Are Immigrants the Most Skilled US Computer and Engineering Workers?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hunt, Jennifer
• 署名单位: Rutgers University System; Rutgers University New Brunswick; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/678974
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: S39-S77
• 关键词: earnings; INNOVATION; visa

摘要

Using the American Community Surveys, I examine the wages of immigrant computer and engineering workers. Immigrants' higher education gives them a wage advantage over natives, an advantage larger for computer than for engineering workers, and larger in occupation-based samples than in education-based samples. Among holders of engineering degrees, immigrants earn less than natives, penalized by a high return to English proficiency. The results suggest that imperfect English may reduce their occupational advancement, or an unobserved factor may reduce both occupational advancement and the incentive to perfect English. In all samples, top immigrants from the highest-income countries far outearn top natives.