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Briefing
Understanding the Potential Impact of H-1B Visa Program Changes
A new policy proposal would require firms to pay a one-time fee of $100,000 to hire an immigrant college graduate under the H-1B visa program.The policy would likely reduce the total number of college-educated immigrants in the U.S., with universities as well as companies in the IT sector among organizations most likely affected.Research shows that firms expand when they hire H-1B workers without significantly displacing Americans. Firms might respond to this policy change by offshoring their operations to countries such as Canada or India.
Briefing
The Decline of Student Visas and Its Implications
In the last year and a half, the debate over immigration policy centered on undocumented workers in the U.S. Legal immigration, on the contrary, has not faced significant changes that would directly limit the number of new legal immigrants coming into the country.Despite this being true on the aggregate, a specific visa category does seem to show a significant decrease in numbers: the F-1 student visa, which is the primary visa used by full-time international students. As shown in Figure 1a, issuance of nonimmigrant visa has followed a similar aggregate trend in 2025 as in previous years.
Briefing
College-Educated Immigrants Bolster U.S. Productivity
The United States is the largest destination in the world for college-educated immigrants, but their path to employment in this country has become increasingly difficult during the past decade, a condition that can hinder productivity growth. This brief discusses the main contributions that college-educated immigrants make to U.S. productivity growth, such as providing scarce skills that supplement and complement those of native workers, contributing disproportionately to innovation and promoting job creation in the United States by foreign-based multinational corporations.
Briefing
Can Immigration Help Boost Rural Economies in the Fifth District and Beyond
We examine the role of immigration in rural areas. While immigrants tend to concentrate in urban areas, rural areas also significantly benefit from immigration. Agricultural firms, for example, need to hire many immigrants to help with harvesting crops. Past restrictions to immigration in rural areas haven't proven to be very effective in boosting native worker employment in these areas. First, firms respond to such restrictions by investing in new technologies at the expense of labor. Also, native workers seem unwilling to take many jobs in rural areas, which makes immigrants particularly ...
Briefing
What Makes Supply Chains More Resilient to Economic Shocks?
The recent supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19 lockdowns highlighted the importance of understanding supply chain resilience, which is the extent to which supply chains can resist, adapt to and recover from a sudden economic shock. We analyze the various COVID-19 lockdowns across India to understand which supply chains were more resilient to the lockdown disruptions. Firms that bought more complex products and that transacted with fewer and more important suppliers proved to be more resilient by maintaining buyer-supplier relationships through the lockdowns and exhibiting smaller ...
Briefing
How Much Do Multinational Companies in the U.S. Depend on Immigrant Workers?
Foreign multinational firms that operate in the U.S. hire more immigrants from their home countries than from other countries, in part because they facilitate communication between the parent company and the subsidiaries in the U.S. Restrictions to immigration in the U.S. can cause the relocation of production to countries such as India and Canada. Multinational companies drive a big part of this relocation, since they are more intensive on immigrants.
Briefing
Did U.S. Immigration Policy Influence India’s IT Boom?
We highlight an unintended consequence of U.S. immigration policy for high-skill workers. Indian college students and workers got skills in computer science in the 1990s — a key occupation for innovation and growth — with the prospects of migrating to work in the booming U.S. IT industry. However, many ended up not migrating or returning to India after a short period. These workers helped build the IT sector in India, which grew at outstanding rates in the late 2000s.
Briefing
How Do College-Educated Immigrants Affect US Firms and Workers?
We study the impact of hiring a college-educated immigrant through the H-1B lottery on the performance and hiring behavior of U.S. firms. When firms win the H-1B lottery, they expand in terms of employment and revenues. Lottery winners are also more likely to stay active. The firms that benefit the most from immigrant workers are small, high-productivity firms. A majority of existing workers at the firm benefit from being exposed to an H-1B coworker, but there are interesting dynamics across different types of workers that we further elucidate.
Briefing
Supply Chain Resilience and the Effects of Economic Shocks
Supply chains have long been integral to the U.S. economy, allowing firms to capitalize on specialization and efficiency. However, recent developments like the COVID-19 pandemic, global geopolitical tensions and increasing climate risk have revealed their vulnerabilities as well as their abilities to propagate and amplify economic shocks. In response, firms and policymakers are increasingly focusing on strategies to bolster supply chain resilience. This article explores how economic shocks can propagate through the supply chain, the trade-offs associated with resilience investments, and ...