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Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW. We investigate the effect of mobility of R&D workers on the total patenting activity of their employers. Does the Mobility of R&D Labor Increase Innovation?Our study documents how mobile workers affect the patenting activity of the firm they join and the firm they leave. The effect of labor mobility is strongest if workers join from patent-active firms. We also find evidence of a positive feedback effect on the former employer's patenting from workers who have left for another patentactive firm. Summing up the effects of joining and leaving workers, we show that labor mobility increases the total innovative activity of the new and the old employer. Our study which is based on the population of R&D active Danish firms observed between 1999 and 2004 thus provides firm-level support for the notion that labor mobility stimulates overall innovation of a country or region due to knowledge transfer. JEL-classification: J62, C26Keywords: labor mobility, innovation, research and development, patenting ¶ Financial support from the Danish Social Science Research Council (Forskningsrådet for Samfund og Erhverv) for the research project "Human Capital, Patenting Activity, and Technology Spillovers" and from the EPRN network is gratefully acknowledged. We are indebted to Cédric Schneider for sending us a ready-to-use patent citations database. We thank Ann-Kathrine Ejsing for excellent research assistance.