The future-time reference of home-country language and immigrant self-employment: an imprinting perspective

Mingzhi Hu, Zhongfeng Su () and Wenping Ye ()
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Zhongfeng Su: Xi’an Jiaotong University
Wenping Ye: Jinan University

Small Business Economics, 2023, vol. 60, issue 2, No 6, 535 pages

Abstract: Abstract Immigrants came from different countries exhibit a high diversity in self-employment rates, making it vital to identify the sources of this diversity. Drawing on the linguistic relativity theory and imprinting theory, we argue that the future-time reference of home-country language is a key source, as it forms an imprinting on an immigrant of how to value future rewards and then affects his/her behaviors. Utilizing data collected by the American Housing Survey, we find that home- country language with weak future-time reference encourages an immigrant to be self-employed and the effect is mitigated by duration of residence. We clarify a new source of diversity in self- employment rates across immigrant groups. Moreover, we extend the implications of future-time reference to immigrant self-employment and identify a novel way by which duration of residence plays its role in immigrant life.

Keywords: Immigrant; Self-employment; Duration of residence; Future-time reference; Language structure; D02; J23; J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s11187-022-00601-0

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