Scientific publication: The Effects of Terrorist Attacks on Inventor Productivity and Mobility

We examine the causal effects of terrorism on inventor productivity and mobility. During the five-year window after terrorist attacks, inventors close to the strikes are more likely to move to distant companies. While the inventors that continue working for firms near the attacks exhibit a drastic productivity decline, those that relocate to faraway companies do not. These results prove robust to alternative specifications and numerous controls including the influence of the 9/11 attacks. Our findings provide novel insights about the impact of shocks that distort human capital productivity and promote the mobility and reallocation of specialized resources among firms.

Reference: Fich, Eliezer M. and Nguyen, Tung and Petmezas, Dimitris, The Effects of Terrorist Attacks on Inventor Productivity and Mobility (February 11, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3747554 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3747554