A new study, "Skilled Immigration and Innovation: Evidence from Enrollment Fluctuations in U.S. Doctoral Programs," argues that when scholars are drawn from across the world, they bring complementary skills and ideas that aid research.

An article in Inside Higher Ed writes that "the paper's researchers analyzed a database of American and foreign doctoral students at 2,300 science and engineering departments in the U.S. from 1973 to 1998. They looked at how many publications were produced each year and at the number of citations garnered by the papers. If a department had 10 foreign students from five different global regions, it would on average produce 0.76 more publications and win 28.65 more citations a year than one where the international students hailed from just two regions, the research found."

To read the article in Inside Higher Ed, please go to: www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/12/14/study-finds-scientific-benefits-labs-are-internationally-diverse#ixzz2F37CFfHV.  

The report is published in the December edition of The Economic Journal and can be downloaded at: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2012.02543.x/abstract.