Falling Behind? Boom, Bust, and the Global Race for Scientific Talent
Channel: Economic Policy Institute
Date: 2014-05-08

Is the United States falling behind in the global race for scientific and engineering talent? Are U.S. employers facing shortages of the skilled workers they need to compete in a globalized world? Such claims from some employers and educators have been widely embraced by mainstream media and political leaders, and have figured prominently in recent policy debates about education, federal expenditures, tax policy, and immigration. Silicon Valley companies and tech industry trade groups in particular have lobbied and claimed publicly in the context of the immigration reform debate that they face a severe shortage of U.S. workers in many science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. But what does the evidence show?

In his new book, Falling Behind? Boom, Bust, and the Global Race for Scientific Talent, Michael Teitelbaum, a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School, former Vice President of the Sloan Foundation, and a former member of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform (the Jordan Commission), carefully examines the existing evidence and its use by the various actors involved in these debates.

Please join the Economic Policy Institute on Thursday, May 8 from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., to hear Teitelbaum present the findings of his new book. He will be joined by Robert Charette (President of the ITABHI Corporation, contributing editor to IEEE Spectrum magazine and author of the "Risk Factor" blog) and Jonathan Rothwell (Senior Research Associate and Associate Fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution), who will offer comments in response to Falling Behind? A discussion and question and answer session will follow, moderated by Daniel Costa, EPI's Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research.