The Changing Career Outcomes of Scientists and Engineers in Academe:

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The Changing Career Outcomes of Scientists and
Engineers in Academe
The Role of Immigrants

• Sharon G. Levin, Grant C. Black, Anne E. Winkler,
  Paula E. Stephan

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Acknowledgments

• This work was supported by the Alfred P. Sloan
  Foundation, the Andrew Young School of Policy
  Studies, and the Graduate School and College of
  Arts and Sciences at the University of
  MissouriSt. Louis. Professors Levin and Stephan
  are members of the Network on the Scientific
  Workforce administered by the National Bureau of
  Economic Research with resources provided by the
  Sloan Foundation.

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Background

• The United States has experienced a significant
  expansion in the number of doctoral degrees
  awarded in science and engineering (SE) over the
  past three decades.

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Background

• New doctorates, especially in the biosciences,
  are experiencing difficulty in obtaining
  permanent positions in academe the number of
  temporary positions, especially postdocs, have
  proliferated.

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Background

• The growth in U.S.-trained SE doctorates in the
  United States has largely been fueled by foreign
  citizens.

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The Research Question

• Are immigrant doctorates in SE displacing their
  citizen counterparts from positions in academe,
  especially the choice permanent positions
  within academe?

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Methodology Data

• To measure displacement, we pose the following
  counterfactual...

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Methodology Data

• What would have happened to employment of
  U.S.-citizen (immigrant) SE doctorates if their
  employment had grown at the overall growth rate
  for all SE doctorates combined, regardless of
  citizenship status?

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Methodology Data

• We then compare the actual employment growth in a
  specific sector (ACADEME, NONACADEME, OTHER) of a
  specific citizenship group (citizen or
  immigrant) with the amount predicted using the
  counterfactual.

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Methodology Data

• Data are from the 1973-1997 Survey of Doctorate
  Recipients.
• ACADEME refers to those individuals who are
  either employed full-time or hold a postdoctoral
  position in a university, four-year college, or
  medical school.

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Methodology Data

• Data are from the 1973-1997 Survey of Doctorate
  Recipients.
• NONACADEME refers to those individuals who are
  either employed full-time or hold a postdoctoral
  position in other sectors of the economy.

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Methodology Data

• Data are from the 1973-1997 Survey of Doctorate
  Recipients.
• OTHER refers to all else including those who
  are employed part-time, unemployed, or students
  pursuing additional degrees.

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Interpreting the Analysis

• There are two reasons why we may observe, for
  example, that employment growth for citizens in
  academe is smaller than predicted given the
  counterfactual

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Interpreting the Analysis

• First, the citizen share of SE doctorates may
  have declined (the minting effect).

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Interpreting the Analysis

• Second, citizens may have experienced slower
  employment growth in academe than in other
  sectors (the competitive effect).

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Interpreting the Analysis

• Thus, to determine whether displacement has
  occurredwhether citizens have fared relatively
  poorly compared to their immigrant counterparts
  in academe, we subtract the immigrant competitive
  effect from the citizen competitive effect (both
  measured in percentage terms to adjust for the
  difference).

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Results displacement from and within academe

• Over the period 1979-1997, with few exceptions
  and all quite small, both immigrant and citizen
  SE doctorates lost employment share in academe
  relative to other sectors.
• Both groups had negative competitive effects in
  this sector.

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Results displacement from and within academe

• For each field, and without exception, the
  competitive effects are larger in absolute value
  for citizens than for immigrants thus citizens
  have been displaced.

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Results displacement from and within academe

• Displacement is greatest for citizens in the
  mathematical/computer sciences and in the
  biological sciences.

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Displacement from ACADEME, 1979-1997
Competitive Effects Competitive Effects Displacement
Citizens Immigrants Displacement
All Fields Combined -13.9 -6.8 -7.1
Engineering -16.3 -8.8 -7.5
Life Sciences -11.4 -0.7 -10.7
Biological Sciences -12.8 0.8 -13.6
Physical Sciences -19.6 -8.2 -11.4
Earth/Environmental 0.0 1.3 -1.3
Chemistry -16.3 -5.5 -10.8
Math/Computer -29.4 -14.6 -14.9
Physics and Astronomy -31.1 -22.9 -8.2
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Results displacement from and within academe

• Most of the displacement of citizens from
  academe, however, can not be attributed to their
  lack of success in holding full-time faculty,
  especially permanent, tenure-track positions.
  This is not true, however, in physics and
  astronomy.

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Displacement from ACADEME, 1979-1997
From broad sector ACADEME From Tenure-track faculty (PERM) From temporary positions (TEMP)
From broad sector ACADEME From Tenure-track faculty (PERM) From temporary positions (TEMP)
All Fields Combined -7.1 -0.6 -6.5
Engineering -7.5 -1.0 -6.5
Life Sciences -10.7 1.6 -12.3
Biological Sciences -13.6 0.8 -14.4
Physical Sciences -11.4 -4.0 -7.4
Earth/Environmental -1.3 14.1 -15.4
Chemistry -10.8 3.8 -14.6
Math/Computer -14.9 -3.2 -11.7
Physics and Astronomy -8.2 -6.2 -2.0
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Implications

• Some U.S.-citizen-scientists have likely paid for
  society-wide gains that immigration has fostered
  in U.S. science by having been involuntarily
  displaced from positions in academe.

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Implications

• But the costs have probably been mitigated by
  the pull of positions outside academe in
  certain fields.

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