Winning the Visa Lottery

(aeaweb.org)

28 points | by neehao 2 hours ago

7 comments

  • bambax 50 minutes ago
    > "When policy is politically polarized, you need more facts," he said.

    Mmmm... It seems in the world of politics, esp. populist politics, more facts don't bring better policies. They are simply ignored, or accused of being lies pushed by the ennemies.

    > "We have all the facts on this we need. We don't need any more facts. In the land of truth, my friend, the man with one fact is the king."

    -- Linton Barwick, In The Loop (2009)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdoN1LWGgfQ

    • throwup238 20 minutes ago
      Finally a The Thick of It reference in HN.

      An AUS Utopia reference would probably be more fitting though.

  • HexPhantom 3 minutes ago
    The lottery is what makes this unusually interesting. A lot of immigration/labor studies get stuck on the obvious selection problem: firms that hire immigrant workers are probably different from firms that don't in a dozen other ways.
  • fwlr 42 minutes ago
    The firms who do not win the visa lottery “just become smaller firms” instead of hiring market-rate labor because they still have to compete in a market against other firms who won the visa lottery and have access to below-market-rate labor.

    Did the economists who ran this study miss this? Do they explain it?

    • grubbydiff 24 minutes ago
      Have you gotten a chance to read the paper? If not, you should consider reading it. They have explained it. It's got to do around the fact that domestic labor supply is inleastic but the foreign supply is infinitely elastic. You might want to focus on sections VI and VII for more details around their model and assumptions.
    • emmelaich 28 minutes ago
      AEA leans strongly left. I wouldn't put much store in this.
      • grubbydiff 23 minutes ago
        "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."
    • HexPhantom 0 minutes ago
      [dead]
  • mrjay42 26 minutes ago
    > "Evidence from a US government lottery shows that restricting foreign low-skill workers shrinks businesses without creating jobs for Americans."

    Proving that the issue is capitalism and its systemic need for a reserve army of labour (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_army_of_labour) to pressure people to accept unfair conditions of living/work

  • ralph84 36 minutes ago
    > Cmd-F housing

    > not found

    Yet another chamber of commerce article clamoring for more cheap labor without addressing where all of these people are supposed to live.

    • zanderwohl 23 minutes ago
      It is rather puzzling how this major contributing factor is going overlooked. It seems obvious from ground-level. Economists often talk about how expensive labor drives price increases, but don't talk about how price increases cause expensive labor.
    • grubbydiff 15 minutes ago
      Did you get a chance to read the paper? Did you read Section VII and footnote 51? If so, do you still believe that the article is "clamoring for more 'cheap' labor?"

      And what other issues would you like to see besides housing and employment in the article?

  • aspldez 19 minutes ago
    [flagged]