Essays in Human Capital and Innovation

The diffusion of knowledge and information is a fundamental driver of technological progress and economic growth. In this dissertation, I investigate how such diffusion occurs and how it is shaped by the mobility of workers. Across three distinct but thematically linked studies, I explore the mechanisms through which human capi- tal—embodied in skilled individuals—transmits knowledge within and across organi- zations, scientific domains and institutional frameworks. Each chapter focuses on a specific context where worker transitions play a critical role in facilitating or redirect- ing knowledge flows: the mobility of bankers, the careers of nuclear scientists, and the impact of public procurement on innovative activity. Taken together, these studies aim to show how portable is knowledge and how it can be effectively harnessed to foster innovation and economic development. As bank managers are hired by competing banks, they are able to transfer their human capital (i.e. soft information about clients) to their new employers, thereby improving the overall allocation of credit in the economy. Viceversa, scientists who cannot do research in their original field due to funding cuts observe a significant decrease in their productivity, as their knowledge is not easily transferable to other domains. Finally, public procurement can be a powerful tool to steer the direction of innovation by creating demand for specific technologies, but it mainly affects the ability of firms to obtain further contracts, as opposed to generating new knowledge. Across the chapters, I employ a range of empirical methods, based on detailed administrative data (for the case of bankers) or large publicly available datasets (for the cases of scientists and procurement).