The self-employment experience of immigrants: evidence from the US General Social Survey, 1977-2004

Erwin R. Tiongson

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2012, vol. 16, issue 3, 336-365

Abstract: This paper uses biennial data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to reexamine the self-employment experience of immigrants over the 1977-2004, yielding a database of 25 individual years with over 36,000 observations. The regression results suggest that the conditional probability of self-employment is higher among immigrants, though there is evidence that it has fallen, and then rebounded, over time. Self-employment is also significantly related to age, educational attainment, race, marital status, occupation, industry of employment and family background. However, these are generally less important in explaining self-employment among immigrants. Some variables such as marital status or homeownership (a proxy for access to capital) are associated with native self-employment, but not migrant self-employment. We look at 'latent entrepreneurship' and find no evidence that preferences for self-employment vary by immigrant status. Taking everything together, we speculate that immigrants may be self-selected into self-employment, independent of their individual characteristics and stated preferences.

Keywords: migrant self-employment; immigrants; preferences; entrepreneurship; small business. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:16:y:2012:i:3:p:336-365

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