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Give me your wired and your highly skilled: measuring the impact of immigration policy on employers and shareholders

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  • Carl Lin

    (Beijing Normal University, IZA & Rutgers University)

Abstract

This paper links finance theory to labor economics in the context of migration and immigration policy. Using event analysis, I measure the impact of immigration policy on the firm profits, in particular the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act (ACWIA) of 1998 nearly doubled the available number of H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers in FY 1999. The empirical results show that top H-1B visa user industries enjoyed significant and positive excess returns with the passage of the Act, while industries with little need for H-1B visas experienced no significant changes. Several robustness checks support the results.

Suggested Citation

  • Carl Lin, 2011. "Give me your wired and your highly skilled: measuring the impact of immigration policy on employers and shareholders," Working Papers 2011/17, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    • Handle: RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2011-17
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Andr� Betzer & Markus Doumet & Ulf Rinne, 2013. "How policy changes affect shareholder wealth: the case of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(8), pages 799-803, May.
    2. Lin, Carl, 2011. "Decomposing Excess Returns in Stochastic Linear Models," IZA Discussion Papers 6237, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Lin, Carl, 2012. "Less Myth, More Measurement: Decomposing Excess Returns from the 1989 Minimum Wage Hike," IZA Discussion Papers 6269, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Skilled immigrants; immigration policy; employers; shareholders; event study; H-1B visa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law

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