LAUSR

We examine the effect of changes in skilled-immigrant population shares in 98 Canadian cities on per capita patents. The Canadian case is of interest because its points system’ for selecting immigrants is viewed as a model of skilled immigration policy. Our estimates suggest that the impact of increasing the share of university-educated immigrants on patenting rates is smaller than the impact that both native- borns have in Canada and immigrants have in the U.S. The modest contribution of Canadian immigrants appears to be primarily explained by the fact that only one-third of Canadian STEM-educated immigrants find employment in STEM jobs, compared to two-fifths of the Canadian-born and one-half of U.S. immigrants. Consistent with this, we find a large and significant effect of Canadian STEM-educated immigrants when we also condition on STEM employment. Our results suggest benefits from giving employers a greater role in the selection of skilled immigrants.