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What Makes an Entrepreneur and Does It Pay? Native Men, Turks, and Other Migrants in Germany

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Author Info
Constant, Amelie (University of Pennsylvania and IZA Bonn)
Shachmurove, Yochanan (City University of New York and University of Pennsylvania)
Zimmermann, Klaus F. () (IZA Bonn, University of Bonn and DIW Berlin)

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the entrepreneurial endeavors of immigrants and natives in Germany. We pay closer attention to Turks, since they are the largest immigrant group with a strong entrepreneurial tradition, and the self-employed Turks in Germany represent about 70% of all Turkish entrepreneurs in the European Union. We identify the characteristics of the selfemployed individuals and understand their underlying drive into self-employment. At the same time we investigate how immigrant entrepreneurs fare in the labor market compared to natives. Employing data from the German Socioeconomic Panel 2000 release we find that the probability of self-employment increases significantly with age for all groups albeit at a decreasing rate. Among immigrants, Turks are twice as likely to choose self-employment as any other immigrant group. The age-earnings profiles of self-employed German and immigrant men are concave and surprisingly similarly shaped. While for self-employed German men hours of work and Treiman prestige scale scores increase their earnings, for self-employed immigrant men it is the longevity of the business that makes a difference. Everything else equal, the earnings of self-employed Turks are no different than the earnings of the self-employed Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, ex-Yugoslavs, Polish or other East Europeans, including those immigrants who have become German citizens.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 940.

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Length: 38 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2003
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp940

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Related research
Keywords: entrepreneurship; self-employment; occupational choice; immigrants; wage differentials;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Taylor, Mark P, 1996. "Earnings, Independence or Unemployment: Why Become Self-Employed?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 58(2), pages 253-66, May.
  2. Basu, Anuradha, 1998. " An Exploration of Entrepreneurial Activity among Asian Small Businesses in Britain," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 313-26, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Borooah, Vani K & Hart, Mark, 1999. " Factors Affecting Self-Employment among Indian and Black Caribbean Men in Britain," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 111-29, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. George J. Borjas, 1986. "The Self-Employment Experience of Immigrants," NBER Working Papers 1942, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew & Stutzer, Alois, 2001. "Latent entrepreneurship across nations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 680-691, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Le, Anh T, 1999. " Empirical Studies of Self-Employment," Journal of Economic Surveys, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 13(4), pages 381-416, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Clark, Kenneth & Drinkwater, Stephen, 1998. "Ethnicity and Self-Employment in Britain," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 60(3), pages 383-407, August.
  8. Taylor, Mark P, 2001. "Self-Employment and Windfall Gains in Britain: Evidence from Panel Data," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(272), pages 539-65, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Wagner, Joachim & Sternberg, Rolf, 2002. "Personal and Regional Determinants of Entrepreneurial Activities: Empirical Evidence from the REM Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 624, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  10. Lofstrom, Magnus, 1999. "Labor Market Assimilation and the Self-Employment Decision of Immigrant Entrepreneurs," IZA Discussion Papers 54, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  11. Lecker, Tikva & Shachmurove, Yochanan, 1999. "Immigration and Socioeconomic Gaps: Theory and Applications," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 31(5), pages 539-49, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Zimmermann, Klaus F, 1995. "Tackling the European Migration Problems," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 45-62, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Evans, David S & Leighton, Linda S, 1989. "Some Empirical Aspects of Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(3), pages 519-35, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Pfeiffer, Friedhelm & Reize, Frank, 2000. "Business start-ups by the unemployed -- an econometric analysis based on firm data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 629-663, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. SOEP Group, 2001. "The German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) after More than 15 Years: Overview," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 70(1), pages 7-14.
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Amelie Constant & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2004. "Self-Employment Dynamics across the Business Cycle: Migrants versus Natives," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 455, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Yochanan Shachmurove, 2007. "Geography and Industry Meets Venture Capital," PIER Working Paper Archive 07-015, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania. [Downloadable!]
  3. Yochanan Shachmurove, 2009. "Economic Geography, Venture Capital and Focal Points of Entrepreneurial Activity," PIER Working Paper Archive 09-032, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania. [Downloadable!]
  4. Constant, Amelie, 2004. "Immigrant versus Native Businesswomen: Proclivity and Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 1234, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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