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Supporters of expanding the existing EB-5 visa program to permit green cards to qualified foreign entrepreneurs, as well as investors, are citing a recent study that depicts a job market that relies on increased hiring from the nation’s top companies.

Authors of a study released on Tuesday by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation argue that job creation and economic development could be more efficiently accomplished by creating a favorable environment for high-growth entrepreneurial enterprises.

According to the report, in any given year, the top-performing 1 percent of U.S. companies produces about 40 percent of all new jobs in the country.

“Because fast-growing young firms account for a disproportionate share of the net job creation, policy makers who are worriedly pouring over unemployment projections might instead seek to foster the creation of more high-growth firms,” said Robert Litan, vice president of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation.

Some analysts believe that the StartUp Visa Act of 2010, which was recently introduced in the Senate, works to this end by expanding the EB-5 visa program and offering green cards to immigrants who can raise at least $250,000 to create their own U.S.-based firm.

The current EB-5 visa lends itself to foreign nationals who can invest at least $500,000 in an existing U.S. business.