The IT Boom and Other Unintended Consequences of Chasing the American Dream

CASI Seminar

(with Nicolas Morales)

in partnership with the South Asia Center & PDRI-DevLab

Gaurav Khanna
Associate Professor of Economics, School of Global Policy and Strategy, UC San Diego
Center for the Advanced Study of India
Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science & Economics
133 South 36th Street, Suite 230
Philadelphia PA 19104-6215

About the Lecture:
Prof. Gaurav Khanna studies how US immigration policy and the Internet boom led to a tech boom in India. Students and workers in India acquired computer science skills to join the rapidly growing US IT industry. As the number of US visas was capped, many remained in India, enabling the growth of an Indian IT sector that eventually surpassed the US in IT exports. He leverages variation in immigration quotas and US demand for migrants to show that India experienced a “brain gain” when the probability of migrating to the US was higher. Using detailed data on higher education, alumni networks, and work histories of high-skill workers, he shows that changes in the US H-1B cap induced changes in fields of study, and occupation choice in India. The H-1B program induced Indians to switch to computer science occupations and helped drive the shift in IT production from the US to India.

About the Speaker:
Gaurav Khanna is an Associate Professor of Economics at UCSD’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development, and an Editor at the Journal of Labor Economics. His research focuses on development and labor economics. Many of his current projects examine migration, education policy, infrastructure, public-works programs, and conflict. Prof. Khanna grew up in India and majored in Economics at the University of Delhi. He received his MSc from the University of Oxford and PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan. 

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The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.