Migration, Risk Attitudes, and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Representative Immigrant Survey

Catia Batista and Janis Umblijs (janis.umblijs@frisch.uio.no)
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Janis Umblijs: Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research, Oslo, Norway

No 2014004, Norface Discussion Paper Series from Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London

Abstract: Do more risk loving migrants opt for self-employment? This is a question especially relevant for policy makers designing selective immigration policies in countries of destination. In order to provide a rigorous answer to it, we use a novel vignette-adjusted measure of risk preferences in the domain of work to investigate the link between risk aversion and entrepreneurship in migrant communities. Using a representative household survey of the migrant population in the Greater Dublin Area, we find a significant negative relationship between risk aversion and entrepreneurship. In addition, our results show that the use of vignettes improves the significance of the results, as they correct for differential item functioning (where respondents interpret the self-evaluation scale in different ways) between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, and corrects for variation in the use of self-evaluation scales between migrants from different countries of origin.

Keywords: Migration; Risk Aversion; Entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J01 J15 J61 L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent and nep-mig
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Migration, risk attitudes, and entrepreneurship: evidence from a representative immigrant survey (2014)
Working Paper: Migration, Risk Attitudes, and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Representative Immigrant Survey (2013)
Working Paper: Migration, Risk Attitudes, and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from a Representative Immigrant Survey (2013)
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