Students from China Are Essential for America
An appropriately curated student visa policy in vital research fields like AI and quantum can combine careful risk management with common sense. The benefits to the U.S. will last for generations.
A recent poll showed that 88 percent of American voters worry that the rapid pace of Beijing’s technological advancements will give China military superiority over the U.S. One way to make sure that this dire prediction comes true is to ban Chinese and other foreign students and researchers from studying here.
Try to imagine the Manhattan Project without German refugee scientists like Hans Bethe, or another refugee from an Axis power, Enrico Fermi. Or try to imagine America’s ballistic missile program, including the moonshot, without German scientists like Wernher von Braun. There are times when scientists and researchers from other countries, even nominally hostile ones, can be crucial to the development and maintenance of America’s technological edge.
There are plenty of reasons for America to be concerned about China, including its command-and-control government, its technology theft and its inequitable trading practices. The arrest in June of two Chinese student researchers from the University of Michigan, for allegedly smuggling biological pathogens into the U.S., underlines the importance of making sure that Chinese students and scientists aren’t getting into our country in order to do us harm.
Economic Dynamism
The Causal Effect of News on Inflation Expectations
This paper studies the response of household inflation expectations to television news coverage of inflation.
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The Rise of Inflation Targeting
This paper discusses the interactions between politics and economic ideas leading to the adoption of inflation targeting in the United States.
Do We Still Really Need the Bureau of Labor Statistics?
It is time for the monthly story of the labor market to be told more clearly, and more reliably, through data from other sources.
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Creating Affordable Housing Requires Just One Simple Legislative Change
For nearly 50 years, federal, state, and local governments have tried to improve housing affordability without addressing the core issue of high construction costs.
Will California Reform Its Broken Housing Policies?
California's reforms could lead to a more diverse mix of housing developments, particularly in the middle and lower-price segments.
