Chapter | Measuring Entrepreneurial Businesses: Current Knowledge and Challenges | 2017

Immigrant Entrepreneurship

by William R. Kerr and Sari Pekkala Kerr

Abstract

We examine immigrant entrepreneurship and the survival and growth of immigrant-founded businesses over time relative to native-founded companies. Our work quantifies immigrant contributions to new firm creation in a wide variety of fields and using multiple definitions. While significant research effort has gone into understanding the economic impact of immigration into the United States, comprehensive data for quantifying immigrant entrepreneurship are difficult to assemble. We combine several restricted-access U.S. Census Bureau data sets to create a unique longitudinal data platform that covers 1992–2008 and many states. We describe differences in the types of businesses initially formed by immigrants and their medium-term growth patterns. We also consider the relationship of these outcomes to the immigrants’ age at arrival to the United States.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Immigration; United States;

Format: Print Purchase

Citation:

Kerr, William R., and Sari Pekkala Kerr. "Immigrant Entrepreneurship." Chap. 5 in Measuring Entrepreneurial Businesses: Current Knowledge and Challenges. Vol. 75, edited by John Haltiwanger, Erik Hurst, Javier Miranda, and Antoinette Schoar. Studies in Income and Wealth (NBER). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017.

Supplemental Information

  1. Why Immigrant Entrepreneurs Are So Important to the U.S.

    Many of them are creating jobs. For more, read "Immigrants Play a Disproportionate Role in American Entrepreneurship."

About the Author

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William R. Kerr
Dimitri V. D'Arbeloff - MBA Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration
Entrepreneurial Management

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