Ugh.
I am gearing up for some high skill immigration work. A media interview (!!!!) on Thursday and a briefing paper with my regular co-authors. This sort of treatment of sane researchers is disheartening.
There are a lot of DC policy wonk types (although Teitelbaum isn't in DC anymore) that feel a sense of entitlement and are obnoxious to be around. Teitelbaum is nothing of the sort, he's very focused on getting to the truth of the matter, and he's anything but a political operative. He's one of those guys that's great to be around as a young researcher because he takes you seriously, is interested in what you have to say, and treats you like you're competent enough to understand what he has to say.
I'm kind of curious as to how you define shortages for the purposes of that sort of research. My understanding of immigration restrictions is that it would shift the supply curve to the left, so I wouldn't expect to ever see a shortage in the traditional sense of more quantity demanded than quantity supplies at the prevailing price level. I would just expect the price to go up. But if that is going on and that is the definition of a shortage in use, then talking about shortages is kind of nonsensical and we should talk about prices.
ReplyDeleteIt is very hard to ever see a shortage "in the traditional sense" simply because of how we conceive of the problem - which is what you're getting at. At the same time, I haven't seen convincing evidence that we should abandon that way of thinking about things.
DeleteWhat would be nice to have is job opening data on detailed scientific fields. Presumably this is available out there. The problem is STEM graduates do a lot more than just take technical jobs, so I'm not exactly sure how one would work with scientific job openings.
My view is that price increases that lead to an increase in supply and then a moderation of prices (which we see a lot of), are signs of temporary shortage that is dealt with slowly because of time-to-train.
It's not an easy concept to operationalize which is precisely why I don't think it's particularly helpful for people to obsess over.
I was an STEM graduate (physics, math, computer science). I could easily have gone to grad school but I went into law instead to make more money. I expect that many good STEM graduates make similar choices. The call for high skill immigration is really an attempt to drive down American wages for high skill workers which will in the ordinary course of things drive high skill Americans out of STEM and into other fields.
ReplyDeleteAlso, drive down the cost of what high-skill workers produce.
DeleteHow about we just repeal everything prior to and including the Page Act of 1875? That's prolly too much to ask I guess.
ReplyDelete