title: Immigration boosts innovation and wages in the US. The positive dynamic impact of immigration on innovation and wages dominates the short-run negative impact of increased labor supply. Increased immigration to the US since 1965 is estimated to have increased innovation and wages by 5%.
author: u/smurfyjenkins
contenttype: redditpost
publication: r/science
published: 2026-02-27T18:12:04+00:00
sourceurl: https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/1rge9nl/immigrationboostsinnovationandwagesintheus/
word_count: 329
Link: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20211601
Score: 461 | Comments: 248 | Subreddit: r/science
Top Comments
u/PhD_Pwnology (135 pts):
It's worth noting that 'short-run negatives' of increased labor supply is actually a long-term issue for many of those workers who can't afford training to pivot industries, and boosts to innovation and increased wages are felt most by the highly educated white collar workers and executives who are not often being replaced by immigrant labor.
u/Franc000 (14 pts):
Who gets the positives and who gets the negatives? One being bigger than the other is not the whole story.
u/EconomistWithaD (48 pts):
This is on the upper end of the wage-immigration spectrum, but there is some growing evidence of a positive relationship between immigration and even lower wage natives.
https://www.nber.org/papers/w32389
That said, there is likely diminishing returns, based on composition and number of immigrants.
u/QueefiusMaximus86 (40 pts):
While I don't doubt immigration boost innovation, I am skeptical on the increase in wages. Not because of immigration impacting wages (I think the suppression of wages is cause by other factors), but because I am skeptical of the way the CPI is calculated and how real wage adjustments are made to say wages have increased. For example the CPI does not really capture housing/medicare/education costs correctly.
How the percentage of housing costs, medical care, education in relation to median incomes has gotten worse over the decades and it's not related to immigration.
u/RedditUserNo1990 (29 pts):
It depends on who you’re bringing in. Let’s not sit here and pretend ALL immigration is good, it’s not.
bringing in smart, talented, people who are net tax payers into the system - that’s a great thing and we should be open to that.
u/LSDcapybara (23 pts):
Tell that to the entry level college grads who can’t find a job because of H1B scab labor lmfaooo
u/jack-K- (16 pts):
What kind of immigration?
u/DoDrinkMe (20 pts):
Yet wages haven’t kept up with cost since 1970s when the baby boomers came to working age and flooded the labor market
u/plankmeister (30 pts):
Now do the same for illegal immigration.
u/sunlit_portrait (8 pts):
So for 5% increased innovation I get to live in a worse society that has lost a lot of its customs, morals, cohesion, and culture? Where do I sign up (not that I have a choice, though).
u/allthatglittersis___ (14 pts):
Illegal immigration has allowed drug and sex trafficking to run wild and has increased crime.
Legal immigration gave us NVIDIA, Tesla, Space X, and much more
u/New-Distribution6033 (6 pts):
How can the measure if immigrants boost immigration? Where's the control? There isn't any.
All thise jobs you see asking for a 4 year degree, 10 years experience and work for minimum wage? When no one applies, they import the labor at the advertised price.
And the AEA is a conservative org, and conservatives just love their immigrants, as more immigrants means lower pricing.