The Accelerating Decline in America's High-Skilled Workforce: Implications for Immigration Policy

by Jacob Funk Kirkegaard

Overview

Kirkegaard explores the increasingly dysfunctional state of present US high-skilled immigration laws and recommends a coherent set of immediate reforms, which should aim to facilitate continuously high and increasingly economically necessary levels of high-skilled immigration to the United States. In recent decades American skill levels have stagnated and struggled to make the global top 10. As baby boomers retire, the United States risks losing these skills altogether. In response, the United States should address high-skilled immigration in its broader foreign economic policies in an attempt to remain a global leader in the face of accelerating global economic integration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780881324136
Publisher:	Peterson Institute for International Economics
Publication date:	01/01/2008
Series:	Policy Analyses in International Economics Series , #84
Pages:	132
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, senior fellow, has been associated with the Institute since 2002. Before joining the Institute, he worked with the Danish Ministry of Defense, the United Nations in Iraq, and in the private financial sector. He is a graduate of the Danish Army's Special School of Intelligence and Linguistics with the rank of first lieutenant; the University of Aarhus in Aarhus, Denmark; the Columbia University in New York; and received his Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. He is coeditor of Transatlantic Economic Challenges in an Era of Growing Multipolarity (2012), coauthor of US Pension Reform: Lessons from Other Countries (2009) and Transforming the European Economy (2004), and assisted with Accelerating the Globalization of America: The Role for Information Technology (2006).

Table of Contents

Preface     ix
Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction     1
High-Skilled Workers: Stagnating in the United States, Rising Fast in Other Countries?     5
Size and Educational Attainment of Resident US Population     6
Size and Educational Characteristics of Foreign-Born Populations in Rich Countries     15
High-Skilled Workers in Science and Engineering     19
Global High-Skilled Talent: An Increasingly Sought After Resource     26
Current US High-Skilled Immigration System     33
Permanent High-Skilled Immigration     33
Temporary High-Skilled Immigration     39
Welfare Trade-Off, US Software Workers, and Immigration Quotas     55
Welfare Economic Efficiency Versus Equity Trade-Off     55
Software Workers: The Most Affected High-Skilled Americans     58
Matching Employers with Foreign High-Skilled Workers     74
A Reform Package     79
Summary of Findings     79
Implications and Recommendations for Reform     82
Statistical Appendix     91
References     121
Index     127

Editorial Reviews

If you are interested in the prospects for American competitiveness and continued economic leadership, Jacob's study is mandatory reading.

the Atlantic - Clive Crook