Mark Regets

2.3K posts

Mark Regets

Mark Regets

@markregets

Economist who researches and writes about immigration, higher ed, and STEM labor markets. 'Retired' from NSF's NCSES, continuing to write for IZA and NFAP.

North Bethesda, MD انضم Kasım 2012
799 يتبع438 المتابعون
Mark Regets أُعيد تغريده
Sam Peak
Sam Peak@SpeakSamuel·
I actually don't think this is an accurate characterization of immigration policy under the Biden Admin. If I had to describe it, the admin gave the immigration advocates a bunch of superficial messaging victories (overturning policies that Trump stopped using, like Remain in Mexico and Safe Third Country agreements) while keeping in place the policies that Trump was actually using (Title 42). This created the worst of both worlds where migrants (and the media) mistook these regulatory formalities as actual policy change when policy did not actually change. At that time, everyone knew what Remain in Mexico was, but nobody knew what Title 42 was. But Remain in Mexico didn't actually matter at that point. Title 42 was the only tool Trump was using to control the border. From day one, Biden lost control of his messaging and, by extension, lost control over the border.
Sam Peak tweet media
Leah Libresco Sargeant@LeahLibresco

"Liberals have failed to diagnose the real driver of migration: the pull factor created by our broken asylum system, which takes far too long to decide cases and has over time become the most generous labor pathway." searchlightinstitute.org/research/no-mo…

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Mark Regets أُعيد تغريده
Cato Institute
Cato Institute@CatoInstitute·
Immigrants are making us more productive and wealthier—and ultimately, that results in more tax payments, says the Cato Institute’s @David_J_Bier. He discussed immigration on “Why Is This Happening?” podcast with @chrislhayes. ➡️ ow.ly/YUMk50YwWS1
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Mark Regets
Mark Regets@markregets·
@JeremyLNeufeld @stanveuger Most H1B IT employment is NOT with the so-called outsourcing firms. And a huge chunk is not even IT. Also, IT outsourcing was the business model pioneered by Ross Perot, and adopted by many firms because it was efficient. I am not as prepared to condemn it as many are.
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Jeremy Neufeld
Jeremy Neufeld@JeremyLNeufeld·
Are they really though? I’m not sure I see huge spillovers coming from the IT outsourcing sector. Even if you increased the number of visas, I’m not sure I want the new numbers going going to IT staffing companies paying less than market wages when there are higher-paying employers out there It’s only artificial in the sense that we don’t (and shouldn’t) have open borders. What’s your limiting principle here?
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Stan Veuger
Stan Veuger@stanveuger·
I don’t think any of the folks who promoted a bigger role for salaries in how H-1Bs are assigned pushed for this system, but I also don’t think any of them warned this is what such a system might look like and what the unintended consequences would be. Despite that their advocacy for a more active federal role in selecting immigrants appears to continue unabated.
Sam Peak@SpeakSamuel

The Trump Admin's H-1B weighted lottery rule is prone to being rigged. The new lottery will give the highest paid people in a given occupation more lottery entries. The problem? Employers can reclassify the occupation they're hiring for. A software developer making $130k gets 2 lottery entries. But if the employer classifies that person as a computer systems analyst, they get 3 lottery entries. Overall, reclassification could reduce the expected wage gains from the rule by 42.2%. budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/p/2026-03-04-h…

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Mark Regets
Mark Regets@markregets·
For a variety of reasons, there are millions of people in America legally who are forbidden to work. In some cases, there are legitimate policy concerns behind the ban (we don't want phony students just coming for a job). Other cases are just pure labor protectionism. Even in the areas of legitimate concern, I think we should make it easier for people to work.
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Alexander Kustov
Alexander Kustov@akoustov·
I appreciate the honesty, because few people defend employment bans openly. But think about what you're proposing: accept people, pay to house and feed them, forbid them from contributing, and then hope they leave. This produces the worst possible outcome on every dimension.
Emil Kirkegaard@KirkegaardEmil

@akoustov The point of that is to keep them contained so they don't commit crime all over the place and hopefully leave when their country cools down. Asylum is supposed to be temporary.

