TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction - Ina Ganguli, Shulamit Kahn, Megan MacGarvie
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226695761.003.0001
[high-skilled immigratuon;foreign students;STEM workforce;innovation;immigrant entrepreneurship;immigrant poily;return migration;location preferences;economics of science]
Understanding labor markets for workers with specialized training in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is essential for learning about the drivers of innovation and economic growth, yet these labor markets are complex and their dynamics are not fully understood by economists. Recent decades have seen increasingly important roles for the foreign-born in the US STEM workforce and among recipients of advanced degrees at US universities. Given the potential for STEM workers to contribute to the economic growth and continued prosperity of the United States, and in the context of the current public debate about immigration, it is important to understand what affects the supply of these workers. This volume provides evidence on the economic impacts of immigration on the STEM workforce. The chapters examine the location choices of innovative workers and return migration; the relationship between immigration and innovation with regard to initial inflows of migrants; and the relationship between high-skilled immigration and entrepreneurship, with contributions related to immigrant entrepreneur networks and contrasting immigrant and native PhDs’ entrepreneurship. (pages 1 - 14)
This chapter is available at:
University of Chicago Press
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Return Migrants’ Self-selection: Evidence for Indian Inventors - Stefano Breschi, Francesco Lissoni, Ernest Miguelez
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226695761.003.0002
[immigration;innovation;inventor data;aptent data]
Based on an original dataset linking patent data and biographical information for a large sample of US immigrant inventors with Indian names and surnames, specialized in ICT technologies, we investigate the rate and determinants of return migration. For each individual in the dataset, we both estimate the year of entry in the United States, the likely entry channel (work or education), and the permanence spell up to either the return to India or right truncation. By means of survival analysis, we then provide exploratory estimates of the probability of return migration as a function of the conditions at migration (age, education, patenting record, migration motives, and migration cohort) as well as of some activities undertaken while abroad (education and patenting). We find both evidence of negative self-selection with respect to educational achievements in the US and of positive self-selection with respect to patenting propensity. Based on the analysis of time-dependence of the return hazard ratios, return work migrants appear to be negatively self-selected with respect to unobservable skills acquired abroad, while evidence for education migrants is less conclusive. (pages 17 - 48)
This chapter is available at:
University of Chicago Press
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Will the U.S. Keep the Best and the Brightest (as Post-docs)? Career and Location Preferences of Foreign STEM PhDs - Ina Ganguli, Patrick Gaulé
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226695761.003.0003
[foreign students;doctoral education;academica;chemistry;STEM;career prerences;location preferences;hypothetical choices]
We estimate the career and location preferences of students in U.S. doctoral programs in a major STEM field—chemistry. Our analysis is based on novel survey conducted in 2017 of 1,605 current Chemistry doctoral students enrolled in the top 54 U.S. research intensive universities. First, we estimate the career preferences of foreign and U.S. STEM students for different types of post-graduation jobs—postdocs, industry, or teaching positions—using both hypothetical choice methods and more standard Likert measures of preferences for different careers. We find that foreign students are generally more interested in academic careers than U.S. students, even when controlling for ability and comparing students from similar subfields and programs. Next, we estimate students’ location preferences using a hypothetical choice method: we ask respondents to choose between two postdoc job offers, where one offer is in the U.S. and one is abroad. We find that foreign students have a stronger preference for U.S. locations even after controlling for ability and career preferences. Our results suggest the U.S. is managing to retain talented foreign graduate students for postdoc positions. (pages 49 - 70)
This chapter is available at:
University of Chicago Press
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
High-Skill Immigration, Innovation, and Creative Destruction - Gaurav Khanna, Munseob Lee
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226695761.003.0004
[H-1B visa;product reallocation;Schumpeterian growth]
The effects of high-skill immigration on receiving countries are theoretically ambiguous. Skilled migrants may increase the profitability and innovative capacity of the firm, but they may crowd out domestic workers and lower the wages of close substitutes. What has been missing is a discussion about how migrants may affect the product-mix produced by a firm and the innovation involved in creative destruction. Economists have identified product entry and exit as a primary channel through which innovation impacts economic growth. In this paper, we document how high-skill immigration affects product reallocation (entry and exit) at the firm level. Using data on H-1B Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) matched to retail scanner data on products and Compustat data on firm characteristics, we find that H-1B certification is associated with higher product reallocation and revenue growth. A ten percent increase in the share of H-1B workers is associated with a two percent increase in product reallocation rates—our measure of innovation. These results shed light on the economic consequences of innovation by high-skill immigrants to the United States. (pages 73 - 98)
This chapter is available at:
University of Chicago Press
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
New Data and Facts on H-1B Workers across Firms - Anna Maria Mayda, Francesc Ortega, Giovanni Peri, Kevin Shih, Chad Sparber
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226695761.003.0005
[H-1b;visas;skilled mirgration;I-129 petitions;firms;compustat;computer-related occupations;IT consulting firms;STEM;labor condistion applications]
