Benjamin Cornejo Costas
POLISS research theme
Talents and Regional Diversification in the EU
Host institution
Utrecht University
Secondment institutions
Bocconi University
Rabobank Group
Supervisory team
Sjoerd Hardeman
Background
Prior to joining POLISS, Benjamin obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Universidad de San Andrés in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and a Master’s Degree in Science and Technology Policy from SPRU, University of Sussex (Brighton, UK) . Before joining academia, he worked in the public sector designing policies for the knowledge-based services sector.
Research
My research track is “Talents and regional diversification in the EU”. The project addresses the link between migration and innovation and how migrants can contribute to the diversification of regions.
Current Research Question
I’m working on disentangling how the US immigration Act in 1921 impacted on breakthrough innovations. This is a historical research to explore how migration is linked to breakthrough innovations. I try to understand how restricting migration could also have an unintended impact on economic development and technological growth. I want to show how important high skilled migrants were and still are for regions.
Data & Methods
I’m using historical US Patents parsed from PDFs in Google and the IPUMS’ censuses, matching both of them to get more information about inventors. I’m using machine learning techniques and text mining to analyse breakthrough innovations in historical patents.
Societal interests
I try to understand how restricting migration could also have an unintended impact on economic development and technological growth. I want to show how important high skilled migrants were and still are for regions.
