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LABOR MARKET OPENNESS, H‐1B VISA POLICY, AND THE SCALE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN THE UNITED STATES
Author(s) -
Shih Kevin
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/ecin.12250
Subject(s) - openness to experience , scale (ratio) , demographic economics , economics , political science , international economics , geography , psychology , social psychology , cartography
International students have long comprised an important part of U.S. higher education. However, little is known regarding the factors that encourage students from across the world to enroll in U.S. colleges and universities each year. This paper examines the relationship between international enrollment and the openness of the United States' skilled labor market, currently regulated by the H‐ 1B program. Gravity regressions reveal that H‐ 1B visa issuances to a country are positively and significantly related to the number of international students from that country. Causal estimates of the impact of labor market openness are achieved by exploiting a dramatic fall in the H‐ 1B visa cap in October 2003. Triple difference estimates show that the fall in the cap lowered foreign enrollment by 10%. ( JEL F22, I21, J11)