The Self-Employment Effects of Secure Communities in the United States

Raffi E. García and Alejandro Gutiérrez-Li

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2023, vol. 113, 361-66

Abstract: Illegal immigration has increased substantially in recent years. In this paper, we analyze how Secure Communities (SC), a major internal immigration enforcement program, affected self-employment participation and income in the United States between 2008 and 2013. Following a difference-in-difference approach, we find that the staggered implementation of the SC reduced self-employment rates across the country, but not substantially. However, the policy had a significant negative impact on the income of the self-employed, particularly affecting White and male individuals and workers in the manufacturing and service sectors. Overall, our results highlight the unintended consequences of SC on entrepreneurship in the United States.

JEL-codes: J15 J18 J23 J31 K37 L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20231126

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