How migrant inventors and informal institutions enable green innovation in EU regions

Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between migrant inventors, informal institutions and the development of green technologies in European regions. We argue that migrant inventors act as an unlocking mechanism that transfers external knowledge to host regions, and that informal institutions (i.e. social capital, migrant acceptance) mediate this effect. The work is based on an original dataset of migrant inventors covering 271 NUTS2 regions in the 27 EU countries, the UK, Switzerland and Norway. The analysis shows that migrant inventors help their host regions to diversify into green technologies. The regions with the highest levels of both measures of social capital show a higher propensity of migrant inventors to act as knowledge brokers. Conversely, regions with lower levels of migrant acceptance and social capital do not seem to contribute to this effect.