The RFBerlin Applied Economics Seminar series brings leading researchers to Berlin to share their latest work and engage with our community. We are pleased to welcome Shulamit Kahn (Boston University’s Questrom School of Business) for this session, where she will share her research.
Shulamit Kahn is Professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, where she has been since 1987. She is an expert on women and STEM, and has recently published on this topic (in Oxford Handbooks, Science, Frontiers in Psychology, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Academic Medicine, Journal of Economics Perspectives, and a related article in Nature Biotech.).
Event Topic:
Salaries, Selection and Location Choices of US-trained International STEM PhDs
with Caroline Fry and Megan MacGarvie
Historically, the US has been a prominent destination for international STEM PhDs, attracting top talent and retaining many graduates. However, increasing research opportunities in home countries, restrictive US visa policies, and less stable US political conditions raise concerns about whether this will continue. Here, we integrate economic migration models with rich data (2010-21) on newly-minted PhD scientists – their “ability” (measured by university ranks, publications), worldwide salaries, job sectors, motivations, and country of origin characteristics, to quantify the tradeoffs associated with their past location decisions. We present results on salary differences between those locating in the US and other countries and regions, on average and controlling for sector, field etc. We investigate which countries pay more for STEM PhDs with greater “ability” relative to what they pay for those with less. We then study the location decision, whether to locate in the US, in their home countries, or in third countries. We calculate how this decision depends on characteristics of the countries of origin, job sectors, fields, demographics and preferences, and how the decision differs among those with different ability. Among country characteristics, we consider the impact of political stability in home countries relative to those in the US.
Event Details:
Date: 17 June 2025
Time: 14:00–15:15
Participation: the seminar is open to the public and targeted to an academic audience.
If you have any questions or need further information, feel free to contact us using the form or email us at [email protected]
