“Research Funding and the Foreign Born”
There has been a resurgence of interest in the link between immigration and economic activity. The evidence suggests that US education plays an important role in both attracting and retaining high-quality foreign-born students. This is particularly true in the case of doctorates trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), a workforce that is disproportionately foreign born and likely to contribute to long-term economic growth. Because of this, much effort is given toward attracting talented students and retaining them in the US workforce after they complete their studies. However, little is known about how that attraction and retention works. In this paper we use new data to examine the role of an important policy lever-research funding—in keeping both domestic and foreign-born workers in the US labor market.
