[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/urv/wpaper/2072-306519.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Immigrants and Entrepreneurship: a Road for Talent or Just the Only Road?

Author

Listed:
  • Iranzo Sancho, Susana
Abstract
Casual evidence for some developed countries suggests that most talented migrants become entrepreneurs (positive sorting), but entrepreneurship might also be chosen by less talented migrants who have fewer opportunities in the labour market of the destination countries (negative sorting). Building upon Lucas (1978), we develop a theoretical framework to analyze the different mechanisms at play that draw migrants into entrepreneurship. The model can explain the selection into self-employment of both highskilled and less skilled migrants. We test the model predictions on a rich survey dataset of immigrants in Spain for 2006-2007. Our findings reject a U-shaped relationship between immigrants.skills and self-employment for the Spanish case and instead points to positive sorting into entrepreneurship. Self-employed migrants tend to have (statistically significant) better observable characteristics than salaried workers. However, non-market mechanisms, that is, penalties in the labour market beyond the mere human capital losses than migrants experience upon arrival, are also consistent with the relatively higher probability of self-employment and the lower entrepreneurial quality of certain migrant groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Iranzo Sancho, Susana, 2017. "Immigrants and Entrepreneurship: a Road for Talent or Just the Only Road?," Working Papers 2072/306519, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/306519
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2072/306519
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jesúús Fernández-Huertas Moraga, 2011. "New Evidence on Emigrant Selection," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 72-96, February.
    2. Jennifer Hunt, 2011. "Which Immigrants Are Most Innovative and Entrepreneurial? Distinctions by Entry Visa," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(3), pages 417-457.
    3. Evans, David S & Jovanovic, Boyan, 1989. "An Estimated Model of Entrepreneurial Choice under Liquidity Constraints," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 808-827, August.
    4. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew J, 1998. "What Makes an Entrepreneur?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 26-60, January.
    5. Poschke, Markus, 2013. "Who becomes an entrepreneur? Labor market prospects and occupational choice," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 693-710.
    6. Timothy J. Hatton, 2010. "The Cliometrics Of International Migration: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 941-969, December.
    7. Luigi Guiso & Fabiano Schivardi, 2011. "What Determines Entrepreneurial Clusters?," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 61-86, February.
    8. Catia Batista & Janis Umblijs, 2014. "Migration, risk attitudes, and entrepreneurship: evidence from a representative immigrant survey," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-25, December.
    9. Michael Hout & Harvey Rosen, 2000. "Self-Employment, Family Background, and Race," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(4), pages 670-692.
    10. Gollin, Douglas, 2008. "Nobody's business but my own: Self-employment and small enterprise in economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 219-233, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luis Medrano-Adán & Vicente Salas-Fumás & J. Sanchez-Asin, 2015. "Heterogeneous entrepreneurs from occupational choices in economies with minimum wages," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 597-619, March.
    2. Nadia Simoes & Nuno Crespo & Sandrina B. Moreira, 2016. "Individual Determinants Of Self-Employment Entry: What Do We Really Know?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 783-806, September.
    3. Francesco Campanella & Maria Della Peruta & Manlio Del Giudice, 2013. "The Role of Sociocultural Background on the Characteristics and the Financing of Youth Entrepreneurship. An Exploratory Study of University Graduates in Italy," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 4(3), pages 244-259, September.
    4. Nathalie Colombier & David Masclet, 2008. "Intergenerational correlation in self employment: some further evidence from French ECHP data," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 423-437, April.
    5. Yannis Georgellis & Howard Wall, 2005. "Gender differences in self-employment," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 321-342.
    6. Ajzenman, Nicolás & Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Guriev, Sergei, 2022. "Exposure to transit migration: Public attitudes and entrepreneurship," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    7. P. Köllinger & M. Minniti, 2006. "Not for Lack of Trying: American Entrepreneurship in Black and White," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 59-79, August.
    8. Lina Andersson & Mats Hammarstedt, 2010. "Intergenerational transmissions in immigrant self-employment: Evidence from three generations," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 261-276, April.
    9. Ozkan Eren & Masayuki Onda & Bulent Unel, 2016. "Effects of FDI on Entrepreneurial Activity: Evidence from Right-to-Work and Non-Right-to-Work States," Departmental Working Papers 2016-04, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    10. David B. Audretsch & Dirk Dohse & Annekatrin Niebuhr, 2015. "Regional unemployment structure and new firm formation," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94, pages 115-138, November.
    11. Silvia Ardagna & Annamaria Lusardi, 2009. "Where does regulation hurt? Evidence from new businesses across countries," NBER Working Papers 14747, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Di Addario, Sabrina & Vuri, Daniela, 2010. "Entrepreneurship and market size. The case of young college graduates in Italy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 848-858, October.
    13. Eliane Badaoui & Olivier Bargain & Prudence Magejo & Eric Strobl & Frank Walsh, 2023. "A Search Model with Self-Employment and Heterogeneity in Managerial Ability," EconomiX Working Papers 2023-9, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    14. Zara Daghbashyan & Björn Hårsman, 2014. "University choice and entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 729-746, April.
    15. Blanchflower, David G. & Shadforth, Chris, 2007. "Entrepreneurship in the UK," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 3(4), pages 257-364, July.
    16. Vladasel, Theodor & Lindquist, Matthew J. & Sol, Joeri & van Praag, Mirjam, 2021. "On the origins of entrepreneurship: Evidence from sibling correlations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(5).
    17. Marcén, Miriam, 2014. "The role of culture on self-employment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(S1), pages 20-32.
    18. Robert W. Fairlie & Alicia Robb, 2007. "Families, Human Capital, and Small Business: Evidence from the Characteristics of Business Owners Survey," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 60(2), pages 225-245, January.
    19. Isabel Grilo & Roy Thurik, 2005. "Entrepreneurial engagement levels in the European Union," Papers on Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy 2005-29, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group.
    20. da Fonseca, João Galindo & Pannella, Pierluca, 2023. "The housing boom and selection into entrepreneurship," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Treballadors estrangers -- Espanya; Emprenedoria -- Espanya; 331 - Treball. Relacions laborals. Ocupació. Organització del treball;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/306519. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ariadna Casals (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deurves.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.