Cities and countries in the global scientist mobility network

Abstract

Global mobility and migration of scientists is an important modern phenomenon with economic and political implications. As scientists become ever more footloose it is important to identify general patterns and regularities at a global scale and how it impacts a country's scientific output. The analysis of mobility and brain circulation patterns at global scale remains challenging, due to difficulties in obtaining individual level mobility data. In this work we trace intercity and international mobility through bibliographic records. We reconstruct the intercity and international mobility network of 3.7 million life scientists moving between 5 thousand cities and 189 Countries. In this exploratory analysis we offer evidence that international scientist mobility is marked by national borders and show that international mobility boosts the scientific output of selected countries.

Talent goes to global cities: The world network of scientists’ mobility

“…We also leverage citation data, along with several other controls, to estimate the impact of mobility on scientific production. We observe an increase in the mobility of scientists over the past decade on a global scale, with significant differences across scientific fields (e.g., physicists are more mobile than physicians), countries (see also Verginer and Riccaboni (2020) on this) and career phases (similarly to Azoulay et al. (2017) ).…”

“…Modern economies require highly skilled labor to sustain growth and keep their competitive advantage ( Chambers, Foulon, Handfield-Jones, Hankin, Michael III, 1998 , Ozden, Rapoport, 2018 , Solimano, 2008 , Verginer, Riccaboni, 2020 , Zucker, Darby, 2007 ). High skill labour is especially important to cities that are home to a large portion of the world’s population.…”

Reproducing scientists’ mobility: a data-driven model

“…Author-ity contains the disambiguated scientist names , linking them to their respective publications. Combining these two sources of information about geo-coordinates and time allows us to construct the geographical “career path” of scientists, using the approach of 16 .…”

“…Many publications have focused on the relationship between movements and scientific impact 5 – 10 . Other works have analysed scientists mobility within and across countries , to determine policy impacts 11 , 12 or to study the brain circulation phenomenon 13 – 16 .…”

“…With the present study, we provide a parsimonious baseline model that replicates many defining features solely relying on geographic distance and “scientific impact” measures in addition to the interaction rules describing a simplified academic labor market. This model might serve as a starting point for more complex refinements taking into account many more factors we know to be important in the relocation choices of high-skill labour, e.g., city amenities 4 , national borders and language 16 . Nevertheless, by only considering two factors, scientific impact and geography, the model highlights their fundamental role in understanding scientists’ mobility.…”