Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/295518 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
CReAM Discussion Paper Series No. 10/15
Publisher: 
Centre for Research & Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London, London
Abstract: 
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. Using difference in- difference methodology, this paper estimates the marginal value of an accepted H-1B job offer - in the form of wages - at for-profit firms after quotas have been met. Lower-bound estimates suggest a 1% wage premium with the largest differences occurring in the first month after meeting the quota. At least some of these effects are attributable to wage increases within narrowly-defined groups of workers during years in which available H-1B permits are quickly exhausted. These results provide indirect evidence that H-1B workers are imperfectly substitutable with other labor sources.
Subjects: 
Skilled Workers
H-1B Work Permit
Immigration
Difference-in-Difference
JEL: 
J61
F22
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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