– The Immigration Act changed natives’ skill investment and utilization in three ways: (1) it pushed black males out of STEM majors; (2) it pushed white male STEM graduates out of STEM occupations; and (3) it pushed white female STEM graduates out of the workforce.
– High-skilled foreigners provide considerable benefits to receiving countries, but may also create unintended consequences by altering the human capital investment and utilization of natives. In particular, growing the foreign STEM workforce may crowd natives out of STEM fields during college and STEM occupations later in their careers. These adverse effects may also be disproportionately felt by women and minorities.
– While increasing the foreign STEM workforce likely benefits the U.S. overall, it imposes substantial costs on black males, so that net gains/losses are not equally distributed. Black males, who are already disadvantaged in the labor market in many dimensions, bear a disproportionate burden.
– Results are imprecisely estimated but are suggestive of some adverse income effects, especially for black male college graduates and black and white female STEM graduates.
2016 - Do Foreigners Crowd Natives out of STEM Degrees and Occupations? Evidence from the U.S. Immigration Act of 1990
2009-2014 American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS annually surveys one percent of the U.S. population. They focus on three separate effects of the Immigration Act of 1990: (1) college major choice of natives directly after the policy was enacted; (2) occupational choice of natives roughly 20 years after the policy; and (3) employment rate of natives roughly 20 years after the policy.
Their primary analysis focuses on cohorts four years before and after the treatment to isolate the effects of IA90.
DVs: (1) graduating with a four-year college degree in a STEM field; (2) working in a STEM occupation during the 2009-2014 ACS reference period; and (3) employed in any occupation during the 2009-2014 ACS reference period.
IVs: Foreign STEM exposure, which measures an individual’s exposure to increased foreign STEM workers resulting from IA90, birth-state, gender, race, year age 18, age, and survey year. Time varying state controls include log cohort size, the state unemployment rate, and log median household income measured for an individual’s birth state in the year they were age 18. State trends include birth-state-specific linear trends for year age 18.