Foreign Students in College and the Supply of STEM Graduates

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Anelli, Massimo; Shih, Kevin; Williams, Kevin
• 署名单位: Bocconi University; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; City University of New York (CUNY) System; Occidental College
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/719964
• 发表日期: 2023
• 关键词: international students; Educational outcomes; immigration affect; natives; performance; classroom; CHOICE; PRODUCTIVITY; COMPETITION; CHILDREN

摘要

Do foreign students affect the likelihood that domestic students obtain a STEM degree and occupation? Using administrative student records from a US university, we exploit idiosyncratic variation in the share of foreign classmates in introductory math classes and find that foreign classmates displace domestic students from STEM majors and occupations. However, displaced students gravitate toward high-earning social science majors, so their expected earnings are not penalized. We explore several mechanisms. Results indicate that displacement is concentrated in classes where foreign classmates possess weak English language ability, suggesting that diminished in-class communication and social interactions might play an important role.