Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Engineers' Mobility: Evidence from Patent Data in the Semiconductor Industry

This study examines how the mobility of engineers in the semiconductor industry changed after COVID-19. Through the analysis of patent data, differences in the impact on the probability of engineers moving across borders before and after the outbreak were compared. The analysis reveals that before the outbreak, the probability of engineers moving internationally was higher for top-ranked engineers, who accounted for 1% of all engineers, than that for second-, third-, and lowest-ranked engineers. However, after the outbreak, behavioral changes were observed only in top-ranked engineers, so they had a lower probability of mobility than any other rank of engineers.