Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0 
Author-Name: Piva, Mariacristina
Author-Email: mariacristina.piva@unicatt.it
Author-workplace-name: Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy
Author-Name: Tani, Massimiliano
Author-Email: m.tani@adfa.edu.au
Author-workplace-name: UNSW Canberra, Australia, and IZA, Bonn 
Author-Name: Vivarelli, Marco
Author-Email: vivarelli@merit.unu.edu
Author-workplace-name: UNU-MERIT, IZA, Bonn, and Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore,
	 Piacenza, Italy
Title: Labour mobility through business visits as a way to foster productivity 
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate the productivity impact of 
	 business visits, relative to traditional drivers of productivity 
	 enhancement, namely capital formation and R&D. To carry out the 
	 analysis, we combine unique and novel data on business visits sourced 
	 from the U.S. National Business Travel Association with OECD data on R&D 
	 and capital formation. The resulting unbalanced panel covers on average 
	 16 sectors per year in 10 countries during the period 1998-2011 (2,262 
	 observations). Our results suggest that mobility through business visits 
	 is an effective mechanism to improve productivity. The estimated effect 
	 is about half as large as investing in R&D, supporting viewing business 
	 visits as a form of long-term investment rather than pure consumption 
	 expenditure. In a nutshell, our outcomes support the need to recognise 
	 the private and social value of business mobility. 
Keywords: Business visits, labour mobility, knowledge, R&D, productivity
Classification-JEL: O32, O33, O34, J24, D83
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20170112
Number: 2017-004
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2017/wp2017-004.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2017004