Long-Run Effects of H-1B Immigration on the U.S. Economy (July 2026)
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Re: Long-Run Effects of H-1B Immigration on the U.S. Economy (July 2026)
#2 > ABSTRACT
> We study the effects of H-1B immigration on U.S. industries that employ H-1B workers and their trading partners. Using a novel cross-industry design and the 1999–2003 expansion of the H-1B visa cap for identification, we find that H-1B exposure raised incomes for natives and pre-existing immigrants, with gains concentrated in non-STEM occupations. Income gains propagate forward through supply chains to downstream industries but not backward to upstream industries, consistent with a productivity shock rather than a labor supply shock. We find no direct effect on patenting, suggesting that productivity gains arise from better task execution rather than patentable invention.Re: Long-Run Effects of H-1B Immigration on the U.S. Economy (July 2026)
#3[dead]
Re: Long-Run Effects of H-1B Immigration on the U.S. Economy (July 2026)
#4Like anything there is a positive and a negative. It’s certain many incredibly talented people immigrated to America with OPT and H1B. However I have observed abuse with my own eyes of H1B labor outside of the FAANG and similar all stars who don’t have leverage to switch firms within the law and have the money or corporate backing to pay lawyers to dot all the Is and cross all the Ts.
Middle market firms love H1B because you get docile labor who don’t ask for raises. It’s market-warping and needs serious reform
Re: Long-Run Effects of H-1B Immigration on the U.S. Economy (July 2026)
#5Paywalled for me
Re: Long-Run Effects of H-1B Immigration on the U.S. Economy (July 2026)
#6Is it still an issue after Trump imposed a $100000 fee for h1-b applications?
Re: Long-Run Effects of H-1B Immigration on the U.S. Economy (July 2026)
#7Like anything there is a positive and a negative. It’s certain many incredibly talented people immigrated to America with OPT and H1B. However I have observed abuse with my own eyes of H1B labor outside of the FAANG and similar all stars who don’t have leverage to switch firms within the law and have the money or corporate backing to pay lawyers to dot all the Is and cross all the Ts. Middle market firms love H1B bec…
You might’ve seen abuse but it doesn’t mean it’s universal or those people aren’t better off even though they’re being “abused” , which is mostly your opinion else you should’ve reported there employers
Re: Long-Run Effects of H-1B Immigration on the U.S. Economy (July 2026)
#8> ABSTRACT > We study the effects of H-1B immigration on U.S. industries that employ H-1B workers and their trading partners. Using a novel cross-industry design and the 1999–2003 expansion of the H-1B visa cap for identification, we find that H-1B exposure raised incomes for natives and pre-existing immigrants, with gains concentrated in non-STEM occupations. Income gains propagate forward through supply chains to d…
I suspect this topic is too complicated to be truly captured by one such study. But I'll add that the observation of increased income is in line with the predictions of classical economists (e.g Adam Smith) in the case of a growing population. Classical economics says that population growth leads to increased productivity (efficiencies of scale, division of labor) and increased competition for scarce resources (in particular land) and hence that workers typically end up with an absolutely larger but proportionally smaller slice of the growing pie - house and land prices, commercial rents, etc increase at a faster rate than wages (therefore banks, landlords, etc benefit to a much larger extent than workers).
The other conclusions (patents, upstream/downstream) sound more tenuous and subjective. Supply vs productivity shock is also something of a niche/pedantic technical distinction in macroeconomic modelling - in wholistic terms, labor supply and productivity are inherently coupled via the market (a sudden supply of new laborers will lead to a sudden increase in absolute and per-worker productivity - think partial vs total derivatives).
Re: Long-Run Effects of H-1B Immigration on the U.S. Economy (July 2026)
#9Like anything there is a positive and a negative. It’s certain many incredibly talented people immigrated to America with OPT and H1B. However I have observed abuse with my own eyes of H1B labor outside of the FAANG and similar all stars who don’t have leverage to switch firms within the law and have the money or corporate backing to pay lawyers to dot all the Is and cross all the Ts. Middle market firms love H1B bec…
You might’ve seen abuse but it doesn’t mean it’s universal or those people aren’t better off even though they’re being “abused” , which is mostly your opinion else you should’ve reported there employers
you'd have to be pretty naive to think it wasn't common
Re: Long-Run Effects of H-1B Immigration on the U.S. Economy (July 2026)
#10Is it still an issue after Trump imposed a $100000 fee for h1-b applications?
Is what still an issue? This is from the article
> Using a novel cross-industry design and the 1999–2003 expansion of the H-1B visa cap for identification, we find that H-1B exposure raised incomes for natives and pre-existing immigrants, with gains concentrated in non-STEM occupations. Income gains propagate forward through supply chains to downstream industries but not backward to upstream industries, consistent with a productivity shock rather than a labor supply shock.