Green Cards, Patents, and Firm Value

This is the first study to use the approved Green Card Applications (or Certified Permanent Residency Applications) from the Program Electronic Review Management (PERM) database, and the first to link the PERM database to patents database kept by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). We find that the number of approved permanent residency applications (perms, as a percentage of total employment) has a positive impact on firms' value and growth opportunities proxied by Tobin's Q (TQ). Specifically, a 1% increase in perms lead to a 15-20% increase in firm value. Although we were not able to confirm that more green cards lead to more innovation, we discover that more innovation gets firms more Green Cards. We find that a 1% increase in the patent variable (patents as a percentage of total employment) lead to a 0.03% increase in Green Card Approvals. Our findings carry importance for US policy makers, firms, investors, and academics