The Impact of Skilled Foreign Workers on Firms: an Investigation of Publicly Traded U.S. Firms
Many U.S. businessmen are vocally in favor of an increase in the number of H-1B visas. Is there systematic evidence that this would positively affect firms' productivity, sales, employment or profits? To address these questions we assemble a unique dataset that matches all labor condition applications (LCAs) - the first step towards H-1B visas for skilled foreign-born workers in the U.S. - with firm-level data on publicly traded U.S. firms (from Compustat). Our identification is based on the sharp reduction in the annual H-1B cap that took place in 2004, combined with information on the degree of dependency on H-1B visas at the firm level as in Kerr and Lincoln (2010). The main result of this paper is that if the cap on H-1B visas were relaxed, a subset of firms would experience gains in average labor productivity, firm size, and profits. These are firms that conduct R&D and are heavy users of H-1B workers - they belong to the top quintile among filers of LCAs. These empirical findings are consistent with a heterogeneous- firms model where innovation enhances productivity and is subject to fixed costs.
Year of publication: |
2014
|
---|---|
Authors: | Ghosh, Anirban ; Mayda, Anna Maria ; Ortega, Francesc |
Publisher: |
London : Centre for Research & Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London |
Saved in:
freely available
Series: | CReAM Discussion Paper Series ; 42/14 |
---|---|
Type of publication: | Book / Working Paper |
Type of publication (narrower categories): | Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Other identifiers: | RePEc:crm:wpaper:1442 [RePEc] |
Source: |
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014532694
Saved in favorites
Similar items by person
-
The Impact of Skilled Foreign Workers on Firms: An Investigation of Publicly Traded U.S. Firms
Ghosh, Anirban, (2014)
-
The impact of skilled foreign workers on firms : an investigation of publicly traded US firms
Ghosh, Anirban, (2014)
-
The Impact of Skilled Foreign Workers on Firms : An Investigation of Publicly Traded U.S. Firms
Ghosh, Anirban, (2014)
- More ...