In deliberating whether to pursue an undergraduate education in the US, a foreign student takes into consideration the expected probability of securing US employment after graduation. The H-1B visa provides a primary means of legal employment for collegeeducated foreign-nationals. In October...

In deliberating whether to pursue an undergraduate education in the US, a foreign student takes into consideration the expected probability of securing US employment after graduation. The H-1B visa provides a primary means of legal employment for college-educated foreign-nationals. In October...

For-profit firms are limited in their ability to hire new, foreign-born, highly-educated workers after quotas on H-1B work permits are met each year, though they are able to hire existing H-1B workers. Universities and other non-profit research institutions do not face the same restrictions....

Many workers with low levels of educational attainment immigrated to the United States in recent decades. Large inflows of less-educated immigrants would reduce wages paid to comparably-educated native-born workers if the two groups are perfectly substitutable in production. In a simple model...

We use a gravity model of migration and alternative estimation strategies to analyse how income differentials affect the flow of immigrants into U.S. states using annual data from the American Community Survey. We add to existing literature by decomposing income differentials into short- and...

The H-1B program allows highly-educated foreign-born labor to temporarily work in the United States. Quotas restrict the number of labor force entrants, however. In many years, all available work permits were allocated by random lottery. This paper argues that an alternative distribution method...

Economic debate about the consequences of immigration in the US has largely focused on how influxes of foreign-born labor with little educational attainment have affected similarly-educated native-born workers. Fewer studies analyze the effect of immigration within the market for highly-educated...

The H-1B program allows firms in the United States to temporarily hire high skilled foreign citizens. The government restricts foreign labor inflows and therefore generates potential rents typical of a quota. However, the US allocates H-1B status by random lottery. We develop a theoretical model...

Many workers with low levels of educational attainment immigrated to the United States in recent decades. Large inflows of less educated immigrants would reduce wages paid to comparably-educated native-born workers if the two groups are perfectly substitutable in production. In a simple model...

Highly-educated foreign-born workers can secure legal US employment through the H-1B program. The annual cap on H-1B issuances varies across individuals' US educational experience, H-1B work history, and employer type. Caps are met quickly in most but not all years. This paper exploits these...