October 1st, 2026 (9:00-10:00 AM, SGT, Online)
Visa Policy, Global Education and Labor Markets
(Zhangchi Ma, Duke University, Labor and Education)
We study how tightening post-study work visa policy jointly shapes international students' decisions of where to study and where to work. We leverage the 2012 UK visa reform, which abolished a two-year unconditional post-study work visa with the aim of curbing low-skilled stay, to quantify how sensitive Indian master's students' education choices are to labor-market access in the destination country. Using a novel longitudinal panel of LinkedIn profiles, we first document the sharp enrollment and stay-rate decline for UK master's programs after the policy. Applying a difference-in-differences design, we further causally identify the effect of the policy shock on students' enrollments. To interpret this response and separate its channels, we then develop a two-stage dynamic model of education and post-graduation work choices. The model attributes most of the decline in bachelor-degree labor supply to the reform’s direct effect, which also drives a sharp decline in student enrollment and thereby indirectly reduces the supply of advanced-degree foreign workers. Our results highlight how a reform targeting low-skill employment can generate adverse spillovers across skill groups, directly reducing bachelor-degree labor supply and indirectly leading to losses of advanced-degree talent.
When: During AY 2026/27: Tentatively for Friday, 2:00 to 3:00 pm (SGT).
Mode: Online, onsite, or hybrid. We can adapt to the presenter's preference.
For who: PhDs and junior scholars at any stage of their work, from any university.