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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

    (Department of Economics, College of William and Mary)

  • 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 selfemployment directly rather than relying on proxy measures. We find little evidence to suggest that home-country self-employment 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," Working Papers 69, Economics Department, William & Mary.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwm:wpaper:69
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    File URL: http://economics.wm.edu/wp/cwm_wp69.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Hammarstedt, Mats, 2025. "Understanding Immigrant Self-Employment in Sweden: Insights from the Literature," Working Paper Series 1544, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    4. Christopher F. Baum & Linda Dastory & Hans Lööf & Andreas Stephan, 2018. "Migrant STEM Entrepreneurs," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 965, Boston College Department of Economics.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Andersson, Henrik, 2018. "Ethnic Enclaves, Self-Employment and the Economic Performance of Refugees," Working Paper Series 2018:7, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    11. 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).
    12. 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.
    13. Fornaro, Paolo, 2018. "Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Finland," ETLA Reports 83, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    14. Ken Clark, 2015. "Ethnic minority self-employment," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 120-120, January.
    15. 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.
    16. 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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