The Effects of High-Skilled Immigration Policy on Firms: Evidence from Visa Lotteries

Kirk Doran, Alexander Gelber () and Adam Isen ()
Additional contact information
Alexander Gelber: University of Pennsylvania
Adam Isen: U.S. Department of the Treasury

No 15146, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We compare winning and losing firms in lotteries for H-1B visas, matching administrative data on these lotteries to administrative tax data on U.S. firms and to approved U.S. patents. Winning one additional H-1B visa crowds out about 1.5 other workers at the firm. Additional H-1Bs have insignificant and at most modest effects on firm innovation. More general evidence from the universe of U.S. firms and the universe of H-1B visas using alternative estimation strategies is consistent with these results. Firms that hire H-1Bs grow faster and innovate more because they are different in other ways from firms that do not.

Keywords: innovation; highly skilled workforce; immigration; employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J00 J08 J15 J23 J24 J48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2022-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-dem, nep-lab, nep-mig, nep-sbm and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Published - published in: Journal of Political Economy, 2022, 130 (10), 2501–2533

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Effects of High-Skilled Immigration Policy on Firms: Evidence from Visa Lotteries (2022)
Working Paper: The Effects of High-Skilled Immigration Policy on Firms: Evidence from Visa Lotteries (2014)
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