Early patterns of skill acquisition and immigrants’ specialization in STEM careers

Marcos A. Rangel () and Ying Shi
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Marcos A. Rangel: Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019, vol. 116, issue 2, 484-489

Abstract: We provide empirical evidence of immigrants’ specialization in skill acquisition well before entering the US labor market. Nationally representative datasets enable studying the academic trajectories of immigrant children, with a focus on high-school course-taking patterns and college major choice. Immigrant children accumulate skills in ways that reinforce comparative advantages in nonlanguage intensive skills such as mathematics and science, and this contributes to their growing numbers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers. These results are compatible with well-established models of skill formation that emphasize dynamic complementarities of investments in learning.

Keywords: STEM; immigration; skill acquisition; dynamic complementarity; comparative advantage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nas:journl:v:116:y:2019:p:484-489

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