The Gift of Global Talent: Innovation Policy and the Economy

William R. Kerr

Chapter in NBER book Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 20 (2020), Josh Lerner and Scott Stern, editors (p. 1 - 37)
Conference held April 16, 2019
Published in December 2019 by University of Chicago Press
© 2020 by the National Bureau of Economic Research
in NBER Book Series Innovation Policy and the Economy

Talent is the most precious resource for today’s knowledge-based economy, and a significant share of the U.S. skilled workforce in technology fields is foreign born. The United States has long held a leading position in attracting global talent, but the gap to other countries is weakening. Immigration policies like the H-1B visa program shape the admissions of foreign workers to the country and grant a particularly strong gatekeeping role to sponsoring firms and universities. This chapter explores the data around global talent flows and some of the economic implications of an employer-driven immigration approach.

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1086/705637