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Performance and job creation among self-employed immigrants and natives in Sweden

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  • Emma Neuman

    (Linnaeus University)

Abstract

This paper uses individual-level panel data for all self-employed in the retail and service sectors to study how immigrant- and native-owned firms perform and contribute to job creation in Sweden. We use an individual fixed-effects model to explore how self-employment outcomes among immigrants and natives evolve with self-employment experience. The advantage of our approach is that it enables estimations of the returns to self-employment experience while controlling for unobservable time-constant individual factors. The results show that profits increase with self-employment experience and at a faster rate among immigrant men and women than for their native counterparts. Turnover and the likelihood of having employees both increase with experience and in a similar magnitude for immigrants and natives.

Suggested Citation

  • Emma Neuman, 2021. "Performance and job creation among self-employed immigrants and natives in Sweden," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 403-425, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:56:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s11187-019-00223-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-019-00223-z
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Immigrant businesses; Job creation; Performance; Self-employment; Self-employment experience;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

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