Immigration and Entrepreneurship in the United States

Pierre Azoulay (), Benjamin Jones, J. Daniel Kim and Javier Miranda
Additional contact information
Pierre Azoulay: MIT Sloan School of Management, and NBER

No 2021-014, Jena Economics Research Papers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Abstract: Immigrants can expand labor supply and compete for jobs with native-born workers. But immigrants may also start new firms, expanding labor demand. This paper uses U.S. administrative data and other data sources to study the role of immigrants in entrepreneurship. We ask how often immigrants start companies, how many jobs these firms create, and how firms founded by native-born individuals compare. A simple model provides a measurement framework for addressing the dual roles of immigrants as founders and workers. The findings suggest that immigrants act more as "job creators" than "job takers" and play outsized roles in U.S. high-growth entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; immigration; innovation; administrative data; Survey of Business Owners; Fortune 500; job creation; earnings; growth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 L26 M13 O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-09-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-ino, nep-int, nep-isf, nep-mig, nep-sbm, nep-tid and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://oweb.b67.uni-jena.de/Papers/jerp2021/wp_2021_014.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Immigration and Entrepreneurship in the United States (2022)
Working Paper: Immigration and Entrepreneurship in the United States (2020)
Working Paper: Immigration and Entrepreneurship in the United States (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2021-014

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