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U.S. Immigration and Policy Brain Waste

Author

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  • Ayoung Kim
  • Brigitte S. Waldorf
  • Natasha T. Duncan

Abstract

The U.S. H-1B visa for highly-skilled immigrant labor and the accompanying H-4 visa for their dependents leads to structural constraints that exclude dependents from the labor force. Identifying H-1B recipients from the U.S. Census and American Community Surveys, we find that—despite the labor force exclusion—the vast majority of married H-1B recipients is accompanied by their spouses. This is particularly the case for male H-1B recipients, making wives rather than husbands carry most of the burden. Using a matched sample of married immigrants with work authorization, we estimate counterfactual labor force participation probabilities and wages for the sample of dependent H-4 spouses. We find that the policy-imposed labor force exclusion of H-4 spouses leads to substantial losses of spouses’ earnings and annual aggregate productivity loss of over US$2.1 billion.

Suggested Citation

  • Ayoung Kim & Brigitte S. Waldorf & Natasha T. Duncan, 2017. "U.S. Immigration and Policy Brain Waste," Working papers 262884, Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:puaewp:262884
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.262884
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Keywords

    Labor and Human Capital; Political Economy; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods;
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