Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your High-Skilled Labor: H-1B Lottery Outcomes and Entrepreneurial Success

Stephen Dimmock, Jiekun Huang and Scott Weisbenner

No 26392, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study how access to high-skill labor affects the outcomes of start-up firms. We obtain exogenous variation in firms’ ability to access skilled labor by using win rates in H-1B visa lotteries. Relative to other firms that also applied for H-1B visas, firms with higher lottery win rates are more likely to receive additional venture capital funding and to have a successful exit via an IPO or acquisition. H-1B visa lottery winners also subsequently receive more patents and patent citations. Overall, our results show that access to high-skill labor is a critical determinant of success for start-up firms.

JEL-codes: D22 G24 G32 J23 J24 J61 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cfn, nep-ent, nep-ino and nep-lab
Note: CF LS PE PR
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published as Stephen G. Dimmock & Jiekun Huang & Scott J. Weisbenner, 2022. "Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your High-Skilled Labor: H-1B Lottery Outcomes and Entrepreneurial Success," Management Science, vol 68(9), pages 6950-6970.

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