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The Persistence of Self-Employment Across Borders: New Evidence on Legal Immigrants to the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Randall Kekoa Quinones Akee

    (IZA)

  • David A. Jaeger

    (College of William and Mary, University of Bonn, and IZA)

  • Konstantinos Tatsiramos

    (IZA)

Abstract

Using recently-available data from the New Immigrant Survey, we find that previous self-employment experience in an immigrant's country of origin is an important determinant of their self-employment status in the U.S., increasing the probability of being self-employed by about 7 percent. Our results improve on the previous literature by measuring home-country self-employment directly rather than relying on proxy measures. We find little evidence to suggest that home-country selfemployment has a significant effect on U.S. wages in either paid employment or self employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Randall Kekoa Quinones Akee & David A. Jaeger & Konstantinos Tatsiramos, 2007. "The Persistence of Self-Employment Across Borders: New Evidence on Legal Immigrants to the United States," RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series 0717, ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
    • Handle: RePEc:crm:wpaper:0717
    as

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Gonzalo Castañeda, 2013. "The Rise and Fall of the Barcelonnettes in Mexico and their Implications for a Theory of Entrepreneurial Diasporas," Economía Mexicana NUEVA ÉPOCA, CIDE, División de Economía, vol. 0(4, Cierre), pages 497-540.
    2. Baum, Christopher F & Dastory, Linda & Lööf, Hans & Stephan, Andreas, 2018. "Migrant STEM Entrepreneurs," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 474, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    3. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2016. "Immigrant Entrepreneurship," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Entrepreneurial Businesses: Current Knowledge and Challenges, pages 187-249, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Pekkala Kerr, Sari & Kerr, William, 2020. "Immigrant entrepreneurship in America: Evidence from the survey of business owners 2007 & 2012," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(3).
    5. de Mello, João M.P. & Waisman, Caio & Zilberman, Eduardo, 2014. "The effects of exposure to hyperinflation on occupational choice," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 109-123.
    6. Marianna Brunetti & Anzelika Zaiceva, 2023. "Is Self-Employment for Migrants? Evidence from Italy," CEIS Research Paper 563, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 31 Jul 2023.
    7. Fornaro, Paolo, 2018. "Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Finland," ETLA Reports 83, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    8. Ken Clark, 2015. "Ethnic minority self-employment," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 120-120, January.
    9. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2016. "Immigrant Entrepreneurship," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Entrepreneurial Businesses: Current Knowledge and Challenges, pages 187-249, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Marcus H. Böhme & Sarah Kups, 2017. "The economic effects of labour immigration in developing countries: A literature review," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 335, OECD Publishing.
    11. Andersson, Henrik, 2018. "Ethnic Enclaves, Self-Employment and the Economic Performance of Refugees," Working Paper Series 2018:7, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    12. Malavika Sundararajan & Binod Sundararajan, 2015. "Immigrant Capital and Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, Centre for Strategic and International Entrepreneurship at the Cracow University of Economics., vol. 3(3), pages 29-50.
    13. Evgueni Vinogradov & Eva Jenny Benedikte Jørgensen, 2017. "Differences in international opportunity identification between native and immigrant entrepreneurs," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 207-228, June.
    14. Huan Yang & Xinning Zhang, 2023. "Persistence of culture: how the entrepreneurial culture of origin contributes to migrant entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 1179-1204, October.
    15. Shulamit Kahn & Giulia La Mattina & Megan MacGarvie, 2017. "“Misfits,” “stars,” and immigrant entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 533-557, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

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