Essays on Migration and Mobility

This dissertation sheds light on different aspects of innovation intertwined with migration.

The first essay investigates the influence of migration barriers on the utilization of scientific knowledge in patents, leveraging the so-called “Muslim travel ban” as an exogenous shock to the mobility of scientists of Iranian origin. First, we establish a direct impact of the travel ban on Iranian computer scientists residing outside the U.S., evidenced by a decline in visas issued and a substantial reduction in conference participation for this group. Moving forward, our analysis aims to compare U.S. patent citations between pre-ban scientific publications by scientists of Iranian origin and their non-Iranian counterparts within a difference-in-differences framework.

The second essay explores how social norms, stigmas, and taboos prevent women from accessing health innovations for menstruation, especially in refugee camps. Many women rely on inadequate materials such as old cloth, leaves or paper tissues to manage their menstrual flow. This has not only implications for these women’s well-being, in particular health, but also their socio-economic activities during their periods. The adoption of innovative, more hygienic health technologies such as menstrual underwear remains often low due to social norms, stigmas, and taboos. We plan to run a field experiment with over 700 women in refugee camps in Africa and elicit whether joint group discussions between men and women, which are designed to break the silence about menstruation, increase the adoption of new technologies.