Abstract
The United States continues to become a haven for international students who not only seek educational opportunities but employment avenues after completing their foreign education. With immigration policies which benefit students depending on their status as a STEM or non-STEM student, literature and data suggest that there are significant variations in earning among these groups. However, is this disparity fueled by other underlying factors which perhaps go beyond what one studies? In this paper, I study how earning outcomes are impacted for internationals who study in the United States especially when compared with their domestic counterparts after the 2016 OPT extension. I theorize that, the OPT extension reduces the earning disparity between internationals and U.S-born natives. To test this, I construct a panel dataset of different areas of undergraduate study in the U.S from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) and OpenDoors. Using a triple difference estimator, I find that while earnings increase for STEM fields with a high presence of international students after 2016 it is not statistically significant. This paper draws attention to the interesting dynamic between policy and earnings when considering international presence across various academic fields of study.
Advisor
Long, Melanie
Department
Economics
Recommended Citation
Adjei-Sah, Sam, "Earnings in Another's Land: An Exploration of the 2016 OPT Extension on Earning Outcomes for International Students in the United States" (2024). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 10983.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/10983
Disciplines
Income Distribution | Labor Economics | Macroeconomics
Publication Date
2024
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis
© Copyright 2024 Sam Adjei-Sah