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Journal of Economic Geography Advance Access originally published online on September 28, 2006
Journal of Economic Geography 2006 6(5):571-591; doi:10.1093/jeg/lbl016
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© The Author (2006). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Gone but not forgotten: knowledge flows, labor mobility, and enduring social relationships

Ajay Agrawal*, Iain Cockburn** and John McHale***

*Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto and NBER, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3E6. email <ajay.agrawal{at}rotman.utoronto.ca>
**Boston University and NBER.
***Queen's University.

We examine the role of social relationships in facilitating knowledge flows by estimating the flow premium captured by a mobile inventor's previous location. Once an inventor has moved, they are gone—but are they forgotten? We find that knowledge flows to an inventor's prior location are approximately 50% greater than if they had never lived there, suggesting that social relationships, not just physical proximity, are important for determining flow patterns. Furthermore, we find that a large portion of this social effect is mediated by institutional links; however, this is not the result of corporate knowledge management systems but rather of personal relationships formed through co-location within an institutional context that endure over time, space, and organizational boundaries. Moreover, we find the effect is nearly twice as large for knowledge flows across as compared to within fields, suggesting that co-location may substitute for communities of practice in determining flow patterns.

Keywords: knowledge flows, social relationships, labor mobility, patent citations,
JEL classifications: F22, O31, R12, R23
Date submitted: 29 February 2004     Date accepted: 9 August 2006


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