High-Tech Immigrant Entrepreneurship in the U.S

David M. Hart, Zoltan Acs and Spencer Tracy
Additional contact information
David M. Hart: School of Public Policy, George Mason University
Spencer Tracy: Corporate Research Board

No 2009-061, Jena Economics Research Papers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Abstract: In this study, we quantify the role of foreign-born founders in high-tech entrepreneurship in a nationally representative sample of rapidly growing "high-impact" companies. This class of companies drives job creation and aggregate growth in the U.S. We find that, while most previous studies have overstated this role, it is nonetheless very important. For instance, about 16% of the companies in our sample had at least one foreign-born person among their founding teams, and these high-tech companies display better performance in some respects than high-tech companies in our sample whose founders were all native-born. We also provide a profile of high-tech immigrant entrepreneurs. The vast majority are strongly rooted in the U.S., highlighting the need to build a coherent pathway to permanent status for highly-skilled immigrants.

Keywords: Immigrant entrepreneurs; High Tech; High Impact Firms; Entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F2 L26 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-08-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-mig and nep-sbm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2009-061

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