Using administrative USCIS data on approved I-129 petitions we summarize trends in H-1B employment between 1997 and 2012. We show that total annual petition counts in our micro data closely match USCIS-published records of aggregate issuances overall, by occupation, and by country of origin. We use string-matching techniques to build a longitudinal company-level dataset, of roughly 400,000 companies, for approved petitions, distinguishing between petitions for initial and continuing employment. These data show increased concentration of H-1B workers, with a 150% increase in the share of new initial-employment H-1Bs awarded to the top-20 petitioning firms between 2008 and 2012, and an increasing role played by global IT consulting companies. We match our dataset on approved H-1B petitions to Compustat data on all publicly traded companies. The data show that roughly 42% of Compustat companies had at least one approved petition during our sample period. We find firms using the H-1B program are larger on average and have higher growth rates than non-users. We show the expanding number of H-1Bs in the business services sector after 2008 is largely driven by greater use of H-1B workers (relative to overall employment in the industry), as opposed to growth in the industry’s size. (pages 99 - 122)
This chapter is available at:
University of Chicago Press
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Immigration and Invention: Does Language Matter? - Kirk Doran, Chungeun Yoon
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226695761.003.0006
[immigration;languages;innovation;cities;quotas;migration]
Economists have noted that linguistically diverse immigrant flows might have a particularly large impact on innovation and creativity, through the introduction and combination of new perspectives, information, and habits (Alesina and La Ferrara 2005). On the other hand, if innovation depends on communication, and communication depends on a common language, then linguistically uniform immigration flows may have the largest impact on innovation. In this paper, we make use of features of the 1920s U.S. immigration quotas that caused some of the “missing immigrants” to be absent from cities which had many residents who happened to speak their language, while other “missing immigrants” were absent from cities which had few residents who spoke their language. The resulting changes in innovation are consistent with a U-shaped curve for the effect of linguistic diversity on the innovativeness of a society. Too much linguistic diversity creates a “tower of babel” effect, in which people have unique things to talk about but no common language. Too little linguistic diversity creates a homogeneous population, in which people have a common language but nothing unique to share. The optimal amount of linguistic diversity for a creative society appears to be somewhere in between. (pages 123 - 146)
This chapter is available at:
University of Chicago Press
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Innovation in the U.S. High-Tech Sector - J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Mee Jung Kim, Kyung Min Lee
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226695761.003.0007
[immigration;entrepreneur;innovation;high-tech;patent]
We estimate differences in innovation behavior between foreign versus U.S.-born entrepreneurs in high-tech industries. Our data come from the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, a random sample of firms with detailed information on owner characteristics and innovation activities. We find uniformly higher rates of innovation in immigrant-owned firms for 15 of 16 different innovation measures; the only exception is for copyright/trademark. The immigrant advantage holds for older firms as well as for recent start-ups and for every level of the entrepreneur’s education. The size of the estimated immigrant-native differences in product and process innovation activities rises with detailed controls for demographic and human capital characteristics but falls for R&D and patenting. Controlling for finance, motivations, and industry reduces all coefficients, but for most measures and specifications immigrants are estimated to have a sizable advantage in innovation. (pages 149 - 172)
This chapter is available at:
University of Chicago Press
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Immigrant Networking and Collaboration: Survey Evidence from CIC - Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226695761.003.0008
[immigrants;networking;advice;entrepreneurs;inventors;start-up employees;ventruing;co-working;agglomeration]
Networking and the giving and receiving of advice outside of one’s own firm are important features of entrepreneurship and innovation. We study how immigrants and natives utilize the potential networking opportunities provided by CIC, formerly known as the Cambridge Innovation Center. CIC is widely considered the center of the Boston entrepreneurial ecosystem. We surveyed 1,334 people working at CIC in three locations spread across the Boston area and CIC’s first expansion facility in St. Louis, MO. Survey responses show that immigrants value networking capabilities in CIC more than natives, and the networks developed by immigrants at CIC tend to be larger. Immigrants report substantially greater rates of giving and receiving advice than natives for six surveyed factors: business operations, venture financing, technology, suppliers, people to recruit, and customers. The structure and composition of CIC floors has only a modest influence on these immigrant versus native differences. (pages 173 - 206)
This chapter is available at:
University of Chicago Press
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Are Foreign STEM PhDs More Entrepreneurial? Entrepreneurial Characteristics, Preferences, and Employment Outcomes of Native and Foreign Science and Engineering PhD Students - Michael Roach, Henry Sauermann, John Skrentny
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226695761.003.0009
[international PhD students;science and engineering workforce;entrepreneurship;career preferences;science policy;immigration policy;economics of science]
Research shows immigrants to the U.S. contribute to innovation and are more likely than natives to become startup founders. This may reflect labor market conditions and constraints related to visa regulations, or individual attributes such as ability or preferences for risk. Despite progress in understanding immigrant entrepreneurs, little attention has been paid to startup employees who “join” founders in their entrepreneurial efforts. We draw on unique longitudinal data from over 5,600 foreign and native STEM PhD students at U.S. research universities to examine entrepreneurial characteristics and career preferences prior to graduation, and founding and employment outcomes after graduation. We find that foreign PhD students differ from native PhD students with respect to individual characteristics typically associated with entrepreneurship including risk tolerance, preference for autonomy, and interest in commercialization. Foreign PhD students are more likely to express interest in becoming a founder or a startup employee before graduation, but they are less likely to become founders or startup employees in their first industry job after graduation. More nuanced analyses show these patterns hold primarily for foreign PhDs from China and India, while foreign PhDs from Western countries are similar to native PhDs with respect to career interests and employment outcomes. (pages 207 - 228)
This chapter is available at:
University of Chicago Press
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
