IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/apandp/v116y2026p351-355.html

OPT Reforms and the Relative Supply of STEM Skills

Author

Listed:
  • Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes
  • Kevin Shih

Abstract

Since the late 2000s, reforms to the optional practical training (OPT) program have allowed international STEM graduates to work in the United States for up to three years after graduation. We study how these reforms affected the supply of STEM skills in the United States. Exploiting the staggered 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2016 STEM-OPT expansions, we find that OPT reforms increased STEM degree completions by 14–15 percent, with gains evident at the bachelor’s and master’s levels. Domestic completions increased as well, suggesting that OPT expansions may have crowded in domestic STEM students rather than crowding them out.

Suggested Citation

  • Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Kevin Shih, 2026. "OPT Reforms and the Relative Supply of STEM Skills," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 116, pages 351-355, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:116:y:2026:p:351-355
    DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20261100
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20261100
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/25230
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/pandp.20261100?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law
    • K37 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Immigration Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:116:y:2026:p:351-355. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.