Why we should not auction off all H1-B visas

I am fine with auctioning off some of them, but it should not be the dominant allocation mechanism.  The visas work best when they support young talents who are unproven and perhaps liquidity constrained.  Sundar Pichai was not a big star when he received his H1-B.

How about the business paying?  Well, that is hard for a lot of start-ups.  McKinsey, the employer who got Sundar his visa, might have coughed up the 100k, but Sundar did not stay there very long, only about two years.  Which is what you might expect from the most talented, upwardly mobile candidates.  That will discourage even well-capitalized businesses from making these investments, or they might try to lock in their new hires more than is currently the case.

So a pure auction mechanism probably is not optimal here, even though again it is fine to auction off some of the slots.