为什 么美国移民对全球科学发展至关重要.pdfVIP

I. Introduction While talent can be born anywhere, few places specialize in nurturing it. Accordingly, talented individuals have pursued opportunities abroad for centuries. For instance, Aristotle moved from Northern Greece to Athens to attend Plato’s Academy, and then to Macedonia to tutor a young Alexander the Great. More recently, the U.S. has emerged as a hub for foreign talent, playing an outsized role in the global knowledge network of scientific activity in recent decades. However, the recent introduction of restrictive immigration policies in the U.S. may adversely impact scientific activity. While studies have examined the potential adverse impact of restrictive U.S. immigration policies on U.S. competitiveness in science and innovation (e.g. Lowe 2020), there has been less focus on understanding how U.S. immigration barriers may in turn impact scientific activity globally. In this context, this paper studies the impact of U.S. immigration barriers on global knowledge production, and examines which policy actions are more likely to help advance the global knowledge frontier. The quantitative impact of immigration barriers on global science and on worldwide cross- border flows remains an under-studied question, mainly due to the difficulty of collecting and linking data on migration and scientific production on a global scale. Yet, examining the impact of U.S. immigration barriers on the global advancement of science appears both essential and timely—especially given the potentially large consequences of immigration flows for global innovative activity.1 Individuals from developing countries who show similar talent as youth from advanced countries are less able to contribute to advancing the global knowledge frontier during their lifetime, suggesting large scientific gains can be achieved