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AnonTechie writes:

U.S. patents increased by 31 percent in fields common among Jewish scientists who fled Nazi Germany for America, according to Stanford economist Petra Moser. Their innovative influence rippled outward for generations, as the emigres attracted new researchers who then trained other up-and-comers. Anecdotal accounts suggest that the arrival of German Jewish emigres to America who were fleeing the Nazi regime in the 1930s revolutionized U.S. science and innovation.

But this claim has never been empirically confirmed until now, thanks to new research by a Stanford economist. Petra Moser, an assistant professor of economics at Stanford, found that the number of U.S. patents increased by 31 percent after 1933 in fields common among those who emigrated from Germany, according to her research paper. In fact, these scientists and inventors led a transformation of American innovation in the post-World War II period.

"German Jewish emigres had a huge effect on U.S. innovation," Moser said in an interview. "They helped increase the quality of research by training a new generation of American scientists, who then became productive researchers in their own rights."