Does Scientist Immigration Harm US Science? An Examination of Spillovers / Ajay Agrawal, John McHale, Alex Oettl.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Agrawal, Ajay.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

McHale, John.

Oettl, Alex.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w24519.

NBER working paper series no. w24519

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.

Summary:

The recruitment of foreign scientists enhances US science through an expanded workforce but could also cause harm by displacing better connected domestic scientists, thereby reducing localized knowledge spillovers. We develop a model in which a sufficient condition for the absence of overall harm is that immigrant scientists generate at least the same level of localized spillovers as the domestic scientists they displace. To test this condition, we conduct an experiment in which each immigrant hypothetically displaces an appropriately matched domestic scientist. Overall, we do not find evidence that immigrant scientists harm US science by crowding out better-connected domestic scientists.

Notes:

Print version record

April 2018.