Consequences of the Post-Accession Migration of Polish Inventors for the Innovative Potential of Poland: 2004-2012
Consequences of the Post-Accession Migration of Polish Inventors for the Innovative Potential of Poland: 2004-2012

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to answer the question what losses in the form of reduced ability to generate innovations – measured by the number of PCT inventions and the authors of these inventions – are incurred by Poland due to human capital outflow. The work uses the method of analyzing patent applications filed in the years 2004-2012 by the residents of the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, the Republic of Korea and China, regarding inventions that were created by the immigrants from Poland living in the aforementioned countries. The analysis of 1720 patent documents has shown that: (1) throughout the period under study Poland incurred losses in the form of 1720 PCT inventions that were mainly created for the benefit of the US, Germany and the UK; (2) losses for Poland were most visible in such areas as: chemistry; metallurgy; medicine; electricity and physics as well as in the business sector; (3) during the period under study the total of 830 PCT inventors left Poland, mainly for the US, Germany and the UK, and the vast majority of them were men.

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