About the Scholar: Junming Ren grew up in Hong Kong and attends The Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, USA.
The Research:
The proposed RAISE Act would greatly reduce the number of visas available to immigrants to the United States and add a skills-based points system to increase the average immigrant skill level, assuming that the majority of American immigrants are unskilled. This paper presents an economic analysis, based on the theories of supply and demand, of whether the Act is likely to achieve its goal of increasing American workers’ wages. It concludes that wages might improve but technological progress could slow, and notes that the ethical aspects of the legislation should also be considered.
