Immigrant Entrepreneurship

William R. Kerr; Sari Pekkala Kerr

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

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."

Western Governors University (WGU) was a nonprofit institution of higher education whose online learning model served more than 100,000 students in 2019 and was scaling rapidly. President Scott Pulsipher wanted to expand WGU’s reach to millions more with a plan called 10x Vision. 10x Vision called for scaling enrollment, creating new ventures to expand access to higher education that complement WGU’s business model, and funding these ventures. Pulsipher believed WGU had a potential target market of 40 million people in the United States, as an increasing number of jobs required post-secondary education. How could WGU help these individuals participate in the higher education system and achieve upward mobility?

How can policymakers and business leaders address AI and automation's potential for widespread labor market displacement? This case examines potential policy responses, looking closely at the United States' existing social safety net and the impacts of implementing Universal Basic Income or a federal job guarantee.

We use the construction of India's Golden Quadrangle (GQ) central highway network, together with comprehensive loan data drawn from the Reserve Bank of India, to investigate the interaction between infrastructure development and financial sector depth. We identify a disproportionate increase in loan count and average loan size in districts along the GQ highway network using stringent specifications with industry and district fixed effects. Our results hold in straight-line IV frameworks and are not present in “placebo tests” with another highway that was planned to be upgraded at the same time as GQ but subsequently delayed. Importantly, however, results are concentrated in districts with stronger initial financial development, suggesting that while financing does respond to large infrastructure investments and help spur real economic outcomes, initial financial sector development might play an important role in determining where real activity will grow.

Faculty & Research

Immigrant Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Citation:

Supplemental Information

About the Author

More from the Author