The Impact of Immigration on Firms and Workers: Insights from the H-1B Lottery

Parag Mahajan, Nicolas Morales (), Kevin Y. Shih (), Mingyu Chen () and Agostina Brinatti ()
Additional contact information
Nicolas Morales: Richmond Fed
Kevin Y. Shih: University of California, Riverside
Mingyu Chen: IZA
Agostina Brinatti: University of Michigan

No 16917, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study how random variation in the availability of highly educated, foreign-born workers impacts firm performance and recruitment behavior. We combine two rich data sources: 1) administrative employer-employee matched data from the US Census Bureau; and 2) firmlevel information on the first large-scale H-1B visa lottery in 2007. Using an event-study approach, we find that lottery wins lead to increases in firm hiring of college-educated, immigrant labor along with increases in scale and survival. These effects are stronger for small, skill-intensive, and high-productivity firms that participate in the lottery. We do not find evidence for displacement of native-born, college-educated workers at the firm level, on net. However, this result masks dynamics among more specific subgroups of incumbents that we further elucidate.

Keywords: immigration; firm dynamics; productivity; H-1B visa; high-skilled migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2024-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-int, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Impact of Immigration on Firms and Workers: Insights from the H-1B Lottery (2024)
Working Paper: The Impact of Immigration on Firms and Workers: Insights from the H-1B Lottery (2024)
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