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Mark Regets أُعيد تغريده
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@ReichlinMelnick·
This is what the Trump admin is doing to a guy who has done nothing wrong; a man who was brought here as child, who grew up in this country, who graduated college with STEM degrees, married a U.S. citizen, is raising a family, and is working hard. It's unconscionable.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick tweet media
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Mark Regets
Mark Regets@markregets·
@cojobrien I am also worried about the biomed postdocs at universities and research institutes—they primarily have PhDs from foreign institutions, so they also would be subject to the fee.
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Mark Regets أُعيد تغريده
NewDem Action Fund
NewDem Action Fund@VoteNewDems·
"Tonight, Melissa Bean proved once again that New Dems deliver." -- NDAF Chair @gregstantonaz Read his full statement on the Illinois primaries:
NewDem Action Fund tweet mediaNewDem Action Fund tweet mediaNewDem Action Fund tweet media
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Mark Regets أُعيد تغريده
John Nevelten
John Nevelten@NeveltenJohn·
I define "political moderate" as someone who takes into account the VALID concerns of all sides. That is different from splitting the difference. We SHOULD respectfully listen to sincere concerns, but on immigration very few are empirically valid.
David J. Bier@David_J_Bier

The sophisticated empirical arguments against immigration are disproven, but all the objections that matter most politically are just complete nonsense that you don't need any complex analysis to reject: -On crime: They increase crime *levels*! -On economics: They took our jobs! -On budgets: They consume >$0 in benefits! -On politics: Illegal aliens elected Biden! -On assimilation: They speak foreign languages! -On legality: They should all just come legally!

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Mark Regets
Mark Regets@markregets·
The reason economists know the Slutsky equation by that name (sometimes called Hicks-Slutsky) was that Hicks credited him with it after rediscovering it nearly 20 years later. Slutsky had published during WWI in an obscure Italian journal (writing in Italian). I am far from perfect at this myself, but this has always struck me as the proper standard for a lit review.
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Megan Stevenson
Megan Stevenson@MeganTStevenson·
Huh. It seems weird that someone would fail to know about and cite eight prior papers showing almost the same thing. But maybe it was harder to do literature reviews pre-Internet age?
Cesar Chavez@CesarChavezP29

In 1994, Imbens and Angrist published a 9-page paper in Econometrica formalizing LATE. It helped win them the Nobel. But what was happening in other fields at the same time? At least 8 groups, across economics, biostatistics, and epidemiology,t arrived at the same idea independently between 1983 and 1994. New essay on parallel discoveries in causal inference: carloschavezp29.substack.com/p/late-for-the…

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David J. Bier
David J. Bier@David_J_Bier·
Many conservatives are remembering how Paul Ehrlich was wrong about all his enviro-pessimism and supposed constraints on growth, but all those views are the same concerns that fuel the anti-immigrant movement. Zero sum. Fixed pie. Misanthropy. People as "takers," not makers.
Iain Murray@ismurray

Let us not forget that for years Paul Ehrlich was an adviser to the anti-immigrant group FAIR, and is therefore partly responsible for the current anti-immigrant hysteria. This also may be the first time I have ever cited SPLC... splcenter.org/resources/extr…

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Mark Regets@markregets·
@Gianpattention @akoustov By Homeland Security's own estimates, we had about 15 years of net zero illegal migration starting in 2007.
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Gianpaolo
Gianpaolo@Gianpattention·
@markregets @akoustov When was there a period of 0 net illegal migration? you mean 60+ years ago?
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Alexander Kustov
Alexander Kustov@akoustov·
It's now increasingly common for conservative politicians and orgs to explicitly oppose legal immigration. As someone long annoyed by the "I just oppose ILLEGAL MIGRATION" line, I've changed my mind: sincere or not, it was a key norm that protected legal immigration from attack
Alexander Kustov tweet media
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Mark Regets@markregets·
@akoustov "Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue" is an old saying. I generally agree, but in this specific case I am a bit cynical about its calculated use.
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Alexander Kustov
Alexander Kustov@akoustov·
Right. But if you view it as a social norm, it arguably had a protective effect even if it was insincere among some or even most of those who claimed to support it. The same thing is happening with free speech now. Most people were probably hypercritical in claiming to support it, but now some don't even pay lip service to it anymore, which is not great.
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Mark Regets
Mark Regets@markregets·
@cojobrien Discrimination against blacks harmed white workers. The same is true about discrimination by sex, religion, or citizenship. Ultimately all American workers are best served if employers are able to hire the best person for the job. It helps the entire economy.
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Connor O’Brien
Connor O’Brien@cojobrien·
Obviously not true that “no American was qualified,” nor is declaring that part of the H-1B process. ASU and other employers aren’t making sweeping claims about Americans. They have job openings they’re looking to fill w/ the best candidates. Sometimes those are foreign-born.
Chris Brunet@chrisbrunet

Arizona State University (@ASU) just posted a notice of intent to hire a H-1B software engineer Salary: $107,100 No American software engineer in Arizona was qualified for this job.

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Mark Regets
Mark Regets@markregets·
@akoustov In doing comparative bibliometrics across scientific fields, it becomes very clear that "preprints" dominate published refereed articles in computer science and some fast moving subfields in other sciences. (NSF and NRC were my "day jobs" when not doing immigration).
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Alexander Kustov
Alexander Kustov@akoustov·
I should say I feel for the authors though. They did legit experiments and ran through the legit peer-review process. Too bad it's not relevant anymore apart from some historical curiosity.
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Mark Regets
Mark Regets@markregets·
Don't forget the 36% of homes in 1950 that did not have "complete plumbing" (hot and cold water, bathtub/shower, and flush toilet).
Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦@JessicaBRiedl

Not pictured in this silly image of 1950s America: ☑️ That this house is probably 1000 square feet, lacks AC, and a washer/dryer. ☑️Those kids own 6 outfits and a small number of toys. ☑️ The family takes no vacations beyond the local lake and goes out to eat once every 2 months. ☑️ One gas-guzzling car, one black & white TV with 3 channels, no long-distance phone calls. ☑️ Ignore the suit, the husband probably does back-breaking work in a dirty factory with no health or disability benefits. ☑️ The wife's make-up covering bruises from her husband getting drunk and hitting her the night before. ☑️ The wife’s liquor stash to handle the stultifying boredom of being a housewife when she wanted a career. ☑️The female high school senior pressured to marry her jerk high school boyfriend because marriage is her only path out of her home. ☑️ The daughters having fewer education and career opportunities, no sports teams at school, and having to wear uncomfortable clothes. ☑️ The African American family on the other side of town stuck in a terrible, low-paying job, awful schools, and suffering vicious racism with few civil rights. ☑️ The (not too) local Asian, and Hispanic families also facing terrible discrimination and lack of opportunities. ☑️ The Jewish family taking their teenage son to the hospital after getting jumped after school by some antisemitic classmates. ☑️ The disabled child who just bikes around the block all day because there is no community infrastructure to help them thrive. ☑️The LGBT kids who stayed in the closet until age 17, when they were discovered, assaulted, and disowned by their parents. ☑️ Health & safety risks from polio, rampant smoking, pollution, more fatal cancers, and lack of seatbelts. And the Korean war. The 1950s were terrific for some – particularly suburban white male breadwinners – but not for a lot of other types of people who never appear in these idealized fake photos. We've some made progress on some of these variables since then. We should be celebrating that progress! (and working for more).

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Mark Regets أُعيد تغريده
American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC)
American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC)@AmericanBIC·
Recent studies, including from @NFAPResearch, @sffed and @DallasFed, show that reducing immigration does not help U.S.-born workers. As foreign-born workers declined in 2025–2026, unemployment rose and labor force participation fell. Immigrants are essential for labor force growth, productivity, and entrepreneurship. Shortages in sectors like construction and manufacturing have caused delays, higher costs, and lost business. Research finds that mass deportation offers minimal wage gains for U.S.-born workers, while long-term economic growth suffers. “These results suggest…U.S. employment growth is likely to face continued downward pressure as long as the ongoing declines in unauthorized immigrant worker flows continue,” said the Federal Reserve researchers. forbes.com/sites/stuartan…
American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) tweet media
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اكتشف

@David_J_Bier @chrislhayes @JeremyLNeufeld @stanveuger @cojobrien @gregstantonaz @mattyglesias @Gianpattention