TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kerr,William R.
AU  - Lincoln,William F.
TI  - The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and US Ethnic Invention
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15768
PY  - 2010
Y2  - February 2010
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15768
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15768.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
William R. Kerr
Harvard Business School
Rock Center 212
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Tel: 617/496-7021
E-Mail: wkerr@hbs.edu

William Lincoln
University of Michigan
Economics Department
107 Lorch Hall
611 Tappan St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220
Tel: 781-710-5709
E-Mail: wlincoln@jhu.edu
AB  - This study evaluates the impact of high-skilled immigrants on US technology formation.  We use reduced-form specifications that exploit large changes in the H-1B visa program.  Higher H-1B admissions increase immigrant science and engineering (SE) employment and patenting by inventors with Indian and Chinese names in cities and firms dependent upon the program relative to their peers.  Most specifications find limited effects for native SE employment or patenting.  We are able to rule out displacement effects, and small crowding-in effects may exist.  Total SE employment and invention increases with higher admissions primarily through direct contributions of immigrants.
ER  -