The H-1B program lets firms hire high-skill foreign workers for a six-year term. The annual number of visas allocated to for-profit firms is capped at 85,000 and there is excess demand for those visas. The analysis merges administrative data, including the I-129 petitions that report the wage...

The US government in 2025 imposed a $100,000 tax on each high-skill foreign worker entering with an H-1B work visa. The only public economic justification calculates the tax to offset an estimated wage penalty for H-1B workers relative to US natives. But this estimate suffers from substantial...

I study how access to foreign-born workers impacts firms and local economics in times of acute crisis. The 2020 H-2B visa lottery randomly gave some U.S. firms the chance to hire low-wage, migrant workers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using administrative data across three...

Using various years of data from the National Survey of College Survey we examine the earnings of work visa immigrants who entered the U.S. during the various H-1B cap periods and whether the cap was binding or not at the time of their entry. For work visa entrants in the non-academic sector as...

The H-1B program lets firms hire high-skill foreign workers for a six-year term. The annual number of visas allocated to for-profit firms is capped at 85,000 and there is excess demand for those visas. The analysis merges administrative data, including the I-129 petitions that report the wage...

Ungeachtet politischer Differenzen zwischen Berlin und Ankara verzeichnete der deutsch-türkische Handel 2022 neue Rekordwerte. Von einer Krise für deutsche Unternehmen, die sich in der Türkei betätigen, kann kaum die Rede sein. Gleichwohl stellen sich zahlreiche Herausforderungen, die mit...

Many immigrant destination countries face considerable pressure to change their immigration policies. One of the most innovative policies is auctioning the right to immigrate or to hire a foreign worker to the highest bidders. Visa auctions would be more efficient than current ways of allocating...

Ungeachtet politischer Differenzen zwischen Berlin und Ankara verzeichnete der deutsch-türkische Handel 2022 neue Rekordwerte. Von einer Krise für deutsche Unter­nehmen, die sich in der Türkei betätigen, kann kaum die Rede sein. Gleichwohl stellen sich zahlreiche Herausforderungen, die mit...

This paper examines the rise of high-skill migration from Asia to the United States over the past three decades and its consequences for both sending and receiving economies. Between 1990 and 2019, migrants from five Asian countries--India, China, South Korea, Japan, and the...

We examine how firms respond to talent scarcity caused by restrictive immigration policies. We argue that when firms cannot build capabilities internally through hiring, they alter their boundaries by engaging in corporate acquisitions to make up for the foregone talent and capabilities. Using...

Although the "tragic choice" framework has not been applied in the context of U.S. immigration law, current immigration policy is rife with tragic choices, defined as a commitment by policy elites to maintaining certain illusions which shield from public view tough policy choices that offend...

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...

We examine how increasing the number of visas available to potential migrants would affect unauthorized immigration from Mexico to the U.S. Current U.S. policy bans people who are deported from receiving legal status for a period of time. This policy aims to serve as an additional deterrent to...

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...

Recent immigration policies have created massive uncertainty for international students to obtain F-1 visas. Yet, before the COVID-19 pandemic, student visa applicants already faced an approximately 27 percent refusal rate that varies by time and region. Using data on the universe of SAT takers...

"The Diversity Immigrant Visa Program is a lottery that awards winners from underrepresented countries the chance to apply for legal permanent resident status in the United States. The program serves as one of the main migration pathways for Africans entering the country, yet despite its long...

We examine how increasing the number of visas available to potential migrants would affect unauthorized immigration from Mexico to the U.S. Current U.S. policy bans people who are deported from receiving legal status for a period of time. This policy aims to serve as an additional deterrent to...

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...

Visas are an important means for countries to regulate incoming mobility flows. Past datasets and quantitative research on visas have focused on visa waivers, ignoring the fact that visas, where demanded, can vary greatly by cost. This paper presents a novel dataset based on a manual collection...

In the United States, rural and low-income communities have difficulty attracting and retaining physicians, potentially adversely impacting health outcomes. With a limited supply of physicians completing medical school at US universities, foreign-born and educated physicians provide a potential...

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...

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...

In 2015 the Obama Administration authorized temporary work permits for the spouses of H-1B visa holders who were awaiting green cards. Over 90,000 of these H-4 visa holders have since received a work permit,1 known as an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), and three-fourths of them are...

"In the years immediately after World War II, the United States broadcast to the world not just its power but its values. Sam Lebovic here focuses on one of those professed ideals: the free flow of information. That trope became a proxy for America's special brand of imperial democracy, and it...

Discusses the changes to the minimum age to establish an application for a visas for a spouse or partner from 18 years to 21 years, commenting on its role in preventing exploitation and forced marriages. Examines: (1) the development of the reasons for the changes, outlining the proposals of a...

Introduction. The Anatomy of State-Imposed Dependence -- The Visa Regime: Indian Migration and the Interplay of Race and Gender -- Model Migrants and Ideal Workers: How Visa Laws Penalize and Control -- Beholden to Employers: Gendered and Racialized Dependence -- At Home: Dependent Spouses and...