A recent study suggests that an executive order, signed by the previous administration in June, which restricted the number of people eligible for non-immigrant work visas, ultimately cost companies a total of $100 billion, according to the Harvard Business Review. The order wound up barring about 200,000 workers around the world, many of whom had advanced degrees, from entering the United States.

The researchers looked at the stock prices of all publicly traded S&P 500 companies before and after the order and found, overall, that market valuations dropped by 0.45 percent in the aftermath of the order, equal to about $100 billion. It then took at least 10 days for these prices to recover to their previous levels. Not all companies bore this burden equally, though: the more a company relied on foreign workers, the more its stock valuation suffered—a drop of 0.5-0.6 percent for the 295 companies that had maintained or increased their reliance on foreign workers in recent years, compared to 0.3 percent for companies that had decreased their reliance on foreign workers. These figures, the researchers believe, indicate a causative link between the executive order and the drop in stock valuation.

With this in mind, the researchers concluded that restricting companies' ability to hire top talent will likely have negative consequences for the economy as a whole.