
On methodology

• Interesting symmetric methodology two way flows
• Works for north-north sets of countries
• Works for north south sets of countries
• Includes mobility aspects (new in the field of
  international tech flows literature)
• Careful about possible lags and alternative
  definitions
• Using USPTO data
• Focused on PhD as a representative sample for
  inventors

6
Points of discussion

• Problems with patent and patent citations on
  developing countries
• Citations can be made during examination
• Imagine a PhD back to Argentina for a job at the
  Buenos Aires Patent Office! Citation from US will
  be added!
• The choice of USPTO
• Proba of country j to file in the USA depends on
  their exportation market. Not sure that a
  Taiwanese firm hiring a fresh PhD from MIT will
  patent in USA.
• Thus the coefficient may be seriously biased and
  international knowledge flows undermined.
• Solution? Really hard !
• Using OECD triadic patents? Scarcity problem!
• tracking citations of university i in Japanese
  patent data files?

7
Points of discussion
Problems with patent and patent citations (2) -
Definition not clear about what is considered as
a patent originating in country j Is it a US
patent filed by a firm with an address in country
j or invented by inventors located in country j?
Ex PhD back in their home developing countries
are more likely to be hired by foreign
multinationals that are often the only ones
investing in RD. But the affiliate patents in
fact through the US head company and its NYC law
department and goes afterward for a PCT
procedure the invention cites a US PRO patent
but is considered as a US patent!
8
Points of discussion

• Problem with the PhD level to explore
  international TT?
• - The choice of PhD is less convenient than the
  master level Researchers in industries are more
  likely to be masters than PhDs.
• Possible to use the same US survey but on
  masters?
• The PhD student flows may not match the flows of
  qualified peoples.
• Is there any means to introduce qualified
  emigration and immigration data from and to OECD
  countries (available on www.oecd.org) to
  correlate flows to table 2 and even table 3?