# Professor Petra Moser's joint research on the economic effects stemming from the US' national immigration quota system of the 1920s is spotlighted

1 Faculty News May 4, 2020 ![Medium Logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/mediumlogo192x144.jpg?itok=OLoZh-MQ)>

Excerpt from [Medium](https://gen.medium.com/the-harsh-future-of-american-cities-7263da52fd1f) -- "The closure of borders hit the U.S. with almost immediate effect and lasted for four decades: a 68% plunge in U.S. patents in the fields where the blocked immigrants worked, including electrochemistry, fluid dynamics, and mathematical analysis, according to a recent paper co-authored by [Petra Moser](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/petra-moser), a professor at New York University. The innovation drought continued through 1965 when the Johnson administration’s Immigration Act reopened the country."